The Ultimate Chicken and Gravy

5 from 1 vote

The best plate licking worth roast chicken and gravy recipe, perfect for any roast dinner or special occasion like Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Prep Time5

Cook Time35

Total Time40

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: British

Servings: cups

Calories: 137kcal

Drain the veggies and juices from the chicken roasting pan in a fat separator and keep the veggies aside. Allow the juices and fat to separate. Strain off the dripping, leaving the fat in the fat separator. For a 3-4 pound chicken you should get at least ¼ cup. Set aside.
In a large skillet over a medium high heat, crush the veggies with a potato masher into smaller bits, adding any bones, wings and additional non edible carcass parts to the pan too.
3-4 cups veggie and bone remnants from roast chicken recipe
Fry the crushed veggies for 5-10 minutes until the color darkens. Add the all purpose flour and coat the veggies with it. Fry for an additional 2-3 minutes until browned and deeper in color.
3-4 tablespoons all purpose flour
Pour the dripping and 2 ¼ cup of water into the pan with the veggies and stir well to combine.
¼ cup chicken dripping, 2 ¼ - 3 cups water
Season with salt and pepper, tasting and adding more as desired. Simmer for at least 20-30 minutes for the deepest flavor and color, or as long as you want, adding more water as needed.
1 teaspoon kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Strain the gravy through a sieve into a clean pan to simmer until it reaches your desired consistency. Serve with your roast dinner.

The longer you fry the veggies and the flour, the deeper and darker colored your gravy will be. If you want a darker gravy, you can also add a few drops of gravy browning.
The gravy yield will be about 2 cups. If you want more gravy, scale up the flour and liquid using the table in the post.
Nutrition is estimated and will vary based on the fat content of the chicken and how much fat is removed before adding the dripping to the gravy pan.
If you find you still want to thicken the gravy then make a 1:1 mixture of cornstarch and water and add in 1 teaspoon at a time, cooking it until it thickens.
If you don't have a fat separator, just do your best to skim as much fat from the pan as you can. A fat separator is such a useful tool in the kitchen though, so we highly recommend!