Turkey Broth and Pan Gravy

This makes a wonderful base for you gravy, especially when you add the pan drippings to it when making the gravy. Tweaked from a Sara Moulton recipe.

The giblets and neck from 1 turkey (discard liver)

4  cups  chicken broth (good quality canned is fine)

1  small  onion, coarsely chopped

1  small  carrot, cut in half

1  celery rib, cut in half

1  small  parsnip (optional), cut in half

1  thyme sprig (optinal)  

1  fresh parsley sprig

1  bay leaf

4  cups  cold water

2  large  chicken bullion cubes

Combine the giblets and neck with the chicken broth in a saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. Turn down immediately and simmer, skimming and discarding the scum (this is nothing scarier than the protein solids from the giblets and neck but it will cloud the broth if you leave it in) that rises to the surface with a slotted spoon.

After about 20 minutes, when there is no more scum rising to the surface, add the remaining ingredients and bring the liquid back to a simmer. Simmer the broth, adding water as necessary to keep all the ingredients submerged in liquid, for 2 ½ to 3 hours. Strain and skim off any fat that settles at the top (You can use that fat for your pan gravy). I personally don't use the giblets in the final gravy, just to flavor the stock.

Pan Gravy

I recommend making ½ cup gravy per person since it is Thanksgiving. You need that much gravy to pour over everything, and for leftovers. So here is the formula. For each cup of gravy, you will need:

1  cup  turkey or chicken broth

1-½  Tbs  drippings, fat or butter

1-½  Tbs  flour*

Here is a sample recipe for 4 cups gravy serving 8 people:

6  Tbs  fat  from drippings in roasting pan, and/or butter or a combination

6  level  Tbs  flour* 

4  cups  turkey or chicken broth

After you have taken your turkey out of the oven, transfer it to a platter and cover it loosely with foil. While it is resting put the roasting pan on the stove. Transfer whatever liquid is in the roasting pan to a glass measuring cup and let it settle. The fat will float to the top. Skim off the fat and measure it. (Save the liquid as well to add later)

If you have 6 tablespoons fat, add them back to the pan. If you don't have that much, add whatever fat plus enough tablespoons of butter to make 6 tablespoons fat total. Heat the pan over low heat and whisk in the flour. Cook, whisking for 5 minutes.

Add the broth in a steady stream, whisking. Turn up the heat to moderately high, bring the mixture to a boil and simmer, whisking for 5 minutes. Whisk in any juices from the turkey resting platter as well as from the glass measuring cup. If the gravy seems thin, simmer it a few minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper if desired.

Note: You could substitute ½ cup white or red wine for ½ cup of the broth. 

*Also, I prefer making gravy with cornstarch rather than flour. I don't measure it, I just put a generous amount into some cold water to dissolve, and then add it to the stock in the pan. Adjust it up or down, depending on how thick you like your gravy.

Turkey Pot Pie

Dave is crazy about this after-Thanksgiving use of left-over turkey.

1  Tbs  butter
1  small  sweet onion, chopped
1/2  cup  carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2  cup  potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2  cup  celery, chopped
1/2  tsp   salt
1/2  tsp  dried thyme
1/2  tsp  dried rosemary, crushed
1  pinch   black pepper
1  bay leaf
2  cups  turkey broth
1/3  cup  cornstarch
1  cup  frozen peas
2  cups  cooked turkey, chopped
2  frozen puff pastry crusts, thawed, or your favorite pie crust recipe

Preheat oven to 400°.
Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in chopped sweet onion, chopped carrots, chopped potatoes and chopped celery. Cook vegetables until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in salt,
pepper, dried thyme, dried rosemary, bay leaf, and 1-1/2 cups turkey broth.

In small bowl, combine 1/3 cup flour with remaining 1/2 cup turkey broth.Stir flour mixture into hot vegetables. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaf. Stir in frozen peas and turkey.

Place pie crust in glass pie plate. Spoon the mixture into pastry crust. Place 2nd crust over top and crimp to seal edges. Cut slits in top crust. Brush top pie crust with an egg wash, if desired. Bake 15 minutes, or until top crust is golden brown.

You may choose to use only a top pastry crust, and double the recipe ingredients. Use an oblong Pyrex baking dish, and then put both sheets of puff pastry on top of turkey mixture.

To make individual pot pies, pour the pot pie mix into the individual bowls and use the puff pastry as a top crust only. Make a few slits in the top and flute the edges.

The Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey

Brining a turkey will make it nice and moist. However, some recipes will render the drippings useless for gravy. This one is just right. It takes several days of preparation, so be sure to plan ahead. Also, do not use a pre-basted type of bird. Just a plain old cheap frozen turkey will
work the best.  

