Kyl Haselbauer has 20 years of experience working in fine-dining and modernist kitchens, including Bar Cotto and Anchovies &amp; Olives in Seattle. He is also the owner of Bright Spot, a café and coffee shop in Seattle.

Kyl Haselbauer

Everyone always talks about the bird during <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/thanksgiving">Thanksgiving</a>, but everyone also knows that the gravy is what brings the whole meal together. You drizzle it over the turkey, sure, but it also complements the <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/sausage-and-mushroom-stuffing">stuffing</a>, the <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/perfect-fluffy-mashed-potatoes">potatoes</a>, and all the <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/popped-pot-pie">leftovers</a>.Making good gravy ultimately comes down to basic sauce-making technique: You make a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/guides-tools/roux-vs-slurry">roux or starch slurry</a>, add good stock and maybe some pan drippings or browned giblets, and let it cook, hydrating the starches to produce a flowing but thick, spoon-coating sauce. It’s a simple process that’s complicated by one issue: You almost never go into Thanksgiving prep with turkey stock ready to go. So you end up using store-bought chicken stock instead.No shade, but there is a better way: Hack the turkey stock with our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/ultimate-turkey-bouillon-cubes">turkey bouillon cubes</a>. They give you all the flavor of a stock you’d spend a day preparing, but with all the convenience of those suboptimal store-bought products. You can make a batch of bouillon cubes weeks or months in advance, pop them in the freezer (without taking up any valuable fridge space), and then pull a couple out 15 minutes before Thanksgiving dinner to make the easiest, fastest, best turkey gravy ever.

Instant Turkey Gravy