How to Make Turkey Gravy Ahead (No Drippings Needed)

Here is the moment this solves. It’s 4:30, the turkey is out and resting, the rolls need the oven, someone is mashing potatoes on the big burner, and the gravy hasn’t been started. It needs a pan, a whisk, ten minutes of attention and the cook who is also carving. That is why lumpy, thin or forgotten gravy is such a common Thanksgiving story.

It is also a problem if your turkey won’t give you much to work with. A turkey breast for a small Thanksgiving, a smoked or fried bird, or one roasted in an oven bag leaves little or nothing in the pan. A make-ahead gravy doesn’t depend on any of that.

The make-ahead recipe

This makes about 4 cups, which is around half a cup each for 8 people. Double it for a big table. Most of the 4 hours is the stock simmering on its own.

You need: 3 pounds turkey wings, necks or drumsticks (supermarkets stock them in November); 1 onion, quartered; 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks in chunks; 10 cups cold water; a few sprigs of thyme or sage, a bay leaf and some peppercorns; ½ cup fat (the turkey fat you skim off, butter, or both); ½ cup all-purpose flour; salt and pepper.

1. Roast the wings. Heat the oven to 400°F. Spread the turkey parts, onion, carrots and celery on a sheet pan and roast for about an hour, turning once, until everything is deep brown. This browning is what drippings would have given you.
2. Simmer the stock. Tip everything into a large pot. Pour a cup of the water onto the hot sheet pan, scrape up the browned bits and add them to the pot with the rest of the water and the herbs. Bring to a boil, then keep it at a bare simmer, uncovered, for 2 to 3 hours.
3. Strain, chill and skim. Strain the stock. You want about 5 cups; simmer it down if you have more. Cool it in shallow containers in the fridge, then lift off the hardened fat and keep it for the roux.
4. Cook the roux. Melt the fat in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and keep whisking for 3 to 5 minutes, until it smells toasty and turns the color of peanut butter.
5. Whisk in the stock. Heat 4 cups of the stock. Add it to the roux a ladle at a time, whisking until smooth before the next ladle. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until it coats a spoon. Keep the last cup of stock for thinning on the day.
6. Season lightly and store. Add a little salt and pepper, but not all of it: drippings added on the day bring salt with them. Cool the gravy in shallow containers and refrigerate it within 2 hours, or freeze it.

The ratio to remember: 2 tablespoons of fat and 2 tablespoons of flour for every cup of liquid gives a gravy of medium thickness. That is the “medium” row in Iowa State University’s food preparation lab manual, whose brown sauce (the roux cooked until light brown, with broth in place of milk) is the one it lists for gravy. The recipe above is that ratio times four, and it scales up or down from there.

Short on time? Skip steps 1 to 3 and use 5 cups of store-bought turkey or chicken stock, ideally low-sodium so it doesn’t turn salty as it simmers. Butter stands in for the turkey fat. You lose some of the roasted flavor, which the drippings on the day will partly bring back.

How far ahead: fridge or freezer

Gravy doesn’t keep as long as most leftovers. The USDA’s FoodKeeper storage guide (built by the Food Safety and Inspection Service with Cornell University) gives leftovers with meat or poultry 3 to 4 days in the fridge, but lists gravy at only 1 to 2 days, both gravy made up from a mix and jarred gravy once it’s opened. It has no separate entry for homemade gravy, so we use the shorter gravy figure, not the general leftovers one. An older FSIS fact sheet, Turkey Basics: Handling Precooked Dinners (2003, hosted by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources), gives stuffing and gravy the same 1 to 2 days. Plan around that.

Cool it fast. The USDA’s leftovers guidance says to refrigerate cooked food within 2 hours and to divide large amounts into shallow containers so they cool quickly. A deep pot of hot gravy in the fridge stays warm in the middle for hours. Quart deli containers filled halfway, or zip-top freezer bags laid flat, cool fast and stack well.

Freezing. Ohio State University Extension’s guide to freezing cooked foods says flour-thickened sauces and gravies “might appear curdled when thawed but will usually recombine when stirred,” that cornstarch “might be less successful,” and that frozen combination dishes are best used within three months. In practice: freeze the flour version, and whisk it hard as it reheats. Leave a little headroom in the container, since liquids expand as they freeze.

Gravy made with milk or cream is the exception. The same guide warns that cream sauces tend to separate in the freezer. If your family gravy has cream, make the base ahead and stir the cream in on the day.

