How Do I Make Chicken Gravy with Chicken Broth? Check Before the Simmer Locks It

To make chicken gravy with chicken broth, whisk 2 cups (480 milliliters) of broth into a blond roux of 1½ tablespoons unsalted butter (21 grams on King Arthur Baking's chart of 113 grams per 8 tablespoons) and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (15 grams on King Arthur's 120-gram cup), then simmer until the gravy coats a spoon. That 36-gram roux is the 2-cup scale of J. Kenji López-Alt's tested quart: 3 tablespoons butter and ¼ cup flour, cooked about 3 minutes, then reduced from 4 cups of stock to about 3 cups of gravy, so about 1½ cups (360 milliliters) from this batch. A simmer that only thickens leaves nearer 2 cups (480 milliliters). Sodium in a ½-cup serving is 430 milligrams if two cups of Swanson Chicken Broth at the manufacturer's 860 milligrams per cup stay at 2 cups of gravy, or 573 milligrams if that pot is reduced to 1½ cups. The USDA Standard Reference figure of 924 milligrams per 1 cup (249 grams) of ready-to-serve chicken broth puts the same servings at 462 milligrams and 616 milligrams. The FDA Daily Value for sodium is 2,300 milligrams; 20 percent of that (460 milligrams) is the agency's "high" line. Read those milligrams on the carton before simmering. Reduction concentrates salt. It does not reverse it.

A long-distance buffet that plated two hundred covers without a kitchen treated gravy as a galley problem. Once a boat left the counter, four carriages of passengers ate what they were given. Flour or cornstarch, salted or unsalted broth, blond or brown roux: choose them while they can still change.

What has to be checked before the simmer makes the gravy too late to change?

Swanson's Chicken Broth spec sheet, for the 32-ounce carton, lists 1 cup (240 milliliters) at 860 milligrams of sodium, 37 percent of the Daily Value. The Unsalted Chicken Broth lists 35 milligrams per cup and the footnote "Not a sodium free food." The FDA's "Sodium in Your Diet" page, current as of 5 March 2024, sets the Daily Value at less than 2,300 milligrams and treats 5 percent or less per serving as low and 20 percent or more as high. Two cups of the regular carton put 1,720 milligrams in the pan before any reduction; two cups of the unsalted carton put 70 milligrams. Taste will not sort those cartons.

The USDA number is not Swanson's number. NutritionValue.org, citing the USDA Standard Reference for soup, ready-to-serve, chicken broth, reports 924 milligrams of sodium in 1 cup (249 grams), 64 milligrams more per cup than the Swanson label. Using the USDA cup on a 2-cup batch already puts an unreduced ½-cup serving at 462 milligrams, 20 percent of the Daily Value; using Swanson, that serving is 430 milligrams, 19 percent. Reduce either pot by a quarter and both servings clear the "high" line. Read the carton in the hand.

A roux and a cornstarch slurry do not share a simmer. Pick one before the pan is hot. CIA Foodies, the public recipe arm of the Culinary Institute of America, lists four roux colors: white, blond, brown, and dark. Blond is the usual chicken-gravy shade. Cook it toward mahogany for brown gravy with chicken broth and the same mass thickens less. Extra flour has to be in the pan before the color is already dark, or it goes in later as dry powder and lumps.

How do you make chicken gravy with chicken broth on a roux?

The working batch is López-Alt's quart, halved. He was culinary director of Serious Eats and is the James Beard Award-winning author of The Food Lab. In that gravy recipe he wrote: "Basic rule of thumb: The harder you whisk and the slower you add the stock, the smoother your gravy will be."

