This year, we are having everyone over at our place for Thanksgiving dinner.  And, I decided it would be good to smoke the turkey outside, and free up the oven for other stuff.  But, how can we make the gravy without the drippings from the roast turkey?  Well, I found a “make-ahead gravy recipe” online, and I decided to give it a whirl last night!  You can try this out if you want to make your gravy ahead of time and free yourself up from having to do it on Thanksgiving morning, when everybody is coming over and things are getting hectic! This recipe uses chicken wings and fresh thyme, and it requires about 3 hours of time from start to finish.  While it’s cooking, you can do some other things to prepare for the big day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing I did was roast the chicken wings and onions in a 400 degree oven…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While that was roasting I cut up some carrots and celery.  After the wings were browned, about an hour and 15 minutes, I added the vegetables and some other spices with 6 cups of chicken stock into a stock pot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After an hour of simmering, I strained all of the liquid into a smaller 3 quart pot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally…here’s the finished product on a test run of instant mashed potatoes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you decide to use this recipe, just be ready to spend some other time working on other aspects of your meal.  There is a lot of time to burn.  I have my gravy ready to go for tomorrow sealed up in the fridge!  I’ll just warm it up in the microwave for a bit!  Good luck!  After I got done with it last night, I asked my step-daughter Ava for her thoughts on it.  She eventually gave it a 7.  I’ll take it!  Happy Thanksgiving!