The mere thought of making homemade gravy for an elaborate meal can quickly amp up the stress level. Whether it's one of a dozen dishes you're preparing for a traditional Thanksgiving meal or your hangry family awaiting dinner after a busy day, take your anxiety down a notch with one (or more) of our store-bought gravy hacks. With a few simple tweaks, you can easily make a jar of plain gravy richer and tastier—and fool everyone into thinking it was homemade.
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Incorporate Drippings From the Roasting Pan
Relying on drippings—also known as "fond"—for homemade gravy can turn into a guessing game with the risk of falling short of the quantity you need. With a little help from store-bought gravy, you can ensure you have enough to coat everyone's turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans.
While heating your store-bought gravy on the stove, add drippings from the bottom of the roasting pan to make it more flavorful. The extra fat and flavorful little brown bits give it that store-bought gravy depth and complexity.
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Infuse With Aromatic Herbs
Refresh store-bought gravy using fresh herbs like:
- Sage
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Bay leaves
Playing off classic Thanksgiving flavors, these fresh greens transform plain gravy into something special. To maximize the aromatic infusion, slowly simmer gravy and herbs in a small pot until flagrant and flavorful, then remove the herbs or strain the gravy before serving.
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Liven Up With Alcohol
Enliven store-bought gravy with a splash of your favorite cooking wine or spirits like cognac, brandy, or sherry. As you reheat the gravy, add a few tablespoons of wine or liquor and simmer until the alcohol has fully evaporated. The result is a creamy, full-bodied gravy that rivals any homemade version.
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Add Browned Butter
Browned butter is the golden-hued end product of butter melted over medium heat until the water cooks off. What remains are milk solids and butterfat, which turns out nutty, toasty, and warm. Add this golden goodness to store-bought gravy to make it rich, comforting, and just like homemade.
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Boost the Flavor Profile With Umami-Rich Ingredients
Experiment by adding umami-rich ingredients to make ordinary gravy extraordinary. Umami, one of the five basic tastes, is often associated with meaty, earthy, rich flavor profiles.
To give your store-bought gravy the complexity it may be lacking, add ingredients like:
- Mushrooms
- Bacon lardons
- Prosciutto
- Caramelized onions
- Porcini mushrooms
- Truffle
- Black garlic
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Supplement with Sautéed Vegetables
Soft, fragrant, sautéed vegetables lend a sweet, earthy, warm flavor to your store-bought gravy. Use any combination of onions, leeks, shallots, celery, carrots, and mushrooms cooked in butter, olive oil, or pan drippings.
When the veggies are sufficiently sautéed, stir in your jarred gravy and simmer on low. Before serving, strain those veggies out or use animmersion blenderto incorporate them into your gravy.
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Augment With Roasted Garlic
If you're already using your oven, make room to roast a few cloves of garlic, too. Fresh or raw garlic is too pungent to add directly to store-bought gravy, but garlic softens to a silky paste when roasted, making it rich, sweet, and almost creamy.
To roast a few cloves of garlic:
- Set them on a small sheet of foil and form a pouch.
- Add a bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, and then roast for 35 minutes at 350 degrees F. (Adjust the time for a hotter oven.)
- Allow the cloves to cool slightly, and then stir into jarred gravy while it’s being heated.
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Muster Up Some Mustard
Mustard is not just for hot dogs! A little punch of mustard—whether it's Dijon-style, whole grain, or (in a pinch) the bright yellow stuff—brings a rustic tanginess to plain gravy from a jar. It lends a bite that can really brighten up gravy as well as other savory sauces.
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Drizzle in Balsamic Vinegar
Similar tomustard, using a bit of balsamic vinegar as a finishing touch helps to boost the flavor of any jarred gravy. Adding a drizzle ofbalsamic to gravy while it's heating up gives it a depth of flavor, almost like magic!
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Complement With Cream
For an infusion of decadence, there's hardly anything better than a splash (or two) of heavy cream, and that goes for gravy, too. If you're worried about calories and fat, you could substitute with half-and-half for a less decadent (but still creamier than store-bought) treatment.
If you do use half-and-half, ensure it's tempered before adding it to hot gravy so it doesn't separate. To temper half-and-half, add a bit of hot gravy to it, stir, and then add a bit more. Once the dairy's temperature is warmed up, you can add it to your gravy. Alternatively, add half-and-half to your jarred gravy, and then warm it up.
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Punch Up With Chili Peppers
Unless yourguests are heat-adverse, tryadding some finely choppedjalapeno or other chili pepper to your store-bought gravy. It only takes about 10 minutes for the peppers' spiciness to penetrate your gravy, plus it adds a bit of texture and, of course, brings the heat.
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Mix in Some Pork Sausage or Soy Sauce
Despite gravy's long-held association with the holidays, don't neglect it the rest of the year! Doctor-up store-bought gravy with additions like pork sausage to lather over freshly baked, warm biscuits.
Here's another one: Add fish sauce and soy sauce, and then serve over crunchy French fries and cheese curds to make poutine, a classic Canadian dish.
