Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
I love good, old-fashioned biscuits and gravy. I get asked to make this at least once a month, if not more. I’ve become a regular pro at churning out fresh biscuits and gravy!
No one makes it like my Grandma Betty though! No matter how much I try, I can’t get my gravy to turn out like hers…
But this recipe does come in at a close second.
I take the easy way and use sausage with drippings to make the gravy come together really quickly and easily. The biscuits don’t take a ton of effort to throw together either and the buttermilk gives them an amazing flavor.
Consider this for a Sunday breakfast or brunch, or if you have a craving for breakfast for dinner.
Let’s get into it.
Easy Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
Recipe credits to Family Food on the Table and me.
Time commitment:
Prep - 15 minutes
Cooking time - 45ish minutes
Cooling time - 5-10 minutes
Ready in as little as an hour!
Equipment list:
Serving spoon
Cooking spoon (wooden if using cast iron pan, silicone if using other kind of pan)
Mixing bowl
Tablespoon
1/2 teaspoon (or use 1/2 of one)
Teaspoon
1 cup measuring cup
Biscuit cutter or something round to make biscuit shapes
Baking sheet
Cast iron skillet or frying pan
Oven
Stovetop
Ingredients:
For the biscuits:
3 cups flour (plain)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup cold butter (cut into small pieces and placed in the freezer)
1 large egg
1 cup cold buttermilk (or regular milk)
3 tablespoons melted butter (optional, to brush on top of cooked biscuits)
For the gravy:
1 pound breakfast sausage, regular, hot, or maple (maple is the best, in my opinion)
1-3 tablespoons flour (plain)
2-3 cups milk (full fat is the best but you can use any, don’t recommend this with non-dairy milks)
Cooking steps:
Gather all your equipment and ingredients. Preheat your oven to 450F and your skillet to medium heat. Cut 3/4 cup butter into small pieces and place in the freezer to stay cold.
Start frying the sausage to give it time to cook while you prep the biscuits.
While breaking up the sausage and keeping an eye on it to brown, mix in a bowl 3 cups flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 4 teaspoons baking powder.
Using your hands, a pastry cutter, or two knives, work the butter into the dry mix.
TIP: Some small lumps of butter are good, but you want the mix to look like coarse crumbs or cornmeal. It will be thicker and not as thin as regular flour.
Check on the sausage! Make sure it’s broken up into pieces and is nearly browned.
Add 1 large egg and 1 cup cold buttermilk to the butter/flour mix. Stir until just combined!
TIP: It’s okay to have some bits of dry mix; we’ll fix that in the next step. The important thing to remember is that you do NOT want to overwork the dough at this stage. That keeps the biscuits from getting the proper rise.
Lightly flour your countertop and dump the dough onto it. Knead the dough 5-6 times until the dry bits are incorporated and the dough is smoother.
TIP: Kneading is easy; just turn the dough in on itself a few times, rotating 90 degrees until you have 5-6 turns.
Now, check on the sausage again. At this point it should be done, so you can stir in 1-3 tablespoons of flour.
TIP: The amount of flour will vary based on how many drippings you have. Typically I don’t get a lot of drippings so I do 2 tablespoons of flour.
Cook the sausage and flour for a few minutes.
TIP: We do this to cook the flour taste out and give it that real gravy taste. Plus the sausage can get a little crispier, if you like that flavor/texture.
Once the sausage is more browned and the flour has cooked down, whisk in 1 cup of milk. Be sure to scrape along the bottom of the pan to get any burned bits of flour or sausage up.
Stir in another cup of milk and then check the consistency of the gravy. If you feel like it may be too thick, add another cup of milk. If you think it’ll be too thin, cook it longer.
TIP: I like a thicker gravy, so only use a couple cups of milk. If you’re making for a crowd or you like thinner gravy, get loosey-goosey with the milk and do upwards of 3-4 cups. Just be sure to cook the mix down if it’s way too thin.
Leave the gravy to cook, coming back to stir occasionally, and make sure it’s not cooking too fast. Keep the heat on medium-low.
Now back to the dough; pat the dough into a round circle about an inch thick on the countertop. Cut the biscuits using a biscuit cutter or something else round (like a mason jar lid sprayed with cooking spray). Repeat this, carefully patting the scraps together, until all dough is used.
TIP: You’ll inevitably end up with one misshapen biscuit. I always have one that’s the last of the dough that is so beaten up I can’t get it to cooperate into a nice round shape.
TIP 2: You can easily get 12-16 biscuits from this mix if you make medium to smaller sized shapes.
Place the biscuits next to each other on the baking sheet, with just a tiny bit of space in between.
TIP: Letting the biscuits sit close to each other helps them rise higher! They have less room to expand in the oven.
Cook the biscuits at 450F for about 12 minutes, or until they turn golden brown.
TIP: Turn the pan from one rack to another (bottom to top, for example) or just turn it around so the back is now the front to get a more even cooking.
TIP 2: At this point, make sure your melted butter is ready, if using. Put it in a microwave-safe container with a wet towel or paper towel over the top and melt for 20 seconds or so. Or do it like I do, and have your butter sitting in a non-meltable container on top of your stove. It’ll be melted by the time the biscuits are done from the heat rising.
While the biscuits cook, keep stirring your gravy every so often to avoid overcooking and sticking to the pan.
To know if your gravy is done, check its consistency. If it feels right, it’s probably done. If you think it’s too thin, keep cooking. This could take as little as 15 minutes but upwards of 45. Just be patient!
When the biscuits are finished, top with melted butter (optional but adds more flavor).
Serve warm biscuits with slightly cooled gravy and wow everyone with your homemade meal!
