This is a really easy recipe for how to make gravy using just water. The secret is to use both chicken AND beef stock cubes for the best flavour and a nice deep brown colour. Takes 4 minutes flat, tastes like KFC gravy – but so much better. No pan drippings required.
Made a turkey and want a gravy? Use my Gravy for Turkey recipe!
Gravy
This gravy recipe tastes like what you get in those tubs of KFC Potato and Gravy. Those of you who abstain from all forms of fast food may not know what it tastes like. But all you need to know is that it’s everything that you’d expect from KFC – reliably tasty, well seasoned, can make anything delicious!
The secret ingredient that makes this gravy better is to use both chicken AND beef stock cubes (bouillon cubes).
What you need for gravy
Here’s all you need to make a really great gravy from scratch: chicken and beef stock cubes, butter and flour.
Chicken AND beef stock cubes (aka bouillon cubes) – for flavour and colour. Chicken is the base flavour, beef gives it oomph and gives it a nice deep brown colour rather than an unappetising pale brown. Using both also makes this gravy suitable to use for any protein – white meats (chicken, pork), red meats (beef, lamb, game), potato and vegetables. Can substitute with powder;
Hot water – to dissolve the cubes;
Flour – to thicken the gravy (gluten free cornflour/cornstarch sub in the recipe notes);
Onion or garlic powder – optional, for hint of extra flavour.
Why stock cubes instead of liquid stock/broth?
Great question! 🙂 Stock cubes and powder have a more intense flavour than liquid stock (broth), so they make a tastier gravy when you make gravy from scratch like in this recipe.
Liquid broth is more appropriate to use when you’re making gravy starting with pan drippings from roasts – because the pan drippings add extra flavour into the gravy.
How to make gravy in 4 minutes flat
Dissolve stock cubes or powder in boiling water;
Melt butter in saucepan and mix in flour;
Pour in stock water while whisking and cook 1.5 minutes until thickened. DONE!
PS The reason this is faster than most gravy recipes is because the water is already HOT and the flavour is already concentrated so there’s no need to cook down for flavour.
Now, douse everything and anything with it.
Oh, and here’s the photo that started it all – Fried Chicken. Upon spying this, there were many (many) (MANY!) requests for the potato and gravy recipe.
All the possibilities….!!!
Here’s some suggestions for dishes to serve with gravy. Some obvious ones, some not so obvious ones, all good!
Potato and gravy – KFC style! Dunk in Fried Chicken, warm bread rolls or bread (try this No Yeast Irish Soda Bread!), hot chips, wedges, serve on the side of sausages, as part of a Southern Dinner with BBQ Pulled Pork, any roast;
Roasts – any and all!
Rotisserie chicken dinner – make a meal out of a store bought roast chicken. Steam some veg, make some mash, douse everything with this gravy!
Steamed vegetables – guaranteed way to make bland, boring steamed veg completely scoff worthy;
Pan seared chops, steaks or anything – chicken, lamb, pork, beef! Sprinkle with salt and pepper, pan fry in butter or oil, douse with gravy;
Meatballs – Make these Beef meatballs or these Chicken Meatballs, skip the sauce and serve with this gravy instead;
Poured over an omelette;
Chicken Rolls – shred chicken, toss with gravy, pile generously onto hot rolls;
As a Sauce for any of these:
Use gravy as a sauce for these dishes
I need to stop. There’s too many possibilities!
But enough about my ideas. Tell me what YOU douse with gravy!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Gravy recipe (tastes like KFC – but a million times better!)
Ingredients
- 1 chicken stock cube / bouillon cube (sub 2 tsp powder) (Note 1)
- 1 beef stock cube / bouillon cube (sub 2 tsp powder) (Note 1)
- 2 1/4 cups (565ml) boiling water
- 60g/ 4 tbsp butter , unsalted
- 4 tbsp flour , plain / all purpose
- 1/2 tsp onion powder (ok to omit or sub garlic powder)
- 1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper
- Salt , if needed
Instructions
- Crumble cubes into boiling water, mix to dissolve.
- Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Add flour, onion powder and pepper. Mix into butter with a wooden spoon or whisk.
- While stirring, slowly pour in half the liquid. Once incorporated into the flour butter roux (it will thicken quickly), add remaining liquid and mix.
- Stir for 1.5 – 2 minutes until it thickens to a gravy consistency (it's quick as water is already hot). Taste, add more salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve over chops, steak, sausages, veggies, roast chicken, pork, beef, lamb. Pictured – KFC Potato and Gravy copycat!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Even at the vet, all he can think about is FOOD. Just like his owner 😂
PS Nothing major, just getting an old-man wart removed that had grown quite large and was bothering him. He was, of course, a total sook once he realised he was there for more than just pats and treats. Quivering and pressing up against me for protection!
can’t wait to make this gravy. I love your site and all your amazing recipes and blogs. I really encourage you to rethink your use of the phrase ‘total girl’ referring to Dozer’s vet visit. It’s 2021 and associating scared cowardly behaviour with being a girl (and therefore being brave with acting more like a boy) has no place in our society anymore. We all know girls are kick ass and brave! Let’s celebrate that.