If someone at the table can’t eat wheat

A flour roux is wheat. For a guest with celiac disease, the simplest route is to thicken with cornstarch instead: about 1 tablespoon per cup of stock (half the flour amount), stirred into a few tablespoons of cold water first, then whisked into the simmering stock until it turns glossy and thick. Because cornstarch gravy is less reliable in the freezer, make that version in the 2-day fridge window rather than weeks ahead.

Check the label on store-bought stock, too, since some contain wheat. Our guide to cooking for a guest with celiac disease covers the rest of the menu and the cross-contact questions: a separate whisk, a separate pan, and no dipping a floury spoon in.

On the day: reheat, then add the drippings

1. Reheat on the stove, not in the oven. The oven is the scarce thing on Thanksgiving; a saucepan on a back burner isn’t. Warm the gravy over medium-low heat, whisking. It will look set and jelly-like out of the fridge; that is the gelatin from the wings, and it melts.
2. Bring it to a rolling boil. The USDA says to reheat sauces, soups and gravies by bringing them to a rolling boil. After that, turn it down to the lowest heat and keep it covered until dinner.
3. Add the drippings if you have them. When the turkey comes out, pour the pan juices into a measuring cup and let the fat rise. Spoon the fat off, then whisk the juices into the gravy. Pour a ladle of hot gravy or the reserved stock into the roasting pan, scrape up the browned bits, and strain that in too.
4. Fix the thickness. Too thick: whisk in the stock you kept back, a splash at a time. Too thin: simmer it a few minutes longer, or whisk in a teaspoon of cornstarch stirred into a spoonful of cold water. Lumpy: whisk hard, or pour it through a sieve.
5. Taste last. Season with salt and pepper only after the drippings are in.

For a buffet, keep the gravy hot on the stove or in a small slow cooker set to warm, not in a gravy boat on the table for two hours. After dinner, refrigerate what’s left within 2 hours. Leftover gravy has the same 1-to-2-day limit, so freeze it if Saturday’s leftover turkey dinners are more than a day away.

Where RecipeScan helps, and where it doesn’t

RecipeScan is a recipe app we make, so weigh this section accordingly. Its built-in recipe collection doesn’t include a standalone turkey gravy, so this is about keeping your gravy recipe in one place:

• Save the recipe. In My Recipes, tap Add recipe, then Paste a link for a recipe you found online, or Write your own and type in the version your family makes. Both are on the free plan, which keeps up to 3 recipes of your own.
• Scale it. The servings stepper above the ingredients scales the wings, fat, flour and stock for the number of people coming.
• Leave yourself a note. Long-press a step and choose Add note: “made Sunday, freezer, top shelf” or “thaw Tuesday night.” Only you see it.
• Shop for it. Add all to groceries puts the ingredients on your grocery list, so the turkey wings don’t get forgotten next to the 20-pound bird.
• Time it. Cooking Mode shows one step at a time and turns times written in a step into timer buttons, which helps with a 2-to-3-hour simmer.

Scanning a handwritten recipe card with the camera, saving a recipe from a TikTok or Instagram video, and the AI features are Premium.

What it can’t do: RecipeScan doesn’t know what day you made the gravy or how long it has been in the fridge, and it won’t remind you to move it out of the freezer. Put that on your calendar.

Frequently asked questions

How far ahead can you make turkey gravy?

One to two days ahead in the fridge, which is the USDA's storage time for gravy. For a Thursday dinner, that means Tuesday or Wednesday. Anything earlier goes in the freezer.

Can you freeze homemade gravy?

Yes. Flour-thickened gravy freezes well enough: it can look curdled when it thaws but usually comes back together when you whisk it. Ohio State University Extension says frozen cooked dishes are best used within three months. Cornstarch-thickened gravy is less reliable in the freezer.

How do you make gravy without drippings?

Roast turkey wings or necks until deep brown, simmer them into a stock, and thicken that stock with a roux of fat and flour. The roasted wings give you the same browned flavor that drippings would.

How do you reheat make-ahead gravy?

In a saucepan on the stove. Whisk as it warms, thin it with a little stock if it set too thick, and bring it to a rolling boil, which is what the USDA says to do with any reheated gravy.

How long does leftover gravy last?

One to two days in the fridge. Refrigerate it within 2 hours of the meal, in a shallow container. If you won't use it by then, freeze it.

Your next step

Put turkey wings on this week’s shopping list. Make the stock and gravy on a quiet evening or this weekend, freeze it flat in bags, and write “move gravy to fridge” on Tuesday, November 24. If you’re still building the whole week, our first-time Thanksgiving timing plan slots the gravy in with everything else, and make-ahead mashed potatoes are the other dish that frees up the last hour.