Biscuits and gravy are one of the most iconic Southern breakfast dishes. Have you ever wanted to make this delicious breakfast staple? Allow me to show you how with my biscuits and gravy recipe!
For this recipe, we will be using premade frozen biscuits. The gravy is the focus of this recipe, but in the future, we will be going over how to make homemade biscuits as well!
Ingredients:
- 1# ground breakfast sausage
- cup of milk
- 1/2 cup of flour
- salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp butter
- 6 frozen biscuits
How To Make Sausage Gravy
Before we get started on the gravy, go ahead and pop your biscuits in the oven. The gravy won’t take that long, and the biscuits can cook while it is being made. Efficiency is key when cooking.
For the gravy, start by adding your ground sausage to a pan on medium-high heat. Since this is gravy, make sure you have a pan with taller sides than a frying pan so the gravy doesn’t spill over. This nonstick model from T-Fal is dishwasher safe and has a 5-quart capacity. It would be perfect for biscuits and gravy.
Stir the sausage as it cooks to make sure it is cooking evenly. Season with salt and pepper.
Once the sausage is mostly cooked through, add in the tablespoon of butter. Next, sprinkle in the flour. Continue stirring the sausage while adding the flour so it incorporates evenly. It may not take the whole 1/2 cup of flour, it just depends on how fatty your sausage was. You don’t want it to get too dry.
After you have incorporated the flour, continue stirring for 1 to 2 minutes. The combination of fat from the sausage, butter, and flour is building a rue for the gravy. Sausage gravy is a white sauce, so it doesn’t have to cook long. We just want to cook out the raw flavor of the flour before moving on.
With the flour cooked in, we can now add the milk. Pour it in and start stirring. Continue to occasionally stir to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Once the gravy has thickened up, it is done! Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
Plating Biscuits And Gravy
For plating, most people just pour the gravy over the whole biscuit. But I prefer another method. My way extends the gravy coverage and maximizes its influence on the dish.
Before pouring the gravy, I like to cut my biscuit up first. This insures you get a good amount of gravy over the soft pillowy inside of the biscuit.
What Goes With Biscuits And Gravy?
As a breakfast staple, other popular breakfast foods pair well with biscuits and gravy. Since the dish contains biscuits, I generally try to avoid other carb-based dishes like pancakes, waffles, fried potatoes, or hashbrowns.
My go-to companions for biscuits and gravy are bacon and eggs. The crispy bacon is a nice contrast to the creamy gravy. The best way to cook bacon is in the oven. If you don’t want to crank up your oven for a couple of slices of bacon, consider an air fryer like the PowerXL or Aumate air fryer oven.
Eggs go well with most breakfast meals, and this one is no exception. Scrambled is my preferred cook on the eggs, and I love adding in onions and bell peppers for additional flavor.
Fried eggs also go well with biscuits and gravy. With something like grits, I like an over-easy egg so the yolk will run into the grits. I’m not fond of mixing the egg with sausage gravy, so I make sure my egg is cooked all the way through on this one.
Experiment with different sides until you find the ones you like best. Let me know what you discover in the comments down below!
Biscuits And Gravy Without Sausage?
Biscuits and gravy can be made without sausage. In place of the sausage, simply add another tablespoon or two of butter or oil to help build the rue. This will replace the fat from the sausage.
Fat isn’t the only thing sausage brings to the dish. The ground meat is also packed with spices, so you’ll need to replace them if you want a good gravy. A half teaspoon of sage, garlic, and smoked paprika will bring back some of the flavors.
The cooking process is fairly similar. Build your rue with melted butter and flour. Let it cook for a couple of minutes, just long enough to cook out the raw flour flavor. Season with salt and pepper. Next, add your milk and seasonings and let simmer until it thickens up. You now have a delicious sawmill gravy.
