How to make an easy homemade ham gravy recipe, made last minute with leftover ham drippings. This gravy makes a delicious side dish with ham, mashed potatoes, and all the fixings at your holiday or family dinner!
Homemade ham gravy (like its counterpart turkey gravy) is a staple side dish whenever we cook a ham in the oven, which is mostly on holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter. Family dinner and holiday dinners just wouldn’t be the same without gravy to smother over our sliced ham and mashed potatoes.
Now it's important to remember… The main flavoring for ham gravy comes directly from the ham itself. So if you glaze your ham, like with a brown sugar glaze or something like this sweet pineapple honey baked ham, the sweet flavoring from the glazed ham will go into your gravy for ham, and the end result will be a sweet gravy.
It's so easy to make homemade gravy, and it's super quick too. It's delicious and definitely worth the minimal effort.
Why You'll Love Knowing How to Make Ham Gravy
There are a lot of reasons to love this delicious gravy recipe…
- It's an easy condiment to make, takes less than 30 minutes to make, and it's something you can make last minute just before serving the main meal.
- It takes a very minimal amount of ingredients to make gammon gravy. In fact, they're all pretty simple, and you likely already have them on hand.
- It's a delicious ham gravy!
- Ham gravy is so versatile and can be used in so many delicious ways. Not only does it complement a ham dinner, but it makes a very tasty addition to your next baked potato bar or mashed potato bar, as well as a tasty dip for leftover ham crescent rolls. And you can use it in place of brown gravy or chicken gravy in a mashed potato bowl.
- It's a fantastic addition to your holiday dinner spread. I’ve added this ham gravy recipe with drippings to my collections of favorite Thanksgiving recipes, Christmas recipes, and Easter dinner recipes, where you’ll find all the holiday inspiration you need in one place.
Ingredients and Substitutions Notes
You'll need just a handful of ingredients to make gravy for gammon (or ham). While you should have most of the ingredients on hand, you'll likely need to purchase a ham at the grocery store, in order to have leftover ham drippings.
- All-Purpose Flour – I prefer to use an unbleached all-purpose flour; you can also use a good gluten-free flour, although it's important to note that gravy made with gluten-free flour doesn't stay thick as long as with regular flour… In other words, it won't store well. If you need a good gluten-free ham gravy alternative, ham gravy with cornstarch is just the thing.
- Heavy Cream – You can skim heavy cream off of raw milk, or you can use store bought heavy whipping cream.
- Ham Drippings – You can scoop the ham juices and pan drippings from the roasting pan after baking a spiral ham, bone-in whole ham, or boneless ham. You should have enough drippings to at least make a small batch of homemade gravy. These leftover ham drippings will likely give you all the delicious flavor you need without any extra seasoning, salt, or black pepper. If you don't have any ham drippings, you can always use ham broth made from bouillon to make ham gravy.
- Water
How to Make This Old-Fashioned Ham Gravy Recipe
Making this easy gravy for ham is actually really simple, but there are a few tips and tricks that will ensure you make a really good gravy from ham drippings.
How to Avoid Lumpy Gravy
Before we get started, here are 3 tips for preventing lumpy gravy…
- It's important to start with a roux, and you do this by mixing together the flour and heavy whipping cream in a small mixing bowl or glass measuring cup. Whisking this together in the beginning will help prevent lumps in your gravy.
- Use a whisk to stir your gravy while it's cooking. It’s pretty much a given that you may have a few lumps, but you can minimize them by whisking the gravy.
- Take your time to avoid any lumps in your gravy. To me, this right here is the secret to good gravy… Patience and being willing to take your time. Work on medium-low heat, and don't get in a hurry, and you'll make a good gravy.
Now Let's Make Ham Gravy
- Mix together the flour and heavy whipping cream in a small mixing bowl or glass measuring cup.
- Gradually whisk together the flour/cream mixture with the pan drippings in a large saucepan or skillet on medium heat.
- Add in the water.
- Continue whisking and stirring the gravy until it begins to thicken and is ready to serve.
Then just pour the gravy into a gravy boat, and serve it with ham, mashed potatoes, and all the fixin's! It will add such a rich flavor to your mashed potatoes, you'll wish you had that ham flavor the next time you eat potatoes.
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQ's
The answer to this will really depend on the consistency of your gravy. When we make this recipe, we usually have a lot of leftover gravy. You want to plan on about 1/3 to 1/2 cup per person, again depending on how thick your gravy is.
Store leftover gravy in an airtight container in the fridge; it should keep for about 3-4 days. You can re-heat gravy by placing it in the microwave in a microwave-safe dish for a few minutes, stirring between every 30-second increments of time, 'til heated through; or put the gravy in a saucepan, and heat it up over low to medium heat on the stove, constantly stirring so it doesn't scorch.
Yes, you can. Just be sure to put it in an airtight freezer-friendly container, so it doesn't get freezer burn. It should keep for about 4 to 6 months.
More Side Dish Recipes to Serve with Ham Dinner
Whenever we make a ham dinner or turkey dinner, we usually serve it with sides like Instant Pot southern green beans, honey glazed carrots, or Jiffy corn casserole. Of course, homemade cranberry sauce is a must at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
If it's more gravy recipes you're looking for, Moscato Mom has a delicious recipe for slow cooker short ribs with gravy (also a keto recipe). And 918 Plate has a very yummy recipe for jumbo drop biscuits with brown butter gravy.
