Biscuits & Gravy

In my book, an ideal Saturday morning starts with biscuits and gravy. Homemade, buttery biscuits pooling with peppery sausage gravy is hard to beat, and honestly, I'm not interested in trying. Topped with thick sausage gravy, our biscuits are wonderfully crispy on the outside, making each bite truly perfect. Want to know my best tips to make this breakfast classic? Read on:

What People Are Saying:
“These biscuits are SO good. I love how crispy they get on the outside. Goes so well with the gravy.” - joc2992

How To Make Biscuits & Gravy

INGREDIENTS

Biscuits

• All-Purpose Flour: My top tip for making biscuits? Don’t overwork the flour. If you do, your biscuits will become tough and gummy instead of butter with flaky layers.
• Baking Powder: Baking powder will ensure these biscuits are not too dense, and have flaky, tender layers.
• Sugar: Adding some sugar to the biscuit dough won’t make the biscuits sweet, but will help to flavor the biscuits and balance them out.
• Kosher Salt: I’m using kosher salt, so make sure to keep that in mind if you use another type of salt.
• Butter: You want your unsalted butter to be cold. When I say cold, I mean COLD. About 30 minutes before you plan to make your biscuits, pop a stick of butter in the freezer. For the perfect biscuit texture, I grate my butter into the flour (yes, with a cheese grater!), and cold butter ensures that it won’t melt while you work the dough with your hands. Grating the butter will also distribute the butter evenly, making lots of little pockets for it to melt while baking (in other words: extra fluffy biscuits).
• Buttermilk: Just like the butter, the buttermilk should be very cold before you add it to your dough. Don’t remove it from the fridge until you’re ready to use it.

Gravy

• Sausage: Breakfast sausage is the best kind to use for sausage gravy. It usually doesn’t come in casings, which makes things even easier. If you can only find some in casings, that still works! Just remove the casings by squeezing the sausage out. You also want to look for raw sausage, not patties or links that are precooked. If you can’t find breakfast sausage, sweet Italian sausage is a good substitute. It typically has different seasonings than breakfast, but is pretty similar. You might want to add more black pepper to your gravy to make up the difference!
• All-Purpose Flour & Milk: A white sausage gravy is traditional over biscuits. It uses the fat from the sausage and some flour to thicken the milk-based gravy, while a brown gravy, often served over mashed potatoes or with a Thanksgiving turkey, uses broth as the base.
• Cayenne Pepper: Just a bit of cayenne adds a welcome touch of heat. It won’t overpower the gravy, instead, it will tie all of our flavors together.
• Salt & Pepper: It’s important to note that I’m using kosher salt here. If you’re using another type of salt, your dish won’t taste the same. Make sure to taste and adjust the salt and pepper amounts in your gravy.
  

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

After preheating the oven to 425º, we’ll start off by making our homemade biscuits. First, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl until combined.

Then, grab a box grater. I know this may sound odd, but this is one of my favorite ways to break down cold butter into manageable pieces. Using the large holes of the box grater, grate the cold butter over the flour mixture, and quickly toss with your hands to incorporate (you don’t want the heat of your hands to warm up the butter too much). Tip: Make sure your butter is COLD before you grate it.

Then, make a well into the center of your mixture using a wooden spoon. Pour in the buttermilk, then give it a stir until the dough just starts to come together. Turn it out onto a work surface, and form the dough into a 1” thick rectangle. Now, we’ll fold. Starting with the short end of the rectangle, fold the dough into thirds (think of it like you’re folding a letter). Then grab your rolling pin, and gently pat the dough back to a 1”-thick rectangle. Repeat the entire process once more. Keep in mind that this isn’t the time to dilly dally—you need to work quickly so that the butter doesn’t melt.

After patting the dough back into a 1”-thick rectangle, cut it into 8 pieces using a very sharp knife. Transfer the pieces to a large parchment-lined baking sheet, making sure that each piece is spaced around ½” apart. Melt some butter, then brush the tops of the biscuits with it.

Bake the biscuits in your preheated oven until they are flaky and the tops are lightly golden. This should take around 20 to 22 minutes.

Once the biscuits are done, we can move onto making our gravy. In a medium skillet over medium heat, cook your sausage. While cooking, break it up into pieces with a wooden spoon. Cook until the pieces are no longer pink—this should take around 8 minutes.

Sprinkle in the flour and stir it to coat, then cook until fragrant. Then, slowly pour in the milk while you continue to whisk. Bring the entire mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer. Stir the mixture often, and simmer until it has thickened—around 5 to 7 minutes. Add the salt, cayenne, and plenty of black pepper, then stir to combine. Give it a taste, and season more as needed.

Break open the biscuits, spoon the gravy over, and top with more salt and pepper as you desire.

The full list of ingredients and instructions can be found in the recipe below.

Recipe Tips

• Double the gravy. This recipe can easily be doubled to make enough for a big group. Keep in mind that the gravy will take a few more minutes to thicken with the bigger batch.
• The biscuits. It isn’t crucial that the biscuits be homemade, but it does make the dish that much better. I've included a recipe for a simple, flaky biscuit that pairs perfectly with our homemade sausage gravy, but you can branch out. Make our buttermilk biscuits, drop biscuits, or sweet potato biscuits, or use canned biscuits in a pinch.

Biscuits & Gravy Variations

• Biscuits & Gravy Bake: This casserole-style breakfast is the perfect solution when you need to serve a crowd.
• Biscuits & Gravy Pie: The only thing that could possibly rival biscuits? A flaky pie crust.
• Biscuits & Gravy Ring: If you’re looking for an easy way to serve this breakfast classic to a crowd, then turn to this biscuits and gravy ring, which uses refrigerated biscuit dough.

Make Ahead & Storage

Like most baked goods, biscuits are best still warm from the oven, but these can be made and kept frozen for up to 3 months before baking. When you’re ready for a fresh biscuit, bake it straight from frozen. You will likely need to add on a couple extra minutes to the bake time.

The gravy can be prepared and kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat it in a saucepan on the stove slowly while stirring. If your gravy is thicker than you like it after reheating, add a little bit of milk to loosen it back up.