A Sunday roast with perfect gravy is Britain’s greatest culinary achievement, and the gravy is what separates the memorable from the mediocre. Anyone can roast meat; gravy is where technique shows. I’ve made gravy from granules in my student days (we’ve all been there), from stock cubes, and from proper meat drippings — and the difference between good and great gravy is about 15 minutes of attention at the end of roasting. Here’s the full method, plus the roast to go with it.
The roast: timing is everything
Beef (sirloin/rib): 20 mins per 500g plus 20 mins at 200°C fan for medium-rare. Rest 30 minutes — non-negotiable. Chicken: 20 mins per 500g plus 20 mins at 200°C fan; juices must run clear. Lamb (leg): 25 mins per 500g plus 25 mins at 200°C fan for pink. Pork (shoulder for pulling, loin for slicing): 30 mins per 500g plus 30 mins; crackling needs high heat at the start.
The rules: bring meat to room temperature before roasting (1 hour out of the fridge), season generously with salt and pepper, roast on a bed of roughly chopped veg (onion, carrot, celery — these become your gravy base), and rest the meat for at least 20–30 minutes tented in foil. Resting redistributes juices; skipping it means they run all over the board instead of staying in the meat.
While the meat rests, the oven is free for crispy roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings (200°C+, smoking-hot oil, don’t open the door), and warming the plates.
Perfect gravy for your Sunday roast: the dripping method
This is the real thing — gravy made from the roasting tin. Nothing else compares.
- Save the tin: after removing the meat to rest, you have a roasting tin full of rendered fat, caramelised juices and roasted veg. This is liquid gold. Pour off excess fat into a jar (keep it — it’s amazing for roast potatoes), leaving 2–3 tablespoons plus all the browned bits.
- Deglaze: put the tin over medium-high heat on the hob (use two burners for a big tin). Pour in 150ml of red wine, stock or even water, and scrape every browned bit off the bottom with a wooden spoon. Those browned bits (fond) are concentrated flavour — this is the entire secret of good gravy.
- Add stock: pour in 500ml of good stock — homemade if you have it, otherwise a quality fresh stock (not a cube dissolved in water if you can avoid it). Match the stock to the meat: beef stock for beef, chicken for chicken.
- Thicken: for a traditional flour-thickened gravy, you should have started before the stock — sprinkle 2 tbsp plain flour into the fat and cook it out for 2 minutes (this avoids raw-flour taste), then whisk in the liquid gradually. For a lighter jus-style gravy, reduce the stock by half instead of thickening.
- Simmer 10–15 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon. Season carefully — the drippings are already salty. A splash of Worcestershire sauce, a teaspoon of mustard, or a knob of cold butter whisked in at the end all add depth.
- Strain through a sieve into a warm jug. Serve immediately.
Gravy troubleshooting
- Lumpy: whisk vigorously, or strain — straining fixes almost all lumps. Next time, add liquid more gradually.
- Too thin: simmer longer to reduce, or whisk in a beurre manié (equal parts soft butter and flour kneaded together, added in pea-sized bits).
- Too thick: whisk in hot stock a splash at a time.
- Bland: more fond (you didn’t scrape enough), a splash of wine, Worcestershire sauce, or a teaspoon of Marmite (seriously — umami bomb).
- Too salty: a peeled potato simmered in the gravy absorbs salt (remove before serving); a squeeze of lemon or splash of cream balances it.
- No drippings (vegetarian roast): roast the veg with oil until deeply caramelised, deglaze with wine, use rich vegetable stock plus Marmite/soy for depth. Excellent gravy without meat is absolutely possible.
The trimmings
A proper roast needs its supporting cast: Yorkshire puddings (with beef, and honestly with everything — the “only with beef” rule is for purists), stuffing, pigs in blankets (not just for Christmas), roast parsnips (honey-glazed, the unsung hero), steamed greens (don’t overcook — bright green, still with bite), cauliflower cheese (the luxury addition), and horseradish (beef), apple sauce (pork), mint sauce (lamb) or bread sauce (chicken, the retro classic).
Make-ahead gravy: the Christmas lifesaver
On Christmas Day, with a turkey resting, roasties needing the oven and twelve people expecting lunch at 2pm, gravy is the last thing you want to be faffing with. Make it ahead: roast chicken wings or turkey wings with roughly chopped veg until deeply browned (45 mins at 200°C), transfer to a pot with stock, simmer 1–2 hours, strain, thicken, season. Freeze in portions.
On the day, defrost and reheat — then enrich it with the real drippings from the roasting tin (deglaze the tin with a splash of wine, pour the lot into your reheated gravy). You get 90% of the from-scratch flavour with none of the day-of stress. It also means the gravy is done before the chaos starts, which on Christmas Day is worth more than any technique. Freeze a jug of it with the Christmas dinner leftovers and Boxing Day lunch is half-made too.
Monday’s dinner: the leftover roast
A Sunday roast that doesn’t stretch to Monday is a missed opportunity. Bubble and squeak: mash leftover veg and potatoes into patties, fry until crisp — the classic, and better than the original roast for some. Curry: leftover chicken or lamb in a quick curry sauce (see our restaurant-style curry guide) with rice. Soup: the carcass plus veg ends simmered into stock, then a proper soup — free lunch for days.
Roast sandwiches: cold beef with horseradish, or chicken with stuffing and cranberry, on good bread — the Boxing Day sandwich is a national treasure for a reason. Shepherd’s/cottage pie: minced leftover lamb or beef topped with mash. The rule: plan the leftovers when you plan the roast — cook 25% more than you need and Monday’s dinner is already half-made. Food waste down, weeknight effort down, satisfaction up.
The takeaway
Rest the meat, save the tin, deglaze the fond, use good stock, thicken properly, strain and serve hot. Perfect gravy is 15 minutes of work at the end of the roast — and it’s what people remember. BBC Good Food’s Sunday roast collection has timings for every cut. Master this and you’ve mastered the centrepiece of British home cooking — the full English is the morning shift; the Sunday roast is the main event.
