Chicken bones if you have anyfrom the butcher 6 - 8 chicken wings/drumsticks
4clovesgarlicwhole
1leekcut roughly
1onionquartered
1celerycut roughly
1carrotcut roughly
1sprig fresh rosemary
3sprigs fresh sage leaves
2sprigs fresh thyme
3fresh bay leaves
1clove
1tspsalt
lots of freshly ground black pepper
3Tbspolive oil
Instructions
Heat the oven to 200 ̊C (400 ̊F).
Place all the “To Roast” ingredients into a roasting pan and mix thoroughly.
Roast in the oven for 75 minutes, turning and flipping the ingredients halfway through. TIP - The longer the roasting time (without actually burning), the darker and richer the gravy.
After the 75 minutes, place the roasting dish on the stovetop on a low heat. Give everything a good stir, scraping the bottom of the pan. If it’s on the dry side, add a little water and mix it all up.
TIP – if your roasting pan doesn’t go on the stove, just transfer everything into a saucepan and continue. Be sure to scrape and add all the bits sticking to the bottom of the roasting pan.
Add the flour and stir it in to combine well. Leave the roasting pan on the stove and cook the roasted ingredients further for about 15 minutes to deepen the flavour even more. Stir it every so often to stop from burning.
With about 2 minutes to go, put the kettle on.
At the end of 15 minutes, turn the heat up, add the boiling water, stir and simmer on low heat for another 15 minutes until the liquid has thickened to a gravy consistency.
Check the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if necessary.
Now strain the gravy through a sieve into a clean saucepan or large bowl, squashing everything through the sieve with a large spoon or potato masher, to extract maximum flavour.
This can be the finished gravy. If serving immediately, pour in the strained juices from whatever roast you have, to take it up another notch for a gravy from heaven!
If saving for another day, bring it to room temperature then place it in the fridge or freezer until needed, as described above.
Notes
Nutritional information is for the full recipe yield (2 litres)