What Is Chicken gravy and How Can I Use It?
Wondering what to do with chicken gravy? This guide covers how to pick it, cook it, store it, and swap it, plus 17 recipes to put it to work.
Key Points
- Pale poultry gravy from chicken drippings or stock, thickened with an equal-parts flour roux.
- Three styles: pan gravy from drippings, milk-based cream gravy, and giblet gravy with chopped neck meat.
- Rush the roux and it tastes pasty; give the flour a full minute in fat first.
- Spoon over mashed potatoes, biscuits, fried or roast chicken, and turkey; it binds casseroles too.
- Keeps three to four days refrigerated; cream versions are best used within a couple of days.
What is chicken gravy?
Chicken gravy is the pale, savory sauce you spoon over roast chicken or fried chicken, and over biscuits and mashed potatoes. It is built from the fat and browned bits a bird leaves behind, loosened with stock or milk and thickened to a smooth pour.
Unlike a dark beef gravy, it stays light gold to ivory.
The flavor is gentler and rounder, which is why it carries herbs and black pepper, with a little cream, so well.
Three styles cover almost everything. Pan gravy comes straight from roasting drippings, cream gravy uses milk for a Southern-style white sauce, and giblet gravy folds in the chopped neck and organ meat for a deeper, holiday-table version.
How to Make Chicken Gravy
For pan gravy, leave the fond in the roasting pan and pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of fat. Sprinkle in an equal amount of flour and whisk over medium heat for a minute to cook out the raw taste.
Add warm chicken stock a little at a time, scraping up the browned bits, and simmer until it coats a spoon.
Cream gravy follows the same roux but swaps milk for some or all of the stock. It is the classic over fried chicken and biscuits, finished with plenty of black pepper.
Giblet gravy starts earlier: simmer the neck and giblets in water for an hour to make a quick broth, chop the cooked meat, then build a roux and whisk in that broth before stirring the meat back through.
You can taste these styles across the site. Home-Style Chicken & Gravy leans on a simple pan sauce, while Chicken Giblet Vegetable Soup shows how much flavor those often-discarded giblets carry.
Pairing and Common Mistakes
Chicken gravy is happiest over starch and poultry.
Think mashed potatoes, split biscuits, rice, stuffing, roast or fried chicken, and turkey, since the same gravy works for both birds.
It also binds casseroles and pot pies, the way it pulls together a Club Chicken Casserole or a Chicken & Mushroom Casserole.
The usual failure is a pasty, floury taste. That happens when the roux is rushed, so give the flour a full minute in the fat before any liquid goes in, and let the finished gravy simmer a few minutes more.
Bland is the other trap. Chicken fat is mild, so the gravy needs help: salt, a good crack of pepper, and fresh thyme or sage.
A spoonful of pan drippings or a splash of cream brings a flat batch back fast.
If lumps form, push the gravy through a fine sieve or hit it with a whisk off the heat. Too thick, thin it with warm stock or milk; too thin, simmer it down.
What to Use Instead
No drippings on hand? Build the gravy from a roux and good chicken stock, or from a packet of chicken or turkey gravy mix whisked into water for a fast weeknight version.
The plain gravy parent recipe works in any chicken dish where you want a neutral, herb-friendly sauce rather than a dark beef one.
Going the other direction, a light turkey gravy is essentially the same thing and swaps straight in.
For a dairy-free cream gravy, whisk the roux with unsweetened oat or soy milk instead of dairy. To thicken without wheat, replace the flour roux with a cornstarch slurry, one tablespoon stirred into cold water, added to simmering stock.
Buying and Storing
Chicken gravy is usually a make-it-now sauce, finished while the bird rests. If you buy it, jarred and canned chicken gravy keeps for months unopened, and powdered mixes last even longer in the pantry.
Homemade chicken gravy keeps three to four days in a covered container in the fridge. Cream gravy is the more delicate one, since dairy shortens its life, so use it within a couple of days and reheat it gently to avoid breaking the sauce.
It thickens and sets as it chills. Warm it slowly over low heat and whisk in a little stock or milk to bring back a smooth, pourable texture.
Freeze stock-based chicken gravy flat in a bag for up to three months. Cream and milk-based gravies tend to separate in the freezer, so those are better made fresh and eaten soon.
Quick facts
Where to find chicken gravy: Chicken gravy is usually found in the condiments section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.
- In Chinese
- 鸡肉汁
- British (UK) term
- Chicken gravy
- en français
- la sauce de poulet
- en español
- salsa de pollo
Recipes using chicken gravy
There are 17 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Swiss Broccoli Soup
Quick Swiss broccoli soup with canned chicken gravy as the shortcut base, milk, frozen broccoli, and shredded Swiss cheese. Weeknight dinner in 30 minutes.
Cream of Potato Soup (Dehydrated)
Large-batch cream of potato soup built from dehydrated potatoes, dry onions, and dry milk powder. A classic institutional cafeteria recipe scaled for crowds with chicken gravy mix for body.
Club Chicken Casserole
A microwave chicken casserole with cubed chicken, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, eggs, and pimentos, topped with chicken mushroom gravy. A retro weeknight dinner that's done in 30 minutes flat.
Chicken & Mushroom Casserole
Discover this easy chicken and mushroom casserole recipe with white wine marinade and creamy gravy, perfect for beginner cooks seeking simple baked chicken dinners for family meals or meal prep ideas with mushrooms.
Lemon Chicken in Pastry Shells
Lemon chicken in puff pastry shells with chicken gravy, thyme, and mixed vegetables. A retro comfort-food main course that turns pantry staples into a dressed-up chicken pot pie in under 40 minutes.
Rice & Corn Dressing
Rice and corn dressing: Southern-style turkey stuffing with rice, sweet corn, giblets, and Worcestershire instead of bread. Gluten-free dressing that feeds a crowd.
Chicken& Stuffing Pie
Savory chicken pie with a buttery herb stuffing crust, a thick mushroom-and-gravy filling with peas and celery, and a lattice of melted Colby cheese on top. Ready in one hour.
Mexican Casserole
Mexican turkey casserole layered with corn chips, green chiles, sour cream gravy, and melted cheddar. A Tex-Mex weeknight dinner using leftover turkey or chicken.
Chicken Soup(Constance)
Old-world chicken soup built from carcasses and a marrow bone, simmered with parsnips, carrots, celery, and served over noodles with fresh parsley. Pure comfort.
Chicken Paprikash Pot Pie
Chicken paprikash meets pot pie: a creamy, paprika-spiced chicken filling with sour cream, bacon, peppers, and peas under a flaky golden double crust. A Hungarian-American mashup of two comfort classics.
Always Loved City Chicken
City chicken skewers (mock chicken) made with ground turkey and pork meatballs on bamboo skewers, breaded in corn flake crumbs, and baked in chicken gravy. A Rust Belt regional comfort classic.
Chicken Livers & Mushrooms
Microwave chicken livers with mushrooms in chicken giblet gravy, cooked in bacon fat with onion. A quick, savory offal dish ready in about 15 minutes using just the microwave.
Casserole Chicken Cordon Bleu
Micro on high??? Yuck --- I suggest you bake the whole mixture [covered]after browning the chicken first--@ 300 F for about 35-40 minutes. Also--the recipe calls for "2 each" can of chicken gravy---use one can of low sodium cream of chicken soup/thin with a little milk instead, it cooks more evenly. Add seasonings to taste.
Chicken Giblet Vegetable Soup
Hearty chicken giblet soup loaded with carrots, celery, onions, and tomato juice, thickened with oatmeal for a rustic, filling bowl. Diabetic-friendly, budget-smart, and full of old-fashioned flavor.
