Chicken Giblet Gravy

As I mentioned in the Julia Child White Wine Poached Chicken, I decided to take the giblets and turn them into a lovely gravy. When I first went paleo, I wondered how in the world I would make any type of gravy without flour…Actually…I wondered how I’d do many things without flour. It’s amazing when you learn certain cooking techniques, how you can go without certain additives. A little work and a little more time, turns up a beautiful golden gravy of epic proportions.

Here’s what you will need to jump on the gravy train:

• Giblets (liver, giblets, heart, neck…All which come in that little packet in the chicken.)
• Carrots
• Celery
• Onions
• White Wine (I used a Cupcake Chardonnay. Best advice? Use something you’ll drink.)
• 2 Cups of Homemade Chicken Stock (I pulled from the Julia’s Chicken I made and it was awesome!)
• 1 Cup of water (Depending on how much gravy you want.)
• Rosemary
• Parsley
• Basil

If you have most of these things on hand, it makes this extremely affordable and easy to do. I am sure you could add, omit, and make this to your own liking easily. Just as a small reminder, I encourage you to use what you’re comfortable with. Just because I’m paleo and a stay at home mom and have the time to make everything from scratch, doesn’t mean you can’t use box stock, or leave out the wine, or use fresh when I used dried. Make your cooking your own! This is just how I do it. I encourage everyone to follow their own recipe in their heart.

So…that being said. Let’s get started aye?

Chop your carrots, celery and onions. It doesn’t have to be tiny. Put your giblets in a small bowl and sprinkle the dried seasonings over it liberally. I probably added 1 teaspoon or more of each and then let it sit for a few minutes while I was waiting.

Add olive oil to a reasonably deep pan and start cooking the veggies. You can choose whether or not you want to sieve the gravy and take them out. After the veggies start to cook add in the giblet pieces. We don’t want them to burn, so medium to medium high heat (around 5 on my glass top stove) will suffice. When they’re good and cooked, and you have that lovely treasure building up on the bottom of the pan, deglaze the pan with about a 1/4 cup of white wine. I eyeballed it and added just enough to start pulling the treasure from the bottom. By treasure I mean the brown bits of flavor that tries to stick to the bottom. It should bubble instantly when it hits the pan. Let it simmer away for a few minutes until you notice it is starting to reduce. Add your water, leaving all of the ingredients in, and leave it at a low simmer until you’re ready for it.

I left all of the ingredients in the sauce and let it reduce by half so it would thicken, and be full of flavor. When I was ready for the gravy, I simply tilted the pan, used a spoon and poured it out over my chicken and mashed potatoes. It turned a lovely golden brown color. All 3 of my kiddos enjoyed it!

I hope you and your family will enjoy this recipe. I think it’s only Common Sense to use everything you receive. I told an instagram follower, Baby steps into organ meat. Yummy, baby steps. Next time you buy a whole chicken, give it a try! I’m sending you yummy sauces from my Common Sense Kitchen to yours. I hope you’ll come back next time to see what this Tiptoeing Towards Offal, Common Sense Cook will come up with next.

-Ami M. Lee, The Common Sense Cook