Making great gravy without pan juices

Recently Joe requested a birthday dinner of chicken schnitzel, chips and gravy.  I offered to cook him whatever he wanted –  and that’s what he chose.  So I thought I’d better make it pretty darn good snitty and chips. The problem was though, that without the beautiful brown bits and pan juices from roasting a chook are absent when making schnitzel.  Joe is a gravy aficionado, so I needed to make real chicken gravy. I solved the problem by buying half a kilo of raw chicken wing tips from the chicken shop.  You could use the entire wing, cut into thirds, but wing tips are very cheap (only $1.50 a kilo.)

Cheap as chips at $1.50 a kilo

In a pan with olive oil and onion

Golden brown

Sprinkle some flour

I placed a generous splash of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, and added the wing tips and a quartered peeled onion.  You could at this point, add any number of things to add flavour – cut up carrot, celery, thyme – but I am going for a very plain, rich chicken gravy.

I allowed the chicken wings to become very golden.  This is where the lovely rich flavour comes from.  I then sprinkled ¼ cup of plain flour over the wings and stirred it for a couple of minutes until the flour cooked.

Cook the flour

Bubbling until rich

I then began to add one litre of chicken stock, just a little at a time, stirring for a minute or so after each addition.  Once the full litre was added I allowed the gravy to bubble away for about 15 minutes until it was a lovely rich brown colour, and the consistency we like.  I was careful to scrape down the tasty bits that stuck to the sides of the pan – flavour city!

I strained the wing tips and onion out of the gravy and voila!  Rich chicken gravy ready for Joe’s special dinner.

Happy 16^th birthday Joey!

Strain and enjoy!