Gravy is so easy, everyone exclaims. Just follow these ten steps and you'll be fine! Well I'll tell you what, I'm not fine. I'm never fine. I love gravy, but I have never once been able to make it successfully.
I recently tried to make chicken gravy with the pan drippings from a roasted chicken. It was a disaster, just like every time I have ever tried to make gravy. I have the same terrible luck with rice, but at least I was able to buy a rice cooker. There is no gravy cooker. Although there are jars and packets of the stuff, but they taste pretty terrible.
Because I'm gluten-intolerant, I used corn starch instead of flour this time. That's the big change from previous methods, when I ruined a batch of flour gravy. This time I ruined a batch of corn starch gravy. On the up side, corn starch, flour, and rendered chicken fat are all cheap. At least I'm not out a lot of money.
Lumps is the least of my worries. Half of the time I make gravy that literally just tastes like flour. Greasy flour. Sometimes (like the last batch) it tastes like scorch, even though I simmered it carefully. I'm never sure what horrible thing will happen when I make gravy, but I can be sure that it will be horrible.
This time, it was completely bland, but with a weird texture that I blame on the corn starch. Next time, who knows?
The problem is that it's just so easy to make gravy, so they say, and gravy is so good on roasted chicken, and I always end up with a pan of delicious drippings that I'm otherwise just going to pour into an empty cat food can until it cools before I throw it away. Perhaps some day I will get the trick of it. If you have any hints, please let me know! I am at a loss.
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