Pressure cooker giblet gravy solves Thanksgiving problems.
First: The Thanksgiving Time Crunch. Thanksgiving dinner is a logistical problem. Instead of a party of eight to ten people, I'm cooking for twenty to thirty. There is only so much space in the oven, so many burners available, and the clock is always ticking. Giblet gravy can be made days ahead, using the bits of turkey that are stuffed in the cavity. One less thing to worry about on T-Day.
Second: My two favorite Thanksgiving dishes are grilled turkey and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy. Grilled turkey and pan drippings don't go together; if I based my gravy on pan drippings alone, I might have a gravy-less Thanksgiving. That would be a disaster.
* I've lost pan drippings to charcoal ash, burning from the high heat of the grill, and flimsy aluminum foil pans I use under my turkey. Also, I'm addicted to drip pan sweet potatoes, and they soak up all the drippings. This recipe is my workaround for those missing drippings.
Why use the pressure cooker to make giblet gravy? It's not absolutely necessary, but I like the results; the PC seems to extract more flavor from the giblets. Also, it is fast - I can make gravy in an hour, end-to-end, with half that being hands-off time. Quick, delicious, make-ahead, using the bag of turkey pieces that I used to pull out of the cavity and throw away. What more could I want from a recipe?
*If you don't have a PC, you should still make giblet gravy. Check the notes section for instructions using standard cookware.
Recipe: Pressure Cooker Giblet Gravy
Inspired By: Giblet Pan Gravy, Cook's Illustrated [November/December 2000]
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Pressure Cooker Giblet Gravy
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 1 1x
Description
Pressure Cooker Giblet Gravy - make your turkey stock and gravy with help from an Instant Pot or pressure cooker.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Turkey neck, heart, gizzard, butt (Do not use the liver!)
- 1 medium onion, quartered
- ½ cup dry vermouth or dry white wine
- 1 quart water (or turkey or chicken broth)
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons all purpose flour
- Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Brown the turkey and aromatics: Heat the vegetable oil in the pressure cooker pot over medium-high heat until shimmering; add turkey pieces and onion and cook until browned, about 3 minutes. Flip and brown the other side, another 3 minutes. Add the vermouth and bring to a boil, then scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the water, thyme and bay leaf.
- Pressure cook the broth: Lock the lid on the pressure cooker, bring to high pressure, and cook at high pressure for 30 minutes for a Stovetop PC or 36 minutes for an Electric PC. Let the pressure come down naturally, about 20 minutes. Strain the broth, reserving the turkey heart and gizzard. Once they have cooled enough to handle, remove the gristle from the gizzard and dice the heart and gizzard.
- Make the roux: Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Cook the flour, whisking constantly, until the flour is the color of peanut butter, about 3 minutes.
- Make the gravy: Slowly pour in the strained broth while whisking vigorously. Increase heat to medium-high, bring to a boil, then decrease the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced by a third, about 20 minutes. Stir in the diced heart and gizzard. Add salt and pepper to taste; the gravy will need both.
- If making ahead: For make ahead gravy, let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 4 days.
- Serve: When it's time to use the gravy, boil for 1 minute. Stir in pan drippings from the turkey (if you have them) and serve.
Notes
- No pressure cooker? No worries: Use a regular saucepan. Increase the vermouth/white wine to 1 cup, and the water to 6 cups. In step 2, instead of pressure cooking, bring the pot to a boil , decrease to a simmer, then simmer the broth for an hour and a half. Continue with the straining step
- Giblet Gravy is three (or four) basic techniques strung together. First, make a stock using the giblets, neck, turkey butt, and some aromatics and herbs. Second, make a light brown roux to thicken the stock into gravy. Third, Season to taste - more on that in a minute. The final, optional step is deglazing the pan drippings and adding them to the gravy.
- "Add salt and pepper to taste" is not optional. You need to add salt to the gravy, or it will taste bland and thin. Add salt and keep tasting; the change will surprise you. Once you have added enough salt, the gravy will taste sweet and gain a lot of body. I added about 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt and ½ teaspoon of fresh ground pepper.
- I use two pots for this recipe because my pressure cooker is too large to make the roux. If you own a 4 quart or smaller pressure cooker, this can be a one-pot recipe, making cleanup easier. (Wipe the pot out with a damp paper towel before starting the roux.) On the other hand, using a second pot lets me make the roux while the broth is cooking in the pressure cooker. This cuts a few minutes from the total cooking time. Also, I like to make roux in a saucier style pot, with rounded sides - there is less chance of the flour burning in a corner.
- Turkey butt isn't really the turkey's butt. It's the turkey tail, the thing the tail feathers are attached to. It's also called the pope's nose; the scientific name is the pygostyle. I still call it the butt. Why? So I can say: "Guess what? Turkey butt!" I may get old, but I'm not maturing.
