Recipe for Chicken Gravy

This simple recipe for restaurant style chicken gravy is surprisingly easy to follow and made completely without flour or cornstarch.

I learnt this recipe for chicken gravy when I was working in Paris. The sauce was called sauce fleurette and it was part of a poached chicken dish. While we had sauces or jus on the menu that were made traditionally i.e. with time consuming methods, this chicken sauce did not involve any complicated techniques, hence anyone could make it.

Deep in flavour with an amber golden color and a perfect creamy texture our chicken gravy recipe is the answer to a quick sauce for your roasted chicken dish.

Instead of spending hours roasting chicken bones and deglazing pans, this chicken gravy recipe is probably the secret to an effortless sauce, that only calls for 4 ingredients and flour is not one of them.

CHICKEN GRAVY

A good chicken gravy can transform a meal and take it to the next level. If you are looking for a sauce to accompany a whole roasted turkey or chicken, then this should be your go-to-recipe. The sauce goes well with other dishes too and it is the perfect gravy for a bowl of creamy mash or steamed vegetables. Watch how to make it here.

4 INGREDIENTS

These four ingredients are all you need:

Chicken Stock is the key ingredient for the sauce. Preferably, make your own otherwise buy pre made stock from a good brand. Make sure the chicken stock has only been seasoned with a small amount of salt, otherwise the sauce will turn out salty.

Cream will give the sauce it's body, hence no flour is needed. Use full fat cooking cream.

Butter will work like an emulsifier and thicken the sauce more. Butter is added in form of cold cubes.

Lemon juice is added in the end to balance the sauce.

Besides these ingredients, you just need salt for seasoning. Feel free to add any herbs or spices to the gravy like rosemary, thyme, sage, peppercorns, bay leaf...

HOW TO MAKE GRAVY WITHOUT FLOUR?

A gravy that has not been made with roasted chicken bones, is usually thickened with flour or corn starch but in our chicken gravy recipe we use neither. The way this sauce thickens is through a reduction to which cream and butter is added. Chicken gravies tend to be bland, floury and lumpy but this can be avoided using our step by step method.

HOW BEST TO MAKE A ONE POT CHICKEN GRAVY

Yes that's right, all you need is one pot, the wider the better. Using a wide pot to reduce the chicken stock can cut the cooking time to half.

Start by adding the chicken stock to the pot and placing it on the stove on high heat. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to a strong simmer. Reduce the chicken stock stirring occasionally. The stock has to reduce at least to ¾. In French we call this a glace as in a glaze.

Once you reach that stage, pour in the cream while stirring with a whisk. Bring the stock with the cream to a boil and reduce again for 1-2 minutes. Now add the butter cubes and whisk rapidly until well emulsified.

You can also use a stick blender to mix the sauce. Finally, adjust the seasoning with lemon juice and add salt if needed. If the sauce is not thick enough, reduce a bit further.

HOW MUCH DOES THE RECIPE YIELD

This is important to cover! You need to make sure that you make enough gravy for everyone. We used 1.5 litres (6½ cups) of chicken stock so if you follow our recipe, this will make you 115 millilitres (½ cup) of delicious chicken gravy.

Now, a ½ cup gravy or 7 generous tablespoons might not seem as much but remember, at times less is more - this gravy is concentrated. If this is the best chicken gravy you have ever made, then I'm sure it will more than satisfy everyone! You don't have to worry about stacking leftovers in your fridge! And for all those who can drink gravy like a beverage - Just double the recipe!!

FAQ'S

WAYS TO USE THE CHICKEN GRAVY

This chicken gravy has many uses as it goes well with almost anything! Like with this Garlic & Herb roasted chicken breast with fried kale and slow roasted onions.

Here are some more ways of using this delicious chicken gravy:

Serve with these baked sweet potatoes loaded with lentils and swiss chard

For a base sauce for duck a l'orange

Poured over a whole roasted cauliflower straight from the oven

Add mushrooms to it for our german bread dumplings

There are loads of chicken gravy recipes out there but none like this! Made with good quality ingredients, from scratch, it is definitely not your KFC style chicken gravy. But if you are looking to serve a restaurant quality gravy along with your main, then you must give this recipe a go!

And I would of course love to know, if this gravy really turned out to be the "best chicken gravy" you have made (or not) so please do leave me a comment and star rating below!