Southern Biscuits and Gravy

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This Southern Biscuits and Gravy is made with Sweet Maple Sausage. A maybe not so authentic recipe from a northerner that’s still tasty!

Southern Biscuits and Gravy

Is this traditional Southern Biscuits and Gravy? How am I supposed to know? {Hello? I’m a girl from Canada who happened to go to college in Idaho and then moved to Oregon.} I’ve been nowhere near Paula Deen, fried chicken, grits, collard greens, fried green tomatoes, or biscuits and gravy. But they did make an awesome lunch for us over the weekend. Flaky warm biscuits topped with a sweet, savory, creamy, and spicy gravy….basically heaven in my mouth. I’m a big fan of breakfast sausages dipped in maple syrup and pretty much any carb known to man, so these were right up my alley.

Main Ingredients Needed

Overall, Southern Biscuits and Gravy is pretty simple to make and takes less than an hour altogether. Here is everything you’ll need to make tall and puffy biscuits as well as the rich sausage gravy!

Biscuit Ingredients

• Flour – this fills out the biscuits.
• Baking Soda and Baking Powder – both are needed for the lift we are looking for.
• Salt and Sugar – salt to balance flavor and sugar to slightly sweeten.
• Milk and Half & Half – for moisture!
• Vinegar and Greek Yogurt – I had no buttermilk but wanted these to be a teensy bit tangy, so vinegar and yogurt was my brilliant way around that.
• Egg – an egg is used for the structure.
• Frozen Butter – I learned this trick from the wonderful Natalie. Smartest.Idea.EVER. Freezing your butter ensures flakey buttery biscuits.

Sausage Gravy Ingredients

• Olive Oil – you can also use butter or bacon grease instead of olive oil.
• Pureed Onion – I pureed my onion in a food processor, this is to get the flavor but not the texture of onions in your gravy.
• Breakfast Sausage – Use a breakfast sausage you LOVE! That’s the flavor you’re going to taste, so be sure it’s a great flavored one!
• Flour and Cayenne Pepper – to thicken and to add some spice.
• Milk and Half & Half – a mixture of both ensures the right amount of fat in this gravy. So creamy and good!
• Maple Syrup – If you’re not one to mix the sweet and savory, feel free to halve the maple syrup or omit it completely from the gravy.
• Salt and Pepper – balances out all of the sweet and savory flavors.

How to Make Tall Flakey Biscuits

Despite the number of steps, making tall and flakey biscuits for this Southern Biscuits and Gravy recipe isn’t that hard! For full details, see the recipe card down below.

1. For the biscuits, we’ll start out with the dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk all together to combine and set aside.
2. For the wet ingredients, we’re going to pour out some milk and half & half into a liquid measuring cup. Plop an egg into that milk along with a tad of greek yogurt and a splash of vinegar. Stir all these up and set aside. Be sure to get that egg mixed in really well!
3. Now comes the interesting and fun part. Take a FROZEN stick of butter and grate it!! And as a side note, you grate the butter as the last step because you want it to stay as cold as possible. Another side note: only grate 6 tablespoons and save the rest for later.
4. Now, we’re going to stir in the butter to get coated in the dry ingredients and then pour in all those wet ingredients we prepped earlier.
5. Stir the dough just until it starts coming together and then dump it out on a WELL FLOURED board.

6. Work the dough moving it all around to keep it from sticking and fold it over itself to create layers of dough. Biscuits turn into little pieces of heaven when they have flaky layers. Which reminds me–>I hope there are piping hot biscuits in heaven.

7. After 4 or 5 folds, roll the dough out to be about an inch thick.

8. Cut into cute little biscuits and bake.

9. After 12 minutes, take that leftover butter that we set aside, melt it and slather it over the tops of these big fat babies then pop them back into the oven to finish up.
10. 5-ish minutes later, they’re done! 🙂 Pouffy, buttery and delicious! Set these aside while we make the gravy!

How to Make Sausage Gravy

Now onto making the sausage gravy, the other half of Southern Biscuits and Gravy. Once again for full details see the recipe card down below.

