Southern Style Butter Milk Biscuits Served with Sausage Gravy Recipe

Nothing gets my stomach rumbling more, then sitting down to a plate of southern-style sausage gravy with flaky homemade biscuits. This world famous American breakfast dish is served in diners and restaurants to hungry patrons everyday all over America.

This stick to your ribs breakfast is so popular, it has been immortalized in song and is even celebrated with national days of recognition. Listed on breakfast menus, and homecooked in kitchens throughout America, Biscuits served with sausage Gravy is a family favorite throughout America. 

This dish comes from Southern-style cooking which is well-known for the classic pairing of their soft and fluffy biscuits with oily foods such as fried chicken and gravy. These biscuits were originally made as hard, thin, and dry meals meant for survival during the wars. In fact, this is where they got their name. The term biscuit comes from the Latin phrase bis coctus which translates to “twice-baked”. In the earlier times, biscuits were baked in an oven and were left to dry out again in the oven. This processing was meant to make the biscuits hard and very dry so they could survive weeks of not spoiling. 

From here, the recipes have evolved into making soft and fluffy biscuits perfect for complimenting other heavier dishes. Perhaps the most popular pairing with these biscuits is with sausage gravy making a great contrast of sweet, salty, and savory flavors. Several renowned chefs and restaurant owners have claimed that the key to a great Southern-style biscuit is to not hold back on using buttermilk as a substitute to water and use whole fat.

Making a Southern-style biscuit is not all that easy. A lot of things could go wrong when it comes to technicalities. Factors such as the temperature of the butter, the time of mixing, the sequence of adding in the ingredients, and even the way you release it from the cookie-cutter will significantly affect your product. Cooking these biscuits in an air fryer even makes the whole process a breeze and less hassle. The even circulation of heat will bake the biscuits faster and more uniform.

And what better way to feed your family, than with homemade biscuits with sausage gravy. Enjoy the culinary experience of sausage gravy on top of biscuits at the comfort of your home. Sausage gravy is a classic pair to your Southern-style biscuits and is cooked by simmering loose sausage in roux, milk, fat, and seasonings. This is a popular accompaniment to a traditional Southern breakfast which is usually with fried eggs, tomatoes, slices of bacon, and of course, biscuits. Make your preparations easier by making this sausage gravy ahead and reheat it once ready for the meal. Good sausage gravy is only as good as the sausage you use to make it. The flavor of the sausage or any meat you will be using will determine the flavor of your gravy. The drippings from cooking your chosen meat will create the full-bodied and bold flavors of the gravy we are used to.

This recipe takes a centuries-old recipe and gives it a modern twist utilizing an Air fryer to produce a tasty, yummy, and cheap breakfast your family will keep asking you to cook over and over again.

Southern Style Butter Milk Biscuits Served with Sausage Gravy

Recipe by Maverick CharlestonCourse: MainCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • Biscuits Ingredients
  • 3 cups All-purpose flour

  • 1 cup of Butter milk

  • 1 egg

  • 1 tbsp salt

  • 1 tsp baking soda

  • 2 tsp baking powder

  • 3/4 cup frozen butter (grated)

  • 1/4 cup of melted butter

  • Sausage Gravy Ingredients
  • 700g of lean ground pork

  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger

  • 2 teaspoon ground sage

  • 3 teaspoons salt

  • 3 teaspoons pepper

  • ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

  • 6 tablespoons butter

  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour

  • 3 cups milk (warmed)

