Red Wine Onion Gravy (Rich & Easy!)

Rich red wine gravy made with sweet caramelized onions and beef stock. No meat drippings needed! Perfect with roast beef, mashed potatoes or holiday dinners.

I’ve always believed a good gravy can make or break a dinner. I’ve tweaked this red wine onion gravy many times over the years to get it perfect. It’s rich, glossy and packed with flavour, whilst only requiring a handful of simple ingredients. It’s the kind of gravy that makes you want to mop up every last drop! Follow me…

Ingredient Notes

The great thing about this gravy is that you don’t need meat drippings to make it. I wanted to create a reliable, go-to gravy that you could make from scratch, whether you’ve got a roast in the oven or not. It also uses just a handful of simple ingredients! You’ll find the full quantities in the recipe card, but here are a few quick notes on each one:

• Red Wine – You don’t need anything fancy or expensive, and you certainly don’t need a whole bottle. So long as it’s dry, not sweet.
• Onion – I prefer red onion, but white onion works too. I recommend thinly slicing rather than finely dicing so you get some lovely texture throughout the gravy.
• Butter – For cooking the onions and helping thicken the gravy.
• Flour – Plain/all-purpose flour combines with the butter to form a roux, which thickens the gravy.
• Beef Stock – This makes up the bulk of the gravy, so use a good-quality stock for the best flavour.
• Worcestershire Sauce – Adds a lovely savoury depth of flavour.
• Redcurrant Jelly – I love how this adds a subtle fruity sweetness that pairs beautifully with the red wine and helps balance its sharpness. If you can’t find it, grape jelly is a good substitute (start with less and work up as it’s a little sweeter).

Tips for making the gravy

The gravy is incredibly easy to make. Over the years I’ve picked up a few tips that really make the difference:

• Don’t rush the onions – Cooking the onions low and slow until they’re properly caramelized gives the gravy a lovely depth of flavour and natural sweetness.
• Add the stock gradually – Slowly whisking in the stock will loosen everything up and help prevent lumps.
• Get the consistency right – The gravy will thicken as it simmers, but remember it’ll thicken further as it cools. If it gets too thick, just stir in a splash more stock. If it’s too thin, let it simmer a little longer.

Process shots: fry onions in butter (photo 1), add butter (photo 2), stir in flour (photo 3), stir in wine (photo 4), whisk in stock, Worcestershire sauce and jelly (photo 5), simmer (photo 6).

Serving Suggestions

There are so many ways in which you could serve this gravy, but here are my absolute favourites:

• Roast Beef or Lamb
• Bangers and Mash
• Thanksgiving, Christmas or a regular Sunday Dinner
• Sausage Schnitzel
• Extra gravy for a Cottage Pie (or Shepherd’s Pie)
• Steak

Looking for another homemade gravy without drippings? Check out my All Purpose Homemade Gravy!

Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this red wine onion gravy shall we?

How to make Red Wine Onion Gravy (Full Recipe & Video)

4.75 from 12 votes

Red Wine Onion Gravy

By: Chris Collins

Rich red wine gravy made with sweet caramelized onions and beef stock. No meat drippings needed! Perfect with roast beef, mashed potatoes or holiday dinners.

Prep: 5 minutes mins

Cook: 40 minutes mins

Total: 45 minutes mins

Servings: 4

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Equipment

• Sharp Knife & Chopping Board (for onions)
• Medium Sized Pot or Pan with Wooden Spoon
• Jug (for stock)

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 2 tbsp / 30g Butter
• ▢ 1 large Red Onion, peeled & sliced (weight of whole onion approx 7oz/200g)
• ▢ 2 tbsp All Purpose/Plain Flour
• ▢ 1/3 cup / 80ml Dry Red Wine (see notes)
• ▢ 2 cups / 500ml good-quality Beef Stock
• ▢ 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• ▢ 1 tsp Red Currant Jelly (see notes)
• ▢ Salt & Pepper, to taste

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions 

• Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and fry until softened and starting to pick up colour, then turn the heat down to medium-low and fry until soft, sticky and caramelized, around 30 minutes. The lower and slower you fry the onion, the more it will caramelize and the sweeter it will be.
• Melt in the remaining tablespoon of butter, then stir in the flour until a roux forms. Stir in the wine, then slowly stir in the beef stock, whisking as you go to ensure no lumps form. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and redcurrant jelly.
• Allow to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the gravy reaches your desired thickness. It will thicken, just keep simmering away (typically 10-15 minutes). Take into consideration that the gravy will thicken more as it cools. Check for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper, then serve and enjoy!

Video

Notes

a) Drippings – If you cooked meat in the pan, something like steak or sausages, I recommend just starting straight from there and frying the onions in the fat (around 1 tbsp fat should suffice). If you’ve cooked a larger piece of beef in the oven and have a considerable amount of drippings, then simply skim the fat and replace the butter with that. You can then replace some of the stock with the meat drippings.

b) Red Wine – I usually go for something like a Merlot, nothing fancy. In all cases just make sure it’s dry wine, NOT sweet!

c) Sweetness – The caramelization of the onion will provide a good amount of sweetness to balance out the sharp tones of the wine and the saltiness of the butter and stock. The redcurrant jelly helps with this and pairs gorgeously with the beef stock/wine.

d) Make Ahead – Allow the gravy to cool then tightly cover in the fridge (2-3 days). Reheat on the stove on a low heat, gently stirring as you go to ensure the gravy doesn’t split. You can also reheat in short blasts in the microwave, stirring in between. If you didn’t have drippings when making this ahead of time, but do now, just stir through the drippings after you’ve cooked the meat (fat skimmed) for an extra depth of flavour.

e) Updated recipe – halved the Worcestershire to 1/2 tbsp and double the redcurrant jelly to 1 tsp. Also added another tbsp butter and flour, to help thicken the gravy quicker.

f) Cookbook – As one of my most loved and most popular recipes, I had to include this in my Debut Cookbook ‘Comfy’!

g) Calories – Based on a division of 4:

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Nutrition

Calories: 99kcal | Carbohydrates: 7.49g | Protein: 0.9g | Fat: 5.84g | Saturated Fat: 3.669g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.239g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1.501g | Trans Fat: 0.233g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 69mg | Potassium: 104mg | Fiber: 0.8g | Sugar: 1.98g | Vitamin A: 180IU | Vitamin C: 3.3mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 0.47mg

Looking for more?

You’ll find plenty more delicious comfort food like this in my Debut Cookbook ‘Comfy’