Wayne Gisslen's Professional Cooking, 9th edition, Table 9.1, lists a medium sauce at 8 ounces (250 grams) butter plus 8 ounces (250 grams) flour per gallon, about 57 grams of roux for 2 cups. The Professional Chef from the CIA gives medium consistency at 12 to 14 ounces (340 to 397 grams) of roux per gallon, about 42 to 50 grams for 2 cups. CIA Foodies then splits with itself: the body says "60 percent flour to 40 percent fat (by weight)," while the caption calls roux "equal parts of flour and fat." New York Times Cooking tells home cooks to whisk "for at least 5 minutes," two minutes longer than López-Alt's 3-minute cook. Pick one mass and one cook time while the pan is empty.

1. Read the carton. If it is 860 milligrams per cup, or the USDA 924, and the gravy will be reduced, switch to unsalted (Swanson 35 milligrams per cup) or accept a serving the FDA would call high.
2. Weigh the roux. For 2 cups (480 milliliters) of broth: 21 grams unsalted butter and 15 grams flour for López-Alt; about 57 grams total, half fat and half flour by weight, for Gisslen's medium.
3. Melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour until the paste looks, in CIA Foodies' phrase, like "sand at low tide."
4. Cook, stirring, about 3 minutes (López-Alt) to at least 5 minutes (New York Times Cooking) until blond. Stop there for chicken gravy.
5. Warm the broth. CIA Foodies warns that ice-cold liquid hardens a hot roux and that scorching-hot roux spatters.
6. Whisking hard, add the 480 milliliters of broth in a thin stream.
7. Bring to a boil, then simmer. CIA Foodies says full thickening "becomes evident when the liquid has reached approximately 200°F." Daniel Gritzer, editorial director of Serious Eats and a former food editor at Food & Wine, writes that gravy thickens "after a few minutes of simmering, once the flour granules have had a chance to hydrate and swell."
8. Season after nappe.
9. Serve, or cool. USDA FSIS lists gravy at 3 to 4 days refrigerated and tells cooks to reheat gravies to a rolling boil. C.H. Guenther, a foodservice gravy manufacturer, tells operators to reheat to 190°F and hold at 165°F. The agency's instruction is the boil.

How does a roux-thickened gravy differ from a cornstarch slurry?

They do not share a spoon or a clock. Harold McGee, in On Food and Cooking (2004), writes that wheat flour is only about 75 percent starch and that a common rule of thumb is 1.5 times as much flour as starch. Real Simple uses 1 tablespoon of cornstarch per cup of liquid. King Arthur lists cornstarch at 28 grams per ¼ cup (about 14 grams in 2 tablespoons); USDA FoodData Central's 128-gram cup would put those 2 tablespoons at 16 grams. McGee's rule applied to López-Alt's 15 grams of flour would want about 10 grams of cornstarch. The New York Times Food Chain of 24 November 1999 used 1 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons of cold water per cup, cooked "about a minute or two." The 10 October 2001 column: cornstarch "will lose its thickening power if boiled more than a minute or two, or cooled and reheated."

| | Blond roux (flour + fat) | Cornstarch slurry | Flour shaken with cold broth | |---|---|---|---| | Dose for 2 cups (480 mL) broth | 15 g flour + 21 g butter (López-Alt), or ~57 g equal-weight roux (Gisslen) | 14–16 g cornstarch (2 Tbsp) mixed with cold water (Real Simple; King Arthur vs USDA) | Same flour mass as the roux, without the fat cook | | When it thickens | After a few minutes near 200°F (CIA Foodies; Gritzer) | 1–2 minutes at a simmer (NYT 1999); full gel around 203°F (Serious Eats) | After a few minutes of simmer (NYT 2001) | | After a freeze | More stable (CIA Foodies: flour starches "do not break down as easily as some others") | Turns spongy; NYT 2001 says reheating needs more cornstarch | Behaves like other flour sauces | | The swap that fails | A 1–2 minute finish leaves raw flour | A 5-minute roux simmer can already thin the gel | Dumping dry flour into hot broth |

Chicken-broth gravy without flour is the cornstarch column. CIA Foodies' stability note is why buffet lines still lean on roux.

What changes if the pan has no drippings?