Three days before Thanksgiving, thaw the turkey (still in the plastic wrapper) in the kitchen sink, filled with water, overnight. Then place in the refrigerator to finish thawing, one day should do it. Remove the plastic wrapper and the package of giblets that will be found in the neck cavity. Save them for making broth for the gravy. Rinse off the turkey thoroughly, inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels. If you find anything inside the bird that you think should not be there, just pull it out now. But it should be fine as it is. Also, you’re going to need a large non-corrosive container to hold the bird while brining. I use a molded plastic cooler, but it must be able to fit in the refrigerator. 

See note at the end of recipe regarding a non-brined turkey if you prefer a traditional bird.  We make them both ways. 


18-20  lb turkey, defrosted (or whatever size you want )
2  cups  KOSHER salt

Rub the turkey, inside and out, with 2 cups of kosher salt (must use kosher salt). Place the bird in the large non-corrosive container (I use a picnic cooler). Fill with cold water.  Refrigerate 12 hours.

THOROUGHLY RINSE THE TURKEY, inside and out, to remove all the excess salt. Discard the brine mixture. Wash out the container very well. Place the turkey on a large foil-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate uncovered, 24 hours, or until ready to use. This helps the skin crisp.

Prepare Sage and Onion Dressing. Stuff the cavity of the bird and the neck cavity, loosely with this dressing. Or if you prefer, bake the dressing in a casserole dish. We do both, as we like lots of stuffing (we mix them together before serving). Stuffing baked in a bird definitely has better flavor.

Using kitchen twine, tie up the bird. After brining a turkey, it will look like it stuck its wing into an electrical socket, so it has to be snuggled up securely to insure even cooking. Using the neck bone stub as the anchor, wrap the twine under the neck bone, and then bring it up and over the bird, taking it down between the legs and breast. Then just snug up the legs and wings, wrapping the string over the bird. Brush the outside of the bird with canola oil. Place the bird in the pan.


Choose one of the roasting methods below: 

1. Use either a very large covered turkey roaster, or make a foil tent to cover the bird on a large baking pan with sides. Be sure to tent-shape the foil so it does not touch the turkey.  Bake in a pre-heated 350° oven. Remove the covering the last hour for browning.

2. Use Alton Brown’s (Food Network TV) method. Using an open roasting pan, put the uncovered bird into a 500° pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. Then insert the meat thermometer into the breast and turn the oven down to 350°. I very loosely put a sheet of foil over the bird at this point, as it was already browned and still had a few hours to spend in the oven.

Try not to open the oven, if possible. If you have a meat thermometer with a probe that sits on the counter, this can be done. If using a standard or instant read thermometer, of course you cannot do this.

Either way you choose, using a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast will help judge the roasting time, avoiding an over-cooked bird. Roast to 161° or just a wee little bit more. It will continue to cook about 5 degrees while resting.  Don’t believe labels that tell you to cook it to 180° or for more hours than what is listed above. They do this to protect themselves from potential lawsuits, and you end up with a very overcooked bird on your table. The time frame above is more than generous.

Keeping It Warm:

When finished baking, remove from oven and cover securely with foil. Then layer on several bath towels over the top to keep it warm. It will stay warm for up to an hour. Be sure to let it sit this way for at least 20-30 minutes before carving. This enables the juices to redistribute in the meat, instead of running out into the pan. Remove the stuffing and keep covered to stay warm.

Cooking Time: 


Up to 18 lb bird will take 2½  to 3½ hours
Up to 22 lb. will take 3½ to 4½ hours
Up to 24 lbs may take 4½ to 5 hours

If you stuff the bird, allow the maximum time listed for the size turkey you’re using. Example, a 14 pound stuffed turkey will take 3 hours in my oven. But all ovens are different, so these are general guidelines. Using the Keeping It Warm method above, gives you time for getting it all
together.

Alternately, you may choose the traditional way of roasting the holiday bird . . . without brining.  This is always good. Just follow all the steps above, omitting the brining.

Now You’re Making Gravy 

While someone else is carving the bird, you take the pan and place it over two burners on the stove. Add some strained turkey broth you have prepared (about a cup or two). Bring to a boil and deglaze the pan with this, being sure to scrape up all the browned bits. This is where the real flavor is found.

Now mix about 2-3 tablespoons of corn starch into about ½ cup water. Pour this into the pan, stirring to prevent any lumps. Add more broth, a cup at a time, stirring constantly, until you get the consistency you’re looking for. The more broth you add, the more cornstarch mixture you will need, so if you have to mix up more cornstarch thickener, that is just fine.