1. Begin by heating some olive oil in a deep skillet.
2. Puree some onions in a little food chopper {or cut them as small as you can} and crack out the breakfast sausages.
3. Toss the onions and sausage into the hot skillet and cook until the sausage is no longer pink. As you go, be sure to break everything up into smaller pieces.
4. Sprinkle in some flour and cayenne pepper, stir to incorporate, and cook about a minute.
5. Pour in some half & half and some milk. After two minutes or so, the gravy should thicken. Splash in a little milk if you think it’s getting too thick.
6. Pour in the maple syrup along with some salt and pepper and that’s it.

Who else could bathe in this stuff? Just me? Ok.

Assembling Southern Biscuits and Gravy

To assemble Southern Biscuits and Gravy, simply crack open one of those warm biscuits, and top with a bunch of that sweet gravy then serve.

Storing Biscuits and Gravy

Store biscuits and gravy separately and then reheat and assemble when ready to serve again.

The biscuits can last at room temperature for up to 4 days while the gravy can spend the same amount of time in the fridge. Be sure to store in airtight containers.

Similar Recipes To Try!

• Biscuits and Gravy
• Butter Drop Biscuits
• Angel Biscuits
• Homemade Turkey Gravy Recipe

We LOVED this Southern Biscuits and Gravy recipe and think you totally will too!

The printable recipe card is below, enjoy 🙂

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4.34 from 6 votes

Southern Biscuits and Gravy

This Southern Biscuits and Gravy is made with Sweet Maple Sausage. A maybe not so authentic recipe from a northerner that's still tasty!

servings 6 servings

Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 12 minutes mins

Total Time 37 minutes mins

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

For the biscuits-

• ▢ 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour unbleached
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 2 tablespoons sugar
• ▢ 1/2 cup milk
• ▢ 1/2 cup half & half
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
• ▢ 1 egg
• ▢ 1 1/2 tablespoons greek yogurt
• ▢ 1/2 cup frozen butter divided

For the gravy-

• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 1/2 cup pureed onion 1 whole small
• ▢ 12 oz. package breakfast sausages use your favorite kind!!
• ▢ 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ▢ 3/4 cup half & half
• ▢ 1/2 cup milk
• ▢ 1/4 cup real maple syrup
• ▢ salt & pepper to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

For the biscuits--

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper and set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. In a liquid measuring cup stir together all the wet ingredients. Set aside.
• Grate 6 tablespoons of the frozen butter using a cheese grater. Place the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into a small bowl. Pour grated butter into dry ingredients and stir to coat. Pour in wet ingredients all at once and stir 3 or 4 strokes, just to start incorporating everything together.
• Pour biscuit dough onto a well-floured board and start moving the dough around so it doesn't stick and folding the dough in half over itself to create layers of dough. Do this 4 or 5 times, sprinkling more flour where needed. Roll dough out to be 1 inch thick and cut into 2-3 inch biscuits. You should get approximately 8 biscuits. Place on prepared baking sheet and bake 12 minutes.
• While biscuits are baking, melt remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. After the 12 minutes are up, remove biscuits from oven, brush the tops with melted butter and finish baking another 3-5 minutes, or until the tops are golden.

For the gravy--

• Saute pureed onion and breakfast sausage in large skillet over medium heat with olive oil until meat has browned completely. As the meat cooks, be sure to break apart into smaller pieces. Sprinkle in flour and cayenne pepper. Stir to moisten flour and cook 1 minute. Pour in milk and half & half. After a minute or two, gravy should start to thicken. Once it has thickened remove from heat, stir in maple syrup and salt & pepper to taste.
• To serve, split open warm biscuit and top with hot gravy.

Notes

Be sure to use a breakfast sausage you love! That is mostly what the gravy will taste like, so be sure to find a good brand. Also, this gravy is meant to be sweet. If you don't think you'd like the maple syrup addition, feel free to reduce the amount by half or omit it completely from this recipe.

Nutrition

Calories: 719kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 18g | Fat: 43g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Cholesterol: 131mg | Sodium: 1028mg | Potassium: 510mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 815IU | Vitamin C: 1.8mg | Calcium: 200mg | Iron: 3.5mg

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: Southern

Keyword: biscuits and gravy, southern biscuits and gravy