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Biscuits and Gravy
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- Total Time
- 40 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2¾cups/340 grams all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1teaspoon salt
- 1cup/240 milliliters buttermilk, at room temperature
- 1(5.3-ounce) container full-fat Greek yogurt, at room temperature
- ½cup/112 grams salted butter, melted, plus more as needed
- 12ounces raw breakfast sausage, casings removed
- 1small yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2large garlic cloves, grated or chopped
- 3tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1cup unsalted chicken stock
- 1small bay leaf
- 2cups whole milk
- 1½teaspoons black pepper, preferably freshly cracked
- ½teaspoon ground sweet paprika
- ¼teaspoon ground cayenne, plus more to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
- 2tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage (from about 8 leaves)
- Salt, to taste
For the Biscuits
For the Sausage Gravy
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 450 degrees.
- Step 2
Prepare the biscuits: In a medium bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix together buttermilk and yogurt, add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
- Step 3
Pour melted butter into an 8-inch glass baking dish and place dough on top of melted butter. Using your hands, spread dough evenly across the dish until it touches the sides. (If the dough starts to stick to your fingers, use a little butter on your fingertips to keep it from sticking.)
- Step 4
Run a knife through the dough to score 9 equal squares. Bake until golden brown at the bottom, 20 to 25 minutes. Brush with more butter on top and set aside.
- Step 5
While the biscuits bake, make the sausage gravy: Heat a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook until browned, about 10 minutes, stirring and breaking up any large pieces with a wooden spoon or spatula.
- Step 6
Add the onion to the skillet and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Step 7
Stir the flour into the sausage mixture and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly, until it blends into the sausage fat. (You want to make sure it’s cooked enough that the flour taste goes away, but not so cooked that it’s toasted.)
- Step 8
Slowly add the chicken stock and bay leaf, stirring the sausage mixture until combined. Continue cooking for about 3 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Step 9
Add the milk and continue stirring. When the gravy begins to simmer, lower the heat to medium-low and cook for 7 minutes, stirring often, until thickened.
- Step 10
Add black pepper, paprika, cayenne and nutmeg (if using); stir to mix well. Add parsley and sage. Remove the bay leaf. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Step 11
Remove the cooked biscuits by cutting them along the scoring lines and using a spatula to pop them out. Slice the biscuits to split them horizontally, then serve the sausage gravy over the open halves.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I learned this method from my husband's Aunt Louise in W. Va. who melts a stick of butter in the baking pan while the oven preheats, stirs together some cream biscuits (cream + self-rising flour), then bakes them as above. I think the water content in the butter prevents the biscuits from frying. Also, because the dough isn't kneaded, folded, patted out, and cut, gluten doesn't have a chance to form, so the biscuits are very tender, almost cake-like.
How it’s made in my corner of the world: brown a pound of hot Jimmy Dean sausage. Sprinkle with flour - more if you are feeding a lot of people, less (probably around three tablespoons). Stir until bubbly but not browning, like a very light roux. Add whole milk, proportionate to the amount of flour you’ve added, my family has successfully used up to half a gallon. If you’ve made a larger amount you may need to add more salt and pepper. Biscuits are regular baking powder biscuits.
Does the bottom not fry with that intense heat and all that butter? Can anyone share their experience making this? I am intrigued but a bit skeptical. Thanks in advance.
This recipe is a keeper!!! I made it vegetarian with vegetarian sausage and oat milk and it turned out AMAZING!! My only qualm is the biscuit dough required a splash (maybe 2tbs) more buttermilk to hold together enough to pat it into the pan. I wonder if there’s something off in the recipe? With the called for amounts the dough was way too shaggy and dry to do anything with. With the extra buttermilk it held into a sturdy dough. The biscuits turned out fluffy inside and CRISPY outside! Perfect!
Is it possible that by not using the 8 TBSP of butter, the biscuits turned out "gluey and unpleasant"?
I have made the biscuits 4 times already since I read this recipe. The gravy is on my list but waiting for a big breakfast crowd since I am sure my husband would eat it all and then regret it! My only recommendation is that the warming of the buttermilk and yoghurt to room temperature seems key as well as a definitive separation of the biscuits before cooking. I have made a double recipe in a 13X9 pan and that comes out well. Glass works best. And they freeze very well!
The gravy part of this recipe is needlessly complicated and not what you'll find down South (if that matters). I brown Jimmy Dean or Neese Sage sausage. If there is insufficient fat, I melt in a TBS of bacon grease (adds smokiness, not just fat), then shake flour onto the browned sausage. I add half and half in equal proportion to 2% milk after the roux is golden. A few fresh grinds of pepper, a pinch of salt, a tiny grind of nutmeg. Yes, fatty, but delish.