  • 1 cup cream

Directions – Biscuits

  • Pre heat Air Fryer to 190°C.
  • In a large mixing bowl sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.
  • Crack egg into a small bowl and beat egg and then add milk and whisk until well combined.
  • Stir in shredded butter and Butter milk.
  • Stir dough with a wooden spoon making sure not to over mix, you want a crumbly mix with small pieces of butter throughout the dough.
  • Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough out to 3/4 to 1 inch thickness.
  • Cut out biscuits with a well-floured 2-inch biscuit cutter.
  • Place the biscuits on a baking tray that can fit into your air fryer, line the baking tray with a perforated baking sheet, arrange the biscuits so that they barely touch. (this will help them rise)
  • Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter.
  • Place your wire rack into the base of the air fryer so to raise the baking tray off the bottom of the air fryer.
  • Bake for 10 – 12 minutes in the air fryer or until your biscuits are golden brown.
  • Once cooked ( You might need to do it batches so not to overcrowd the air fryer) remove biscuits from your air fryer and place biscuits on a wire rack to cool. Repeat until all biscuits have been cooked.
  • Directions – Sausage Gravy
  • In a heavy skillet, over medium heat melt the 2 tablespoons of butter then add the ground pork. Cook the ground pork until light brown, then add the ground ginger, sage, salt and pepper.
  • When the pork is well browned remove it from the skillet and place in a bowl and set aside to cool.
  • In the same skillet ( no need to clean – all the little bits add flavor) over medium heat, add flour and then the remaining butter and mix it well with a wooden spoon. Allow the flour to brown just a little before adding the butter
  • Slowly add half a cup of warm milk at a time, whisking constantly until the gravy starts to thicken.
  • Once gravy has thicken return the sausage back into the skillet and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  • Once the sausage gravy has thickened, taste and season with salt and pepper, and add 1 tablespoon of butter to make the gravy shine. Mix well and serve.
  • If your rewarming biscuits, place in the air fryer for 1-2 minutes.
  • Slice biscuits in half then pour a generous amount of gravy on top of both of the halves. Serve with your favorite sides, I like collard greens with a side of bacon, but a couple of fried eggs or even a Chicken fried steak makes great choice.

Tips and tricks

  • It is essential to measure your ingredients properly. Baking is a science, the wrong quantities will ensure failure when baking anything.
  • Freeze your butter. For flaky layered biscuits always use cold or frozen butter. You want your biscuit dough to resemble a shaggy crumbly mixture. When you bake you biscuits in the oven, the butter melts slowly, creating a pocket of steam creating an airy and flaky biscuit.
  • Always sift your dry ingredients. This will prevent lumps and aerate the dry ingredients.
  • Never use your hands, to mix the dough. Use a pastry cutter to work the butter into the biscuit dough. Your hands will melt the butter, you want cold butter to make the perfect biscuits.
  • Create a well in your dry ingredients, this will allow even mixing of wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.
  • If you don’t have butter milk, you can use full cream milk. Place 1 tablespoon of white vinegar per cup and allow to sit in the fridge for 15 minutes. This will sour the milk creating butter milk.
  • When working the biscuit dough, use a cold surface like steel or wood.
  • Do not twist the cutter, when your cutting out the biscuits. Make sure to push straight down and straight up with the cutter. Twisting the cutter when cutting out your biscuits will cause the biscuit dough to not rise straight, often creating toppled or crooked biscuits.
  • Do not use the leftover dough, you will have biscuits which will be flat, as the dough has been over worked and the butter has melted.
  • Do not overwork your dough as this forms too much of the gluten and will ultimately result in a tough biscuit.
  • Brushing the tops of your biscuits with melted butter, will give a nice golden color on top of your finished biscuits.
  • It is essential that you preheat your air fryer before adding your biscuits. A hot air fryer will start the baking process instantly, creating tall and flaky biscuits.
  • When cooking your gravy, make sure you don’t wipe down your skillet when you finish browning the meat, all those little bits and any residual oil adds great flavor to your gravy.
  • Make sure you allow your flour to slightly color when you add to the skillet when cooking your gravy. This will color the gravy, so you don’t end up with a milky colored gravy.
  • Adding the cream to your gravy, will make it richer. By adding the butter at the end of cooking will result in your gravy will give it a shine, and make it pour easier. Make sure you taste your gravy and check for seasoning.
  • If storing biscuits for later use, you can cover them with cling wrap and store them at room temperature for 1- 2 days. Or you can place them in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. If you want to freeze, place in a snap lock plastic bag and store them up to 1 month.
  • If you are feeling a bit extra, you can add bacon fat to your biscuits to add the sweet and smokey flavors from the biscuit and increase the complexity of your dish.
  • When baking your biscuits, contrary to the conventional baking procedure of not putting your biscuits close together, place your discs of biscuits so that they touch each other or at least the sides of the pan you are using. Aside from the fact that this assures even baking, this gives the cookies the walls they need to climb up and rising instead of spreading horizontally. In an air fryer, make sure your biscuits are touching each other and the walls of the basket.
  • If you want to store the sausage gravy. Place in a airtight container, it will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. And can be frozen for 1 – 2 months.
  • You can make a low-carb version of Southern-style biscuits, almost enough to qualify as keto-friendly. Replace the wheat flour with almond or coconut flour and add grated cheese to the biscuits. Compared to wheat flour, almond and coconut flours do not have enough gluten to give you the rise you want for these biscuits. You can expect these biscuits to be a bit flatter than the usual Southern-style biscuit but no less than delicious. 

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