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.
DELICIOUSLY EASY!!!
Thank You, Kimberly! I’m glad you liked it.
This did the trick and hit the spot. I started with about a Tbs of bacon drippins, 1 3/4 cup ham drippins (all we had) powdered milk and powered heavy cream, then followed the recipe. There is enough remaining for any leftovers and I’m thinkin’ even some for buttermilk biscuits n gravy. Thanks
Thanks for the trying the recipe, Richard! I’m glad you liked it.
My house is gluten free so I used cornstarch Threw a little spin on it with spaces My family enjoyed it
That’s awesome, Cindy! I’m so glad your family liked it.
I started making ham gravy years ago my family loves it
Difference in mine i use pineapple slices for the last 30 minutes of cooking time and use the pineapple juice to cover the ham from this comes the gravy base I prefer cornstarch always add cold water to dissolve it the sweet from the pineapple makes the gravy gravy sooo good
Honestly I didn’t know anyone actually made ham gravy obviously I don’t get out much
Thanks for Sharing
P.S. no lumps whisking solves that
Thanks for the info, Emma. That all sounds great.
This is bad gravy. Not lumpy just tasted bad. I also luckily made Pioneer Country Gravy which is what we ended up eating.
Sara, that’s so weird. It’s always been a hit with our family. What about it did you not like?
Can I use milk instead of cream? I’ve never used cream in any of my gravies.
I had found a recipe similar to this one that called for whole milk but it stated you could also use chicken broth if you didn’t have any milk. If you use milk the gravy will look more like a white country gravy.
I put milk in my ham gravy today and it was good
Yes, Shari, that’s fine. Sometimes we just prefer the cream.
I would inject Ham Gravy intravenously if I could. I’ve always went the corn starch route, but this seems like it might stretch it a bit.
How do you get 2 cups of drippings? I don’t think I ever had even 1 cup.
What kind of ham did you use? Some hams are drier than others.
I had been searching for a gravy recipe that had exact measurements of the ingredients. My mother makes amazing gravy but she doesn’t measure anything so I was having a hard time replicating it. I was searching on Pinterest and came across this recipe. At first I thought – Heavy Whipping Cream? But, then I thought what can it hurt to try it. If you can add more butter or heavy whipping cream to almost anything it makes it better! So, I made it and the only thing I did differently was that I used 3 cups of the ham drippings and I didn’t add the water (since I had it and wouldn’t want to waste that precious juice). It was amazing! I received lots of compliments. My gravy did turn out lighter in color than the pictures and video but it didn’t lack in the flavor department. I think part of that may have been due to the whipping cream and part due to the fact that my juices were lighter in color (possibly because we don’t bake our hams). I don’t know if anyone else does this, but we cook our hams on the stove top in a large covered pot. We add about 1/2 inch to 1 inch of water in the bottom. No seasonings whatsoever. A good ham doesn’t need anything else. We bring the water to a boil then turn down to low and simmer the ham on the stove for 3-4 hours. We buy a Frick’s brand butt portion ham – https://fricksqualitymeats.com/our-meats/bone-portion-ham/ If you can’t find this brand then I’m sure any pre-cooked, bone in, butt portion ham would work. Cooking the ham this way makes the most tender, juicy, fall off the bone ham you can imagine. Our family doesn’t like the spiral cut hams but I’m sure they could be cooked the same way. Thank you for posting this recipe – it takes a little stress off knowing that I have a recipe I can count on!
That’s great, Kathy! We all love this ham gravy. I’m so glad that you and your family were able to enjoy the recipe as much as we do.
Making a ham instead of turkey for the first time this Christmas. I’m going to try this method for cooking the ham. Hams can be quite dry when oven roasted, this sounds like a great idea!
Hey! Quick question I’m planning on making this for Easter and was wondering do you include the rendered fat in the drippings when measuring the 2 cups? Or do you skim the fat off? Thanks!
If really fatty I’d skim, but if you aren’t concerned about the fat then you could leave it. I think it’s a personal preference!
This is true. I never do skim it personally.