Jim's Galley: Jim’s southern style homemade gravy for any poultry and beef

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Jim’s southern style homemade gravy for any poultry and beef

The secret is out! Here it is folks. Hate to say I did not invent homemade gravy, someone else did hundreds if not thousands of years ago. However homemade gravy is a little bit of a lost art due to pre-packaged and bottle gravy. If you’re a conscience shopper like myself, you most likely will only spend 50 cents or maybe a buck on a package of instant powdered gravy. If you make it yourself homemade, not only does it taste unreal, but you save the buck!!! Here we go!

Basically what we are doing is making a Roux.

Ingredients:

3\4 cup drippings, chicken or beef depending on what your cooking

1\2 cup wine

1 cup of water

1\2 cup of flower

Sea salt and pepper to taste.

Pinch of Onion and garlic powder

Cast iron skillet well seasoned.

Fist off, this is chicken gravy because the dish I made is a braised cast iron skillet pan seared leg quarters stuffed with apples and lemons seasoned with jerk seasoning and ginger mandarin orange dressing.

After the quarters are well braised on both sides I put all the liquid from the cast iron skillet into a large pan and then added the chicken to bake for an additional 25 minutes. To the pan I added one cup of wine.

Half way through baking the chicken, take out 3\4 cup drippings from the pan and start your gravy by putting the drippings back into the skillet, heat on medium and add the flour and wine stir constantly and then add the water salt and pepper.

Move the heat to high for a moment to get the sauce to begin to boil, stirring the entire time, then bring down heat to a simmer. Add more water if necessary until you get the thickness in the gravy you desire. If the sauce is too loose, just dust it with four to re- thicken.

Stir until there are no lumps in the gravy, let rest on low covered.

Use this same recipe for beef also. (use drippings from the beef) To the beef gravy I will add sautéed mushrooms and onions, truly fantastic!!!!

NOTE FOR MAKING SEAFOOD SAUCE: You can make a delicious seafood shrimp sauce by using he same recipe however for the drippings you would use water that you steam the shrimp in and add 1\2 stick of butter for the oil. Also juice of three lemons and pinch of fresh parsley. This sauce can be used with any seafood dish.