Southern Brown Gravy

Name: Southern Brown Gravy
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 16 Servings (can be cut in half)
Ingredients: 4 cups beef broth (or beef stock, can use beef bouillon); 2 tbsp butter; 2 tbsp all purpose flour; 1 teaspoons coarse ground black pepper (or more to taste); 1/4 - 1/2 tsp dried thyme; Coarse kosher salt, to taste

sauces

Total Time: 10m

Yield: 16 Servings (can be cut in half)

Ingredients

4 cups beef broth (or beef stock, can use beef bouillon)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 teaspoons coarse ground black pepper (or more to taste)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp dried thyme
Coarse kosher salt, to taste

Instructions

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat
Add the butter and let it melt
Once the butter is melted, add in the all-purpose flour and whisk until smooth. You want it to cook out the raw flour taste.
Allow the flour mixture to cook for about 3 minutes, whisking occasionally to keep it smooth
Gradually add in the beef broth, whisking constantly. Pouring it in slowly will allow it to thicken. I like to add in about 1 cup at a time.
Once all of the beef broth has been added, season with black pepper. Taste test before adding salt. The amount of salt you’ll want to use will be determined by whether or not you use salted beef broth and/or salted butter
Optionally, add a little bit of dried thyme
Serve over mashed potatoes, chicken fried steak, salisbury steak (hamburger patties) or fried chicken

Notes

For onion gravy, sauté onions until they're translucent (for a bite) or until caramelized (for flavor) and add the flour to the onions. To speed this up, you can salt the onions. Stir and brown the flour, cooking out the raw flour taste as directed. Continue with the recipe as written.

For mushrooms. Salt the mushrooms and cook off the liquid. Low temperature helps. Stir and brown the flour, cooking out the raw flour taste as directed. Continue with the recipe as written.

With this gravy, it’s important to pour the beef broth in slowly as you whisk so that it stays thick. If you accidentally pour it in too quickly and cause the gravy to get too thin, you can add a cornstarch slurry to thicken it back up.

Mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water until smooth and gently add it while whisking to the gravy to thicken it. Only use a cornstarch slurry if you poured the broth in too quickly and caused it to thin out.

Important note about quantity: If you cut this recipe in half, as I often do you will almost certainly need the cornstarch slurry. For larger recipes like salisbury steak, you'll want the full quantity. For small batches like mashed potatoes, cutting it in half will be enough.