Last-Minute Gravy

The single most concentrated source of flavor for your Thanksgiving dinner isn’t in your fridge or your pantry. It’s in the crispy, oozy, rich browned bits sticking to the bottom of your pan. Unlocking the potential of all those bits (a.k.a. sucs, in French culinary terms) is the key to creating a deeply flavorful gravy in the time it takes the turkey (or chickens, for that matter) to rest before carving. Yup, that means no need to do anything in advance.

If those those bits don’t want to come off the pan easily, simply pour in enough water to lightly coat the bottom (about a cup’s worth), and return it to the oven for 5 minutes to soften things up. This base you’ve now created—a deglazing liquid plus sucs—is known as fond (again, French). You can then use that liquid, in addition to store-bought broth, to keep building the gravy, with no need to strain it until the very end before serving.

This recipe is ideal when used with Maple-Butter-Glazed Turkey since the maple syrup–laced lacquer that burnishes the roast also helps to create lots of caramelized, crispy browned bits. Just be sure to maintain a small amount of water in the bottom of the baking sheet as the turkey cooks, especially in the beginning, so the pan drippings don’t burn.