Easy Homemade Chicken Gravy Recipe From Scratch Without Drippings
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This Easy Chicken Gravy is so simple to make and requires no pan drippings! Smooth, savory, garlicky, and fabulous over mashed potatoes, chicken, turkey, and more!
For more gravy ideas, try my Beef Broth Brown Gravy, my Instant Pot Chicken Breast and Gravy, or my Biscuits and Gravy Breakfast Casserole.
What is it about gravy? I mean, technically (usually, but not in this instance) it was just a way to use up all those pan drippings to make a sauce to layer atop meat or mashed potatoes or whatever vehicle you were using to make it seem like you weren’t some kind of animal, eating a bowl of gravy soup. (Not that that hasn’t crossed my mind!)
In my opinion, when you are roasting a chicken or turkey or making a roast, you have to make gravy from those pan drippings. What else would you do? Throw them away? The horror. To pitch that is like some kind of crime against humanity. (You can’t see it, but I’m shaking my head at the mere thought of it.)
But, what are you to do when the craving for easy chicken gravy hits and you haven’t roasted a bird and you don’t have those terrific pan drippings from which to make a delicious gravy? Well, I sure am glad you asked!
What you should do is make a homemade chicken gravy recipe anyway — without the drippings! That’s right! You can make a gravy recipe easily by using some simple pantry staples and a little bit of stirring muscle. Trust me, you won’t even know you didn’t make this chicken gravy without drippings, it’s that good!!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Toss out any notion of needing an entire chicken here! You don’t!
- Chicken broth or chicken stock – I usually like to use low sodium chicken broth so that I have a little more control over the saltiness of the finished gravy, but you can absolutely use regular if that’s what you’ve got on hand.
- Garlic powder – I usually use the McCormick red-cap line for my powdered spice.
- Onion powder – see note above!
- Salt and pepper – I always use pink Himalayan sea salt in all of my cooking. It is sold at any grocery store and elevates all of your cooking by swapping this for your regular old iodized table salt. I also use a pepper grinder to get freshly cracked black pepper rather than using ground black pepper.
- Corn starch or flour – You’ll need this for thickening the gravy! I like the flavor of the flour a little better, but often use the corn starch instead as a bit of a healthier swap.
Here’s How You Make it
Although it says it right in the description, this chicken gravy recipe is made without drippings and is so quick to make – just 10 minutes!
- Get out a large saucepan over medium-high heat and pour in the chicken broth. (photo 1)
- Bring it to a boil. (not pictured)
- Stir in the garlic powder and onion powder for 1-2 minutes longer, whisking constantly. (not pictured)
- In a small bowl, whisk together the water and the cornstarch until it’s dissolved. (photo 2)
- Stir that slurry into the boiling broth and let the broth thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste. (photos 3-5)
- That’s it! You’re done! Serve this hot over chicken, meat, mashed potatoes, polenta, vegetables, whatever! (photo 6)
Frequently Asked Questions
Drippings are simply the stuff that’s left in the bottom of the roasting pan after you’re done roasting a chicken. It’s all the liquid, fats, herbs, garlic, spices, and what-have-you that cooks off of the chicken and ends up at the bottom of the pan.
Chicken drippings make great gravy. Or, you can just use some bread to sop them up right from the bottom of the pan.
First, off, let’s define the difference between a roux and a slurry:
A roux is made with fat (butter, oil), and flour and is mixed together over heat and it thickens.
A slurry is made from cornstarch and water and is added together cold, then mixed with something hot to make it thicker.
So which is better? If you’re in a hurry, a slurry will do, but if you have time, I say make the roux. The fat in the roux goes great with the fat from the chicken drippings in the rest of the gravy recipe.
