Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

When I was in high school in Georgia, I went to a early morning church class everyday. Every month or so, we would do a big breakfast, and our teacher would make the best sausage gravy and biscuits. She was as southern as you can get, and she made the best food. Now I wish I would have got some recipes from her.

I did make some sausage gravy and biscuits the other day, while they were not as good as the true southern kind, they still hit the spot.The biscuit recipe I got is from Alton Brown, who lives not too far from where I lived in Georgia, so I figured this would probably be the closest I could get to the real thing.

Southern Biscuits


2 c flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp shortening
1 c buttermilk, chilled

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

And the gravy...

Sausage Gravy

2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 cup chicken broth
bay leaf
black pepper
ground breakfast sausage

Heat butter over med-high heat. When melted whisk in flour. Reduce heat to low and continue whisking. Cook until you smell a toasty aroma and mixture begins to turn brown, and then whisk for 2 more minutes. Take off heat and set aside.

In a separate pan, cook sausage at medium heat. When sausage is cooked, turn heat up to high and deglaze the pan with the chicken broth (pour in chicken broth while scraping the bottom of the pan). Once pan is deglazed add bay leaf and pepper and cook over high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and whisk the butter and flour mixture (also called a roux). Return to a simmer and whisk until smooth and desired thickness.