Southern Tomato Gravy

[Merlin]

Southern Tomato Gravy

Ingredients

3 tablespoons fat (vegetable oil, shortening, bacon grease, or rendered sausage fat)

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cups chicken broth/stock

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

In a skillet over medium heat, whisk the flour into the warm fat.  Cook, stirring constantly, until the flour just starts to brown and smells nutty.  Slowly whisk in the chicken broth and stir until smooth.  Add the undrained tomatoes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Cook until thickened - about 5 minutes, stirring very frequently.  Serve hot over biscuits, grits, etc.  

Notes

You can substitute about 5 to 6 fresh diced tomatoes for the canned tomatoes in this recipe, but may need to add some additional chicken broth to reach the right consistency. 

Tomato gravy is excellent with beef, pork or chicken. Feel free to substitute tomato gravy in place of brown, pork or chicken gravy. We use it in our Green Pepper Steak dish (green pepper steak is similar to what we call Swiss Steak with rice instead of potatoes).

My mother and father both made tomato gravy ... a lot. We grew a lot of tomatoes and she canned them and it just tastes so damned good. The picture above is another typical way to serve it. A great breakfast dish with bacon and eggs. Canned tomatoes are best because they have the natural tomato juice you need for the best flavor.

 

[Kath]

Merlin, what you are making is a bechamel sauce or a roux. I use it all the time, it can be sweet or savoury, it's the basis of a good sauce. Once you learn this fat and flour sauce, your world of cookery will expand.