Nancy Shuford Haines' Turkey & Gravy Recipe

Growing up, thanksgiving wasn't thanksgiving without turkey and gravy, more specifically, my mom's side of the family's turkey and gravy recipe.

Kids and adults alike called the gravy from this recipe "liquid gold" as we huddled around my aunt's stovetop, to help taste test, obviously. The turkey always perfectly salted and moist, covered in gravy sent from God himself (am I over selling? it's the nostalgia okay.) But really, it's a dang good turkey and gravy recipe.

As an adult, I felt this recipe would leave earth alongside our family members who knew it in their bones as they passed onto heaven. It was something you had to feel and know to get right. For years my mom said it wasn't possible to write it down because of the countless adding and "remembering as you go" with various kitchen staples.

After all, this recipe was my grandma Nancy's (God rest her soul.) that was passed down by taste. Not by a recipe card. I learned recently that my Grandma was part of the Better Homes & Garden's test kitchen for the original cook book (can someone pinch me?!) She helped test and refine the classic recipes that have made their way through countless kitchens and families. Which made sense when I realized how many of her recipes make up our family's holiday menu.

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For the Turkey:

8LB Butter Ball Turkey Breast

1 & 1/2 sticks of butter melted

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

2 TBSP of Celtic sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Place bird in aluminum pan, sprayed with oil spray. Stir all ingredients above together and rub all over turkey, adding the liquid into the cavity as well.

3. Bake turkey UNCOVERED, on bottom rack of oven for 30 minutes until golden color appears on top of bird.

4. Next, cover "loosely but tightly" with two sheets, married together to make a large sheet, of aluminum foil. Spray shiny side of aluminum foil with cooking spray. Place the shiny side on the "inside." "Tent" the aluminum foil over the bird, so the foil doesn't touch the bird, loosely but tightly.

5. Turn temperature to 225 and bake for 25 minutes per pound. We baked the 8 LB bird for 3 hours at 225, after the first round of baking for 30 minutes at 450.

6. Transfer bird to serving tray and cover tightly with foil- use the same foil from oven.

   
   

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For Gravy:

3/4 cup drippings from try

2 TBSP butter

3 TBSP flower

Remaining turkey drippings

1 TBSP Kitchen Bouquet

Two shakes of black pepper

1 & 2/3 cans Campbell's chicken broth (or the equivalent weight of homemade chicken broth)

1 TBSP flour

3 TBSP water

1/2 TSP Celtic sea salt

1. Take the bolded ingredients above and combine in a medium/high heat saucepan to make a "paste." Whisk constantly.

2. Add all remaining drippings (yes, even the lumps) from tray and add to the saucepan, plus the Campbell's chicken broth. We'll use an immersion blender to smooth the gravy. Remember to whisk constantly.

3. Add flour and water together in a separate bowl and whisk well. Use to thicken gravy as it cooks. whisking constantly.

4. Use an immersion blender to smooth gravy.

5. Cook until the desired thickness is reached. Lightly coating the back of a spoon, it will thicken once it cools.

6. Salt to taste.