Tools
- 6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker, but I made this recipe back when my massive stovetop Kuhn Rikon 12 quart pressure cooker was my daily PC)
- Fine mesh strainer
- Sauce pot (I love my All-Clad saucier for whisking roux and gravy, but you could do this in your instant pot if you wipe out the pot liner)
- Whisk
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Category: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
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| Know Your Giblets |
Brown the turkey and aromatics:
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Pressure cook the broth:
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Make the roux:
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Make the gravy:
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What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts:
Pressure Cooker Turkey Stock Revisited
Click here for my other pressure cooker recipes.
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Doctsmith says
Made this today with the cranberry stuffing, dry brine rotisserie turkey, along with bunch of stuff my wife made. Everyone loved it. I think I was the only that didn't care for the cranberry stuffing. Probably just because that's not how my mom made it. It wasn't bad.... just rather have Mommies! I bet they would have ben really similar if I just left out the apples and cranberries. Had my laptop open to your site yesterday and today getting everything ready. I really appreciate your recipes and incite. Merry Christmas friend I haven't met!
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
You're welcome!
—
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James says
I added a cayenne pepper from my garden and after I pressured cooked it with store bought chicken broth.I deboned the neck and kept all the meat and onions.(took out the bay leaf and what was left of the thyme. I put the rest into my Vitamix and added butter and the flour seasoned with salt and pepper. It came out fantastic and everyone wanted my recipe. Thanks for this
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
Thanks for sharing that saying.
paizley says
Turkey butt = "part that went over the fence last". Old description. 20s euphemism. 🙂
I love pressure cooking! Made pork gravy from the drippings and liquid after I cooked a pork belly on the rack in the PC. Even chopped up some of the pork and pork fat, added some onion, cooked a little more and made a nice chunky gravy, good enough to eat on some biscuits or pasta!
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
The best way I can describe it is the flavor gets toastier. Which makes sense, I guess, since you're toasting the flour in oil. I guess I'm used to the taste of roux, because I think of it as an essential part of the flavor of gravy. But it does get more turkey flavor from the browned fond on the bottom of the pan, if you can add it.
Chris Lukowski says
Does the roux's flavor mellow out as it gets browner? I found the gravy (sans drippings) tastes very much like the blonde roux smells. It's a tad overpowering, but perhaps that's true with all "incomplete" gravies that haven't been infused with drippings.
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
I think dark brown flecks are to be expected. Black flecks are a problem.
And...it's OK that you didn't get to full peanut butter color on the roux; even a white roux, cooked just until the butter and flour are combined, works in gravy.
Chris Lukowski says
Happy to report that the gravy came out great, especially once I added in the full cup of pan drippings I got from our 18lb bird. I have a question about the roux though. I was using my All-Clad saucier on medium low (granted it was on the power burner) and about 3 minutes into it I started getting dark brown flecks in the roux despite constant whisking. I chickened out and stopped short of achieving "peanut butter brown" for fear of burning the roux. Was this a sign of too much heat or are those dark flecks to be expected?
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
Yes, veggies and water in the pan work fine with the gravy. I don't think you can over vegetable it, especially if the turkey drippings are involved.
Chris Lukowski says
Thanks! Quick question about pan drippings. I'm roasting my bird in the oven and will add the droppings to the gravy after it's done. Is it still ok to line the roasting pan with veggies & water to prevent the drippings from burning if I'm using homemade chicken stock as gravy base? Don't want to "over-vegetable" the gravy, if that's even possible.
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
I'm always leery of suggesting serving amounts - I'm good for a cup of gravy all on my own, minimum. But this did make close to a quart of gravy, which was enough for about ten of us that night.
And I recommend homemade stock, of course!
Chris Lukowski says
Hi Mike,
Two questions. First, what is the yield of this recipe? Looks like it ends up being just shy of 3 cups after reduction. How many people would that be ideal for? Also, you said you can use either water or homemade chicken broth. Do you have a preference?
MikeV @ DadCooksDinner says
@Laura @ hip pressure cooking:
Liver has a very strong flavor - it can overwhelm the flavor of the gravy, and make it, well, "livery".
I saute the liver in a little olive oil and eat it as a snack while I'm making the gravy.
sigrid says
Agree, including the liver with other giblets when creating the turkey broth can make the gravy "livery." However, I cook the liver separately in a little broth with a bit of onion. I then discard the broth the liver was cooked in but cut up the liver to add to the gravy with the rest of the giblets. That's a nice addition to the gravy without giving it a "livery" flavor.
Laura @ hip pressure cooking says
Ooh love-it! But I'm curious, why don't you use the liver? Are you saving it for a turkey-liver pate'?
Ciao,
L