Amp Up Your Gravy With A Spoonful Of Bouillon

Preparing a Thanksgiving meal can be overwhelming; naturally, you want to impress your family and friends, who are looking forward to the feast. And while hitting each base with a home-run dish is a tough feat, implementing shortcuts can ease the process and still yield flavorful results. While gravy is a staple condiment to most Thanksgiving spreads, it's nothing to burn your biscuits over.

Russell Kook, Executive Chef at The Bellevue, gave us a time-saving tip to land a meaty, savory sauce in your gravy boat. "Bouillon is a great shortcut if you're working with a turkey breast or smaller cuts and need an extra boost of flavor," he told The Takeout. "It's concentrated umami in a pinch, adding salt, depth, and complexity." Kook recommends using high-quality bouillon paste rather than the powder, as it emulsifies into the liquid more cleanly. He warns home cooks to be cautious about the amount of added bouillon — the broth paste has strong levels of flavor condensed into small quantities.

As you are preparing your gravy from the leftover fats and juices, add a bit of the bouillon paste. Using chicken and beef bouillon simultaneously will result in a topping that closely resembles traditional gravy — chicken adds a poultry, comforting flavor while beef gives a meatier punch and deepens the color. For those preparing a whole turkey for Thanksgiving, the bird's juice and fat drippings, in conjunction with roasted bones, should add ample depth of flavor for the gravy, Kook said. But if your gravy still seems to lack sufficient flavor, a bit of bouillon will amplify its meatiness.

Gravy isn't the star of the show, but it is most definitely the strongest supporting actor of the Thanksgiving feast. After all, it is the single ingredient that can revive a dry turkey. Making a ho-hum gravy isn't tough, but whipping up a great one is both doable and worth the effort.

One of the greatest qualities of an all-star gravy is a velvety, silky-smooth texture. Because gravy is made of melted fat and flour, it can often lend itself to a lumpy, coagulated texture. There are several ways to rescue a lumpy gravy, such as blitzing the lumps in a blender and passing it through a fine sieve. 

On the other end of the spectrum, a gravy that's too thin is undesirable — the liquid won't have enough structure to properly coat the food. You can thicken gravy without a slurry by keeping it on the stove over low heat while continuously stirring until it reduces to a higher viscosity. If you bite off more than you can chew this Thanksgiving and accidentally make a lumpy or too-thin gravy, these simple techniques are worth the added effort.