I think the directions should be changed to start the gravy first, instead of the biscuits, because it takes longer to make the gravy.
Made as written. My first time making biscuits and gravy, and it turned out so good! Fairly simple to make too. I'll be making this again.
I thought these were absolutely delicious. I love the way. The biscuits cooks surrounded by the melted butter. Almost deep-fried. I prefer to make my own ground sausage from ground pork and spices. Then I have much more control of the flavoring. Also can dramatically decrease the salt. Just make sure to use some ground Fennel makes all the difference
Tried this biscuit recipe and it turned out dense and chewy. There was so much butter. I returned to my granny's recipe with frozen butter and the least amount of mixing possible. Gravy also was too complicated. I never imagined using onions and garlic in my gravy and I won't do it again. Biscuits and gravy should be simple and quick. This was a fail.
ABSOLUTELY NOT BUISCUITS!!!! We were intrugued by the instructions and followed them to a T. It works, but these aren't buiscuits. My husband and his family are from the south and they've been making buiscuits and gravy for literally generations (talking well over a hundred years). These biscuits are more a cake with a hard crunchy shell, very chewy. It's tasty, but I think better suited to some sort of cake/muffin recipe.
Great advice to start the gravy first. This is wonderful!
Made this recipe with the fake meat- breakfast spicy sausage. Wasn’t vegan. But still fantastic ** chefs kiss **
Made the gravy but used the White Lily and then Sam Sifton’s biscuit recipes instead. The gravy was one of the most flavorful things I’ve ever eaten. I actually saved and smeared on split toasted leftover biscuits as a kind of egg sandwich butter for a few days afterwards, because it was too tasty (and used too many good ingredients!) to toss any leftovers. Since I was disappointed in my biscuits in both cases, one day I’ll be willing to put in the effort to try these.
I'm an avid baker, and curiosity got the best of me and I had to try this recipe. This is a far cry from biscuits. I realize the recipe confesses to being unorthodox, so perhaps I should've adjusted my expectations more, but it really didn't resemble biscuits at all. I think it's faster and yields better results if you just make biscuits the old fashioned way (cutting butter into the flour, rolling out the dough, etc). Lesson learned. The sausage gravy is good, though.
I've spoken with relatives from Tallahassee to El Paso. Not a single one has ever poached the biscuits in butter. I found the biscuits the most vile disgusting things I've ever had to eat. I love the gravy. But it's not enough to save this recipe. I will keep the gravy recipe and use the rest of the biscuits as boat anchors.
Gravy is great. Biscuit needs more specification on how much to mix . Ours came out doughy and tough and we essentially poached in butter - burnt on sides and raw in the middle
The biscuits were both gluey and greasy - really the worst I think I’ve ever made. The gravy turned out well but I skipped the paprika and nutmeg, sticking with the sage spices in the sausage, along with the pepper.
Halved the biscuit recipe since I didn’t have enough flour and used smaller baking dish. Biscuits turned out hard. Will have to try again following recipe as written. This review is for the sausage gravy. Agree with another review about it being needlessly complicated. I meant to use Sam Sifton’s sausage gravy recipe but this one showed up in my search. I’ll be going back to that simpler and more delicious recipe.
I have no problem with the biscuits, but the gravy is a total wreck. Why all the spices? Nutmeg? Good grief! Chicken stock? Sausage gravy should be made with the drippings from cooking the sausage, into which the flour is stirred while the drippings are hot to cook out the flour taste. Milk (or cream for a treat) is added and whisked in, stirring until the gravy is of the thickness you prefer. Most want it to be pourable. No spices, no herbs other than what are in the sausage.
This sausage recipe is SO good. I rarely make the biscuit recipe, but really love the sausage portion (we usually just use canned biscuits for ease in the morning). I do think this recipe uses way too many onions, though, and I'm an onion fan – I usually only use about 1/4 of an onion.
This was super tasty, and easier than expected, too! I'd caution others to add the black pepper to taste - mine ended up being a little more peppery than I intended
This is as close as I can get to uncle Fred’s awesomely delicious biscuits and gravy. The recipe for the biscuits in this is Good. I did not change anything. For the gravy I did not use onion or garlic or Bayleaf or black pepper or paprika or cayenne or nutmeg or parsley or sage a lot of that was already in the sausage that we use. Just a straight up gravy with the sausage.
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