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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Laynie Cat says
This will be my new go-to turkey gravy recipe. It is a much faster, easier, and more delicious alternative to stovetop giblet gravy (i,e., Joy of Cooking). I didn’t have dry vermouth so I used Chardonnay.
★★★★★
Mike Vrobel says
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Ryan says
Perfect gravy recipe! Everytime! Thank you! I did something similar a couple years ago in a pinch with the giblets and insta pot. Couldn't remember exactly what I concocted and it was really good. Found this and won't make gravy any other way
Mike Vrobel says
Thanks!
Darlene Formento says
Would like to add a few turkey legs to the broth (I put it in my dressing) would that change the time? If so any guess how much?
Mike Vrobel says
Won't change them time - 30 minutes is plenty of time for turkey drumsticks. https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/pressure-cooker-state-fair-turkey-drumsticks/
Tammy says
I'm new to pressure cooking and your post came in handy for our dinner yesterday. It was awesome!
Thanks!
SandyToes says
I was passing this recipe on to a friend who wants to make chicken stock in her Instant Pot when I realized I forgot to comment on it when I made it last Thanksgiving. I've been making turkey stock on the stove for almost 40 years. Good stuff, but it cooks ALL day long and steams up the kitchen something awful.
Made in my Instant Pot last year, using your recipe plus carrot and celery, it was freaking delicious! The best I've ever made, no question. I made my usual smooth gravy without the giblets (some family members don't like them), and there was literally none left. Not one drop. My gravy is good, but that's never happened before! This stock is magical, truly liquid gold.
Mike V says
Thank you for passing it along!
Mike says
This was excellent. You weren't kidding when you said salt and pepper wasn't optional. My Mom tasted it before adding and just responded "the taste is off." Then after adding the salt and pepper it went to "Wow, this is good!"
Adding the turkey drippings when reheating gave it an incredible flavor, by far the best turkey gravy any of us have had.
Mike V says
Great! Glad it worked for you.
D says
This recipe is a keeper! It is the best gravy I've ever made!
Thank you.
Mike V says
You're welcome!
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
35 is good for Electric; I only use roasted bones when I roasted the bird. Roasting gives you better browning than sautéing the bones in the pan, but takes a lot longer, which negates the time savings in this recipe.
Chris Lukowski says
It's that time of year again! Two additional questions: 1) If I use an electric PC what's the cooking time? 35 min instead of 30? 2) Have you ever roasted the bones/meat or veg before making stock? I've seen this here and there but wonder how it would impact collagen extraction. I don't have any homemade stock right now and will be starting with either water or Swanson low-sodium chicken broth (or perhaps their new boxed stock).
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
You're welcome. Merry Christmas!