Yes, this! Dozer wasn’t being a ‘total girl’, he was being a normal dog scared about a painful procedure. That’s not gendered. It’s just dog. Please don’t let our little girls grow up thinking the world expects them to be less brave than boys. It might seem harmless to you, but would you want to explain this sentence to a group of little girls? Or a group of strong women? Love your recipes, please respect our girls❤️
Made this gravy last night to go with your meatloaf recipe. Absolutely delicious, i usually just use the stuff in a tin, but this comes together so quickly and easy, i don’t think i’ll use tin gravy again. Yummyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
Nagi.. what can’t you do! Everything I make from you’re site is always amazing.
I made this gravy last night for beef and gravy rolls and it was AMAZING! Tastes better than KFC gravy and much much better for you.
THANK YOU xx
This recipe is amazing! SO tasty and SO easy. I’ll be making this again and again.
THIS IS THE BEST EVER GRAVY SAUCE IVE MADE 😭😭😭 Thank you 🙏🏾 I added some rosemary & parsley to the melting butter for my beef and it was sooo good. I’m sharing this with everyone
I’m SO happy you loved it Victoria, thanks so much for letting me know!! N x
We made this as our gravy for a “Copycat KFC Famous Bowl” recipe and it was absolutely delicious! We’ll definitely make this to pair it with other recipes as well!
I love this recipe! Has great flavour. To fix the pale issue I added a couple of teaspoons of gravy powder and voila! perfect gravy. I made it in my tefal i-companion xl which made it really easy.
Simply delicious 🤤
LIFE SAVER GRAVY… I made this tonight and couldn’t believe the compliments I got – thank you.
Mine was quite pale in colour so I added a teaspoon of Vegemite and it was delicious.
Just found and made this gravy and it is soooo good. I used chicken bouillon. The best homemade gravy yet! Thank you for sharing it with us!!
Thanks for this fab recipe, Nagi! My family loves it!! I omit the beef stock (as we don’t eat beef) and we miss out on the deep brown colour. Are there any substitutes you could recommend please?
Can you still add the drippings/oil
If you are also making fried chicken? Just curious if I have to alter measurements if I go that route.
Hi Georgie, where are the drippings from, what are you cooking?? N x
I cooked fried chicken so I had oil and drippings. To be honest I think I may have made it not as good due to the fact that I couldn’t get a good consistency on the gravy. Good flavor just way too thick.
pretty close to the real thing. i followed Kent A’s adjustments too, great recipe!
Wow, I think that’s the first. So glad my teeaks helped you out! But all the kudos go to Nagi for putting this yummy recipe out there. I’ve been trying to re-create this stuff for years, and this is by far the closest anyone’s ever come. The real KFC gravy always tasted a bit too salty for me, so that’s why I’d add a lot of black pepper to tone it down. The rotisserie spice I think helps compensate for the lack of fried chicken drippings. But this recipe is perfectly yummy as written. I just checked back because I wanted to make some again!
Most copycat recipes end up being wishful thinking from the creator, but this one comes closer than any I’ve ever tried. The beef boullion is really the key for the flavor, but to match what KFC actually uses: (deep fryer drippings, peanut oil, sugar, and a dozen other mystery ingredients), you do need to tweak it a bit. I added 1/4 tsp of cornstarch, 3x the black pepper, 1/2tsp of poultry/rotisserie seasoning, and 1Tbsp of smart balance or margarine to the butter. 1/2 tsp or more more salt would nail it, but this already has enough sodium and tastes awesome, so there’s no need to do that unless you really want it. Very nicely done!
This gravy is outstanding! We love it and my kids ask for it all the time!
DELICIOUS!!!!!! Hubby was so surprised at how delicious this tasted that he had to add more on the meatloaf we had for dinner.
I also used this on meatloaf one night.
Hmmm…. not sure if it was the Massell stock cubes I used or that I didn’t have plain flour and used the cornflour slurry.. tasted a bit bland and chickeny. Mind you, your beef stroganoff recipe I used the oxo cubes and found them to be a stronger beef flavour. So I will give it another try using all the ingredients on the list and using oxo cubes rather than massell.
Hi Elise, sorry to hear that – I have found different brands of stock cubes differ in flavour so I imagine that to be the culprit! N x
All your other recipes I’ve tried I love and hubby loves them so much he moans (lol)! I’m sure it’s the stock cubes.. I have a Chinese chicken and sweetcorn recipe I have made for a few years and I made it with the massell stock cubes and I usually make it with campbells real stock and campbells powder stock, and although the flavour was nice it definitely didn’t have as much flavour. But Nagi! I looooovvveeee your recipes! As many other have said and I will also, you are my go to recipe queen! Xox
Nagi -Do you know how many years I struggled w/making good gravy- standing at the stove stirring while the food was on the table ! Now you tell me !
Hi. can i use margarine if i dont have butter? and how about cornstarch as substitute for flour?
Great gravy