Recipe Jamie Oliver Christmas Gravy

Ie Oliver’s Get Ahead Gravy is the perfect accompaniment to any roast. Make it ahead of time for maximum flavour with minimum stress!

Lashings and lashings of hot gravy with her roast potatoes, I take no chances in this department and always try to make my gravy ahead of time.

I am definitely not one of those people who can make a quick gravy from the pan juices right before serving; more often than not, the

Leftover Get Ahead Gravy Bake

In the lead up to Christmas, a good friend of mine (and who happens to be a fabulous cook) was telling me about her faithfulness to Jamie Oliver’s Get Ahead Gravy which uses chicken wings as the main ingredient, and I was instantly intrigued.

The idea is to start making the gravy the day before so that you have an ample supply of gravy for everyone at the table, and which can be enriched with the pan juices from whatever you happen to be roasting on the day of the big meal.

I’m guessing that Jamie Oliver had roast turkey in mind when he devised this recipe, but I can confirm that it also works beautifully with roast chicken, roast beef and roast pork.

Jamie Oliver Easy Make Ahead Christmas Gravy Recipe

Jamie Oliver’s Get Ahead Gravy does take some time to make, but it is not labour-intensive; you simply roast some vegetables and chicken wings in the oven for about an hour, before transferring the roasting tray to the stove and let everything simmer until it has reduced and thickened nicely into a gravy or thickened stock.

You can watch Jamie Oliver make his Get Ahead Gravy in the video below, and my recipe which follows has a few changes from Jamie’s recipe* which I hope you will enjoy.

*Although I call this “Jamie Oliver’s Get Ahead Gravy”, I have left out a few ingredients. The original recipe calls for star anise which I found too over-powering and out of place when I first tried the recipe, and the addition of redcurrant sauce or cranberry sauce made the gravy too sweet for my liking.

Jamie Oliver's Make Ahead Gravy Recipe Has The Most Unusual Secret Ingredient We've Ever Seen

The recipe below is a blueprint of how I like to make gravy, my way. Feel free to swap out some of the herbs to make it more appropriate for what you plan to serve the gravy with. Enjoy!

My version of Jamie Oliver’s Get Ahead Gravy is the perfect accompaniment to any roast. Make it ahead of time for maximum flavour with minimum stress!

Roasting the chicken wings until they are golden will help to give your gravy a nice, dark colour. But if you find that your gravy is too pale, or you want to make it a bit darker, I recommend adding a dash of soy sauce. Slowly add the soy sauce until you have the desired colour, but keep in mind that the soy sauce will also add additional salt (as well as umami flavour) to your gravy.

Sweet & Sticky Onion Gravy Recipe

You can make the gravy stock or finished gravy well ahead of time and store it in the freezer. I typically freeze food in zip-lock freezer bags. Defrost the gravy in the microwave on a gentle setting until it has partially defrosted, before transferring the gravy to a saucepan to finish defrosting on the stove on low heat. Upon defrosting, the gravy may have a thicker consistency, which you can thin with some water.

Simply omit the flour from the recipe, and use cornflour (cornstarch) to thicken the gravy towards the end. The gravy will have slightly different consistency, but it will taste the same.

All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly.

Jamie's Ultimate Christmas Recipes

The recipe below is a blueprint of how I like to make gravy, my way. Feel free to swap out some of the herbs to make it more appropriate for what you plan to serve the gravy with. Enjoy!

My version of Jamie Oliver’s Get Ahead Gravy is the perfect accompaniment to any roast. Make it ahead of time for maximum flavour with minimum stress!

Roasting the chicken wings until they are golden will help to give your gravy a nice, dark colour. But if you find that your gravy is too pale, or you want to make it a bit darker, I recommend adding a dash of soy sauce. Slowly add the soy sauce until you have the desired colour, but keep in mind that the soy sauce will also add additional salt (as well as umami flavour) to your gravy.

Sweet & Sticky Onion Gravy Recipe

You can make the gravy stock or finished gravy well ahead of time and store it in the freezer. I typically freeze food in zip-lock freezer bags. Defrost the gravy in the microwave on a gentle setting until it has partially defrosted, before transferring the gravy to a saucepan to finish defrosting on the stove on low heat. Upon defrosting, the gravy may have a thicker consistency, which you can thin with some water.

Simply omit the flour from the recipe, and use cornflour (cornstarch) to thicken the gravy towards the end. The gravy will have slightly different consistency, but it will taste the same.

All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly.

Jamie's Ultimate Christmas Recipes