If you try this recipe, why not leave a star rating in the recipe card right below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page? I always appreciate your feedback. You can also follow me on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And subscribe to my email list too!
Ham Gravy Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups ham drippings
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Mix together the flour and heavy cream in a small mixing bowl or glass measuring cup.
- Gradually whisk together the flour/cream mixture with the pan drippings in a large saucepan or skillet on medium heat.
- Add in the water.
- Continue whisking and stirring the gravy until it begins to thicken and is ready to serve.
I use pineapples and juice to cook my ham in. This makes one of most delicious gravies ever. Keeps the ham moist and adds a tang/sweet to the gravy. Also, add some of the broth from cooking in the gravy instead of all the water. Might give it a try, it really is delicious.
That’s a great idea, Gayle! Pineapple and ham do go very well together.
We did not like this at all. I’ve never used heavy whipping cream in a gravy. I cooked the ham in a cooking bag and had lots of good drippings. The gravy had a weird consistency and was bland. I glazed the ham after pouring the juices off, so it wasn’t that. It was smooth though. Thanks for sharing.
I’m sorry you didn’t like it, Dee. We’ve always loved this recipe, but it does have a different texture that some people may not prefer.
I love ham gravy!! I don’t typically use cream. I use water from my potatoes (I do this with all gravy) and then just flour and cold water for the thickener. I am going to try yours with the cream! Thanks for sharing!!!
Thank you! That’s a great tip, using water from the potatoes.
Love ham gravy. This is the first time I’ve made it in years.So glad I DID it turned out so good and just heavenly on mashed potatoes! Thanks for sharing this recipe which will be a new old tradition at my table when a ham is cooked,!
Thank you so much, Patricia! I’m so glad you enjoyed the gravy.
I am living in New Mexico, transplanted from Minnesota. I grew up with my mom making ham gravy during the holidays. I was craving it this year, so made it for the first time on my own. My boyfriend, also a Minnesotan, had never even heard of ham gravy (oh, the horror!). I thought it was a Midwest thing, but after asking several people, it seems the general consensus is that not a lot of people have heard of it. I’m glad your sharing this recipe with the Pinterest world ☺️
Heidi, I had no idea it wasn’t a thing… Although, now that I think about it, I guess I don’t really remember making ham gravy all that much until I met my husband. He was used to having it every Christmas and Easter. Very interesting! Thank you, and I’m glad my recipe was able to help you bring back that holiday tradition.
This is so funny, I was just telling somebody at work about ham gravy. My mother always made it, and I love it . Only to avoid all lamps I always use cornstarch and water for my gravy never never never flour give it a try. This goes for any gravy. Not only do you have always a lump free and silky gravy, but you always maintain the color of the meat beef is brown poultry is blonde and so on. Using flour seems to always make it lighter in color. And I consider myself a gravy queen LOL.
Paty, all great tips! Thank you! We actually tried making it with cornstarch this year so it could be gluten-free, and it was delicious that way too.
Do you use the same amount of cornstarch as flour?
A general rule of thumb is to use 1 tablespoon of cornstarch for every 2 tablespoons of flour listed in the recipe.
Could I use half and half instead of heavy whipping cream and have it come out good?
Marie, you can. You may need a bit more thickener, but it should work just fine.
I came across a bit of a hint many years ago,in which you cook the ham(or rather bring it up to temp.) And instead of the normal glaze you can use apple juice. The amount of juice depends on how much gravy you want,if not sweet enough add just a touch of maple syrup. Hoping you enjoy this.
Andrew, that is a very interesting idea. I love the idea of apple juice. I bet that lends to a really delicious ham. Thank you for sharing!
If you don’t have that much in ham drippings is there anything you can do?
Dianne, you can cut the recipe down. You could also substitute bacon grease… Or you could add more water or milk to make up for the lack of drippings. I hope this helps!
When heating the ham in the oven, do I add two cups of water to the baking pan, and is that then considered the drippings? Otherwise, how do you get 2 cups of drippings from the ham, especially if it not a huge ham, and only about 10 pounds? Thank you! Linda
Linda, the ham will have its own juice, but we add water for steam and to keep the drippings from drying out. Generally, after cooking, the water will have evaporated and most of what is left is drippings. So add water, let the ham drip while cooking and let those drippings cook down, and then you’ll be able to use what’s left. It should still be close to 2 cups.
Really loved this recipe. This is the closest gravy I can find to my granny’s gravy. She never measured anything and she never wrote her recipes down so I’ve been looking for a recipe like this for years thank you so much enjoy the holidays!
That’s awesome! Thanks for trying the recipe.
Wow! Am so happy I came across this recipe – amazing! Had guests asking for the recipe. Thank you for sharing!
Kara, thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed the gravy!
Simply amazing! I have never really worked with ham stock/drippings before and did not want to wast that much (I cooked 25lbs of ham this morning!). This recipe looked easy and did not require a metric ton of exotic ingredients so I tried it. Best gravy EVER!
Thank you. You are in my Evernote!
Carla
Ps. Just as an aside, I rendered the bones as I was cooking the meat and other things and used the stock from it to cook rice for breakfast tomorrow. just about everything got used!
Carla, thank you so much! And now I’m craving ham. Sounds like a delicious breakfast too.