Mashed Potatoes and Turkey Gravy

Essential for Thanksgiving dinner!


Mashed Potatoes
2 1/2 pounds potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks, about 8 cups of cut up potatoes
1/2 cup evaporated milk or half-and-half, or more to taste
1/4 cup butter
3/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place potatoes in a 4-quart saucepan; cover with water and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

Drain potatoes thoroughly. Transfer to a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients to the bowl. With an electric hand-held mixer, beat potato mixture until light and creamy. Careful to not over mix potatoes or they will become paste.

Turkey Gravy
A basic gravy is 2 tablespoons of fat + 2 tablespoons of flour + 1 cup of liquid to make 1 cup of gravy. First you need to determine how many pan drippings you have and then add flour and liquid to keep the correct ratio. You can add butter if you want to make more gravy then you have pan drippings for. The recipe below is for six cups of gravy. You can increase or decrease the proportions depending on how much gravy you need to make. Simply Recipes has some nice pictures and instructions.

3/4 cup Butter (use turkey drippings and make up the difference with butter)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan (or you can use your roasting pan), combine warm turkey drippings and flour. Cook for about 5 minutes (to remove the flavor of the flour). Gradually add the chicken broth while stirring. Bring to a simmer while stirring to avoid lumps. The gravy should begin to thicken immediately. Season with poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Simmer until almost desired thickness, about 5 minutes. Gravy will continue to thicken as it stands. If your gravy separates you can use a gravy separator then transfer to your serving dish. Depending on the thickness of the gravy the fat may not separate.

In place of chicken broth you can use another flavor of broth, milk, heavy cream, or substitute a portion of it with white wine.