Let this simmer for about 5 minutes. Now I add my Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy to this pan gravy, and reheat it all together. This combination makes outstanding gravy.

Turkey Broth 

Rinse off the giblets found in the packet in neck cavity of the turkey. Put into a sauce pan of water (about 6 cups). Add 4 chicken bouillon cubes, about ¼ cup dried parsley, an onion (quartered), some celery tops, a couple of cut up carrots, and a bay leaf or two. Cover and simmer for about 2 hours.

Strain the broth into another container and save. Discard the veggie mixture.(Some people like to eat the giblets, just not the liver. You can cut the gizzard and heart up and use it in the gravy, or just put it on the serving plate. Personally, I throw it all out.) But don’t throw out any unused
broth. Freeze it in baggies. When a recipe calls for chicken broth, you can use it. I boil up the entire turkey carcass after the big dinner, using the formula given above; add the remaining broth to this. Then you can use this broth for turkey and dumplings, turkey soup, whatever. You will be able to pick out a lot of meat off the boiled up carcass. 


Surprising how many future meals you can make from one turkey.

Make-Ahead Gravy

You can use this anytime you want poultry gravy, just as it is, but I like to mix this in with the pan dripping gravy made from the roasted turkey, for truly outstanding gravy.


4  turkey wings (about 3 lbs.)
2  medium onions, peeled and quartered
1  cup  water
8  cups  chicken broth
3/4  cup  chopped carrots
1/2  tsp  dried thyme
1/4  cup  cornstarch
2  Tbs  butter or margarine
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Arrange wings in a single layer in a baking pan. Scatter onions over top. Roast for 1¼ hours @400° until wings are browned nicely.

Put wings and onions into a 5-6 quart pot. Add the water to the roasting pan; put over two burners on top of stove, and stir to scrape up any browned bits. Add this to the pot, along with the chicken broth, carrots, and thyme. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 1½ hours.

Remove wings to cutting board. When cool, pull off the skin and meat. Discard skin and save the meat for another later use (like turkey and dumplings).

Strain the broth into a 3-quart saucepan, pressing the vegetables against the strainer to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard vegetables. Refrigerate the broth, if time permits, and then remove and discard the hardened fat on top.

Whisk cornstarch into 1/2 cup (or more) cold water, and then whisk into the broth, stirring constantly until smooth and blended. Bring the broth to a gentle boil. Boil 3-4 minutes to thicken the gravy and remove the starchy taste. Stir in butter, salt and pepper.

Serve, or pour into a container and refrigerate up to one week, or freeze for up to 6 months. I use this gravy to add to my pan dripping turkey gravy. Warm it all together.  Yum!

Pappa’s Sage and Onion Stuffing

I tried to get Dave to write down the ingredients as he was making this, but it didn’t happen. So here is what I can get out of him.


1-1/2  lg  loaves  day-old white sandwich bread
3  large  yellow onions, chopped
12-14  stalks  celery, chopped
1-1/2  lbs  fresh mushrooms, chopped small, 
3  sticks  butter
2  handfuls  dried parsley
4  tsp  dried sage

Tear the bread into pieces about 1½” and lay it on baking trays, in single layers, to dry out for a few hours or overnight.

Start preparing the vegetables. In separate large skillets (or do one at a time in one large skillet), sauté each vegetable in one of the sticks of butter, until tender, but not browned. Remove each vegetable when cooked, and put into a very large salad bowl.

Add bread and toss. Add the dried parsley and sage, salt and pepper to taste.

Loosely stuff the two cavities of the turkey. Use a turkey skewer to pin into the skin to hold the cavities shut.

With the remaining dressing, put it into a baking pan and drizzle it with about 1-1¼ cups turkey broth for moisture. Cover with foil and bake for an hour or so @350°. Before serving, mix this dressing with the bird stuffed dressing, to blend the two flavors together.

NOTE:
Sage looses it's flavor fast, so buy a new can every year.

How To Carve A Turkey

Let the turkey rest for 20-30 minutes after taking it out of the oven. This will let the juices redistribute in the meat, so they don’t run out as you carve it.

Place the turkey in front of you, breast side up, with the wings closest to you. Remove wings, legs and thighs. Set aside.

Run a knife along the top of each side of the breast bone, using one long continuous motion, cutting down into both sides of the carcass until the breasts are removed.  Place on a cutting board and slice crosswise into thick slices. Thicker slices will result in juicer meat.

Cut the drumstick away from the thigh. Place the whole drumsticks on the platter with the sliced breast meat.  Separate the thigh meat, either with your fingers or a knife. Place on the platter and serve immediately.