The Best Homemade Beef Gravy Recipe (How to Make Brown Gravy) (2024)

FAQs

How do I make my gravy more brown? ›

Add the chicken broth, beef broth, beef bouillon, onion and garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce to a medium saucepan. Stir to combine. Optional: If a darker color is desired, add 2-3 drops of Kitchen Bouquet browning and seasoning sauce. (Gravy Master works well too.)

Before we start, please note that people refer to beef gravy using various terms, such as brown gravy, dark gravy, and beef stock gravy. Essentially, all these terms refer to the same thing, which is gravy made with beef stock, broth, or pan drippings leftover from cooking beef.

What can you add to Brown Gravy to Make it Taste Better? We add a combination of garlic powder, onion powder, and Worcestershire sauce to give this gravy great flavor. Another addition we love is Bouillon paste, powder works too!

If your gravy is on the skimpy side, you can thicken it quickly with flour or cornstarch. But don't add your thickener directly to the gravy, which will create lumps. Instead, try stirring in three or four tablespoons of flour or cornstarch into a small amount of cold water until you have a smooth paste.

Make sure the flour has been cooked long enough: When flour is added to the pan drippings or butter, whisk constantly while the mixture cooks until it turns a deep golden brown and smells nutty.

Browning adds more flavor to the gravy and gets rid of the raw flour taste. You're basically making a roux. We find that a flour-based gravy holds up better and reheats better later, which is why we tend to prefer using flour over cornstarch to make gravy unless we have a guest who is eating gluten-free.

If your gravy tastes great but it lacks a little depth, add an umami flavor boost. Umami flavors are deeply savory and feel round on the palate. Spruce up the gravy with a splash of Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce (if the gravy isn't already too salty, that is).

What is the gravy at KFC made of? The restaurant uses a simple combination of gravy powder, water, and – their secret ingredient – chicken crackling. This is a collection of the browned bits and pieces leftover from frying their world famous chicken.

Ingredients. MODIFIED CORN STARCH, WHEAT FLOUR, HYDROLYZED SOY AND CORN PROTEIN, CORN STARCH, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, PALM OIL, SALT, CARAMEL COLOR, YEAST EXTRACT, ONION POWDER, SUGAR, NATURAL FLAVOR, GARLIC POWDER, MALTODEXTRIN, SPICES, MONOGLYCERIDES, CHICKEN FAT, BEEF FAT, DISODIUM INOSINATE AND DISODIUM GUANYLATE.

Other common names include country gravy, sawmill gravy, milk gravy, and sausage gravy.

How do you make brown gravy not lumpy? ›

Your first defense against a lumpy pot of gravy is a simple whisk. Use a pot holder to steady the pan with one hand. Simply break up those clumps with a vigorous bout of whisking using a circular motion.

In classical French cuisine, a brown sauce is generally a sauce with a meat stock base, thickened by reduction, and sometimes the addition of a browned roux, similar in some ways to, but more involved than, a gravy.

Add equal amounts of flour and whisk together until smooth. Stir constantly while cooking for 3 minutes to dissipate the flour taste. Add beef broth in small amounts and stir it in. It will thicken as you cook it.

My tidbit for the day on how to make gravy dark: Put about 1 cup of flour into a dry cast iron skillet, on medium heat. Stirring constantly until it turns a nice nutty brown, being careful not to burn it. At first it will be a dusty caramel color...that's okay, but take it to the nut brown stage.

Two popular brands are Kitchen Bouquet and Gravy Master. If you can't locate browning sauce, you can make your own at home (more on how to do that in a minute!). You can also substitute store-bought gravy powder, make a dark roux or substitute other dark-colored liquids like Worcestershire, molasses or soy sauce.

Add a Splash of Wine

A couple of tablespoons of dry white wine brightens up lighter poultry gravy, while red wine adds complexity to beef and pork gravy.