Biscuits and Gravy

To my readers who come to my page looking for quick and health(ier) cooking options, I apologize for this post. I am making Biscuits and Gravy, and I can’t even pretend that there are any health benefits to this, except perhaps a feeling of pure joy as you consume it. Healthy readers, maybe we can pretend that this recipe for a Southern favorite never happened? For the rest of my readers, I hope you enjoy this recipe. Because I sure did, it was fantastic.

So why the sudden move into southern cooking? Biscuits, of course! I was sent a few boxes of Robinhood Meetinghouse‘s frozen biscuits, including their original Cream Cheese Biscuit. The Maine-based biscuiteers (yes, I just really wanted to write the word biscuiteer) also make pull apart cinnamon bread, sticky buns, and mini pies. The company’s products contain no artificial flavors, colors, corn syrup, or genetically modified ingredients (GMOs). And the best part? The frozen biscuits are ready in the oven in only 25 minutes time.

There are plenty of ways to use their original biscuits, but a friend mentioned one of her favorite recipes from the South, Biscuits and Gravy, and I had to try it. This recipe is really out of my comfort zone. It even uses sausage, eep (I’m really not the biggest fan of pork products… you’ll notice that there are very few of my blog, with the exception of bacon and proscuitto.) I used a Paula Deen recipe as the base for the gravy because, well, it’s Paula Deen.

Biscuits and Gravy is traditionally a way for cooks to use leftover drippings in a meal. A cook might make sausage and eggs one morning and then save the sausage drippings to make biscuits and gravy the next.  Because I didn’t have any sausage drippings just lying around, I cooked up my own sausage and bacon for this dish. But keep in mind that using leftover drippings is perfectly acceptable instead.To make the biscuits, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Add the biscuits straight from the freezer to a baking sheet.

Cook for 25 minutes, or until they begin to brown on top.  Set aside.

While waiting for the biscuits to bake, make the gravy. Remove the sausage from its casing by using a sharp knife to  cut into the sausage just enough to split the casing. Peel the casing off and drop the ground sausage into a large saute pan. (It can break into many parts, you don’t need a whole sausage). Chop the bacon and add to the pan.

Cook the sausage and the bacon until browned, about 7 minutes, over medium high heat.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the flour, mixing to coat.

Cook for 3 minutes or until the flour browns, stirring constantly.

Slowly add the milk in a steady stream, stirring to combine.

Add the salt, pepper, and hot sauce (optional) and stir for 4 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. If the gravy gets too thick, add a bit more milk. You want it to be able to coat the back of a spoon, but not so thick that its almost like paste.

Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

To serve, top the hot biscuits with the gravy and sausage/bacon mixture and add a bit more freshly ground pepper.

It’s most certainly not much to look at, it kind of reminds me of Cream Chipped Beef, for all my mid-atlantic readers. But the flavor it amazing. The flavor of the sausage and bacon shine through the creamy gravy. I added maybe three drops of hot sauce so this was by no means hot, but it gave it that little extra boost of taste that was really delicious.

The biscuits were so flaky and buttery. Despite the heavy flavors of the gravy, the biscuit’s taste held it’s own.  I would absolutely be thrilled to find these as a side for dinner.