Chicken gravy from broth does not require drippings. CIA Foodies lists clarified butter as the common fat, then names whole butter, vegetable oils, and rendered chicken fat as usable. New York Times Cooking uses pan fat plus an equal volume of flour for pan gravy, and butter in a saucepan for gravy made ahead.

Drippings add browned fond and whatever salt was on the bird. That salt is not on Swanson's panel. Deglaze with unsalted broth, or taste after nappe and stop. Adding the 860-milligram carton on top of salty drippings stacks two sodium sources with no combined figure.

Without drippings, color has to come from the roux. A blond roux, 3 to 5 minutes, is the usual chicken gravy. A brown roux is how brown gravy with chicken broth gets its color when there is no roast pan to scrape; start with more than 36 grams of roux, because the extra cook costs thickening power. A 14.5-ounce can is about 1.8 cups, short of the 2-cup batch. A 32-ounce carton is 4 cups.

Why did the gravy turn lumpy, and what can still be changed?

Lumps form when flour or cornstarch hits hot liquid without fat or without a cold slurry. Gritzer's troubleshooting piece on Serious Eats treats lumpy gravy as a mixing failure: dry starch in liquid makes "little pasty balls." His two repairs are a fine-mesh strainer or a blender, the lid's pour spout opened and covered with a towel, started at low speed.

López-Alt's prevention is the slow stream and the hard whisk. CIA Foodies' prevention is the temperature match. A flour slurry shaken with cold broth still needs the flour simmer, not the cornstarch minute.

What can still be changed after the gravy is thick: thickness, by whisking in more hot unsalted broth (Gritzer: thin with stock, not water); lumps, by straining or blending; salt, almost nothing. A gravy reduced from an 860-milligram carton cannot be returned to the milligrams it had when the carton was closed. USDA leftover rule: 3 to 4 days refrigerated, then a rolling boil per FSIS. Cornstarch gravy that was frozen is the one NYT 2001 warned would need more starch on the second heat.

Frequently asked questions

How do you make gravy from chicken broth?

Melt 1½ tablespoons (21 grams) unsalted butter, whisk in 2 tablespoons (15 grams) flour, and cook 3 minutes until blond. Whisk in 2 cups (480 milliliters) chicken broth and simmer until it coats a spoon. Read carton sodium first; Swanson lists 860 milligrams per cup.

Can I make gravy with just chicken broth and flour?

Yes, if the flour is cooked in fat as a roux or shaken cold as a slurry. Dry flour dumped into hot broth lumps. Gritzer, editorial director of Serious Eats, describes lumps as dry starch hitting liquid. A flour slurry still needs a few minutes of simmer, not the cornstarch clock.

How do I turn broth into gravy?

Choose the thickener, then heat. For flour, cook 15 grams flour in 21 grams butter for 3 minutes, whisk in 480 milliliters broth, and simmer until nappe. For cornstarch, mix about 2 tablespoons with cold water, whisk into simmering broth, and stop after 1 to 2 minutes.

How do I thicken chicken broth into gravy?

A blond roux of 15 grams flour and 21 grams butter thickens 480 milliliters of broth after a few minutes near 200°F, the temperature CIA Foodies gives for full roux thickening. Cornstarch, at 1 tablespoon per cup, thickens faster, then thins if boiled hard.

How can I make chicken-broth gravy without flour?

Use a cornstarch slurry: 1 tablespoon per cup of broth, mixed with cold water, whisked into a simmer, cooked 1 to 2 minutes. King Arthur lists 28 grams of cornstarch per ¼ cup; USDA lists 128 grams per cup. Cornstarch gravy weeps after a freeze.

Why did my gravy turn lumpy?

Dry flour or dry cornstarch hit hot broth and gelatinized on the outside of clumps. López-Alt's rule is to whisk hard and add stock slowly. Gritzer's fix is a fine-mesh strainer or a blender with the lid vented. Cooked lumps have to be strained or blended.