Good gravy! I’m pretty sure the question is what don’t you eat with gravy, am I right? This chicken broth gravy goes so good over a number of delicious recipes! For instance:
– Starting with the most obvious, this gravy goes great over chicken, turkey, and even beef! (Don’t believe me? Try it yourself on my Instant Pot Chicken Breast and Rice, and Instant Pot Pot Roast with Potatoes & Carrots)
– Pour this gravy over some delicious biscuits (like my Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits for example,) or use the biscuits to dip into the gravy. Either way — winner, winner!
– Mashed potatoes. They just ask to be smothered in gravy, in my opinion! Is there any other way to eat them? (For a simple recipe, use my Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes recipe.)
– Pour gravy over roasted vegetables. Cuz, why not? Don’t knock it till you try it!
– A side of gravy is also good to have on hand at breakfast. It would go especially well with the hashbrowns in this sheet pan breakfast, or this slow cooker casserole.
The best way to ensure you get to eat gravy often is to make extra and freeze it! A flour-based gravy freezes way better than a milk-based one, so we’re in the clear to freeze this homemade chicken gravy recipe.
I like to freeze mine in portioned freezer bags. Just make sure to get all the air out and zip the top shut so the bag remains airtight. Lay the bags flat for easier storage.
Another option is to pour the room-temperature gravy into ice cube trays and pop those into the freezer. Once they are frozen, crack the gravy out of the trays and into a freezer bag. This way, you can warm up as many cubes at a time as you need.
More Recipes You’ll Absolutely Love
- Baked Pork Tenderloin with Potatoes and Gravy
- Instant Pot Pork Chops and Gravy
- Beef Broth Brown Gravy
- Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes
Did you try this chicken gravy recipe?? EXCELLENT – please rate the recipe below!
Easy Homemade Chicken Gravy from Scratch (Without Drippings)
Ingredients
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- salt and pepper , to taste
- ¼ cup cold water
- 3 tablespoons corn starch, or flour
Instructions
- In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, bring chicken broth to a boil.
- Stir in garlic powder and onion powder and continue to stir 1-2 minutes longer.
- In a small bowl whisk together water and corn starch until dissolved. Stir into boiling broth til thickened.
- Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately or store up to 2 weeks covered tightly in the fridge. Serve hot over your favorite chicken, meat, or vegetable dishes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Easy to make and delicious. My husband loved it.
Waaaayyy too much garlic and it’s def missing something…. Perhaps butter. I did not have butter, hence how I found this recipe, so I tried to fix with bacon greasy but to no avail. Sadly will not use this recipe again.
Was not impressed with gravy. Runny and tasted bad. Dont know what what happen.
Not pressed with gravy either will not use this recipe again
Whoa! WAY too much garlic. I even doubled everything else and it was still just garlic gravy.
This was wonderful. I can now make gravy, easily, for my chicken/turkey, and freeze some of it for a later time. I used one of my new ceramic coated pans. Wonderful gravy and pan. I am a very happy person. NO salt used. Worked out great. Thank you!!
So glad to hear that you’re happy with this recipe 🙂
Just made this and we LOVED it! So easy and so yummy !! Thanks a ton- I never tried making gravy- and now I know how ! Yahoo 🙂
Easy to make and tasty! doubled the recipe and it was a bit too much garlic for me. Had to add some HWC and flour to try to lesson the garlic taste. Thank you!
This was awesome gravy. It was a hit on the turkey, dressing and matched potatoes.
There was no gravy left after dinner.
The recipe is a keeper and can hardly wait to try it on a meatloaf.
Note: I did include the optional Worcestershire Sauce.
Just made your chicken gravy recipe. Was delicious , now won’t worry about getting either the package or jar kind. This will be my new gravy. Thank you for posting it.
Thrilled to hear that you enjoyed this recipe so much! Thanks for your feedback, Shirley.
Very easy to make and tasty with
minimal ingredients!
This was wonderfully tasty and fairly easy. I added in some of my leftover cut up turkey and it’s broth which unfortunately thinned out the gravy so next time I will mix the cornstarch with some of the broth.