If you saw my recent “Easiest Way to Make Beef Roast in the Instant Pot” post, you saw that I promised to share How to Make Roast Gravy. Where there is roast, there must be gravy. There is no other way.
While I shared that I struggled with making a good roast for over 20 years before figuring it out, I perfected my gravy-making skills long ago. I guess that’s a good thing, seeing as my roasts weren’t great. At least we drown the dry meat in gravy.
Making gravy truly isn’t difficult, though in my case, it took some practice. Did I ever tell you about the first time I made gravy for Matt? He had to spread it onto his potatoes with a knife. Good times. (That was in our dating days. Praise God he saw gravy-making potential and still chose to marry me. It was probably because of how I rocked the big hair. Or the high waist pants, which are somehow now back in style. Why, girls? Why?)
How to Make Roast Gravy
- 1-2 cups beef broth/drippings from a roast
- ¼ cup cold water
- 2 Tablespoons corn starch or arrowroot powder
- Sea salt to taste
- Pour the drippings from a cooked roast into a small sauce pan.
- Heat to boiling.
- Meanwhile, whisk together water and cornstarch in a small glass or jar.
- Slowly pour water/cornstarch mixture into the boiling beef broth, stirring/whisking constantly.
- Continue to cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture has thickened into gravy.
- Salt liberally as desired.
Need to thicken your gravy? Make another mixture of water/cornstarch and whisk it in to the boiling broth little by little until you’ve reached the desired gravy consistency you want.
It is important that you mix the water and cornstarch together before stirring it into your drippings/broth! Sprinkling cornstarch directly into the hot drippings will only give you lumpy gravy. Ask me how I know.
What are you better at making: Roast or Gravy? Maybe now we can all be good at both!
I learned to use cornstarch to thicken gravy from my Momma. Now I use arrowroot powder in just the same way.
Roast and gravy was my mother’s regular Sunday meal. We would come home from church to the mouth-watering aroma of her roast, carrots and potatoes. This is exactly how she made her gravy! I used to love warming up leftovers on Sunday evening. (smeared in gravy, of course.)
I always enjoy browsing through your recipes. Thanks!
Tara