I don’t know when it started – probably when I was trying to find the best places to eat in Gulf Shores – but I love biscuits and gravy. I’ve tried it at a ton of different restaurants. Some are a hit, some are a miss. But I keep trying. Since we’re not eating out quite as often anymore, I’ve been missing my biscuits and gravy fix. I convinced my husband that he had to come up with a delicious homemade sausage gravy recipe to give me my fill. And he did it. It’s so good, especially when paired with these delicious homemade buttermilk biscuits! Or if you don’t want to work that hard, it’s great with these homemade drop biscuits too! They’re the best biscuits when you’re in a hurry! If you don’t want to make homemade biscuits, store-bought ones work great too!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Super easy – I always thought making gravy was tough but if you follow the recipe as written, it’s pretty hard to mess this one up. It’s just browning meat, adding spices, adding some milk, and letting it thicken. Great flavor – while it may not be a traditional Southern sausage gravy, it’s a delicious one. I prefer a white susage gravy over a brown one, so that’s what this recipe is! It’s a creamy gravy with tons of flavor! Perfect for a crowd – the recipe makes enough gravy to serve six people as written. It’d be easy to double or even triple the recipe to serve breakfast to a group!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Sausage – The ground sausage sausage we used in this white sausage gravy is Niman Ranch Country-Style Ground Pork Sausage (the same kind we used in this queso fundido), but you could really use any ground pork sausage that hasn’t been flavored yet. You’ll add the spices with this recipe! You also want to avoid already cooked sausage, that’s also going to be flavored! Milk – I recommend using whole milk or if you can’t find whole milk, you could also use heavy cream, but it’s going to be really thick. So stick with whole milk if at all possible. Other milks (like skim milk) just won’t have enough fat, and you want this country sausage gravy to have some thickness to it. Flour – I just use regular all purpose flour for the flour mixture in this, it’s used to thicken the gravy but you won’t really taste the flour at all if you cook it correctly.
How to make white sausage gravy
Okay now let’s get back to this simple sausage gravy. Making it is super easy, just make sure to stay around and pay attention to it so it doesn’t burn! Once you’ve tried this for the first time, you’ll never go back! The first thing you want to do is pull your sausage and milk out of the fridge – do this about 30 minutes before cooking so they can come to room temperature. If you don’t do this, it won’t ruin the dish, but it’s better this way – trust me!
1 – Brown the Sausage
Preheat a saute pan or large skillet over medium heat to medium high heat on the stove. Brown the pound of sausage in the hot pan, making sure to break up the sausage into chunks the size you want in your gravy with a wooden spoon. I like smaller chunks of sausage, so this gravy has small chunks in it. Keep stirring and cooking the sausage until it’s no longer pink.
2 – Season the Sausage
Next, you’re going to add the butter and stir until it’s all completely melted into the meat. You could do this with melted butter, but I prefer to put it in at room temperature and allow the butter to melt into the meat. Then sprinkle flour (half the flour the recipe calls for), whisk flour, and cook for a minute then add the other half of the flour and stir flour in until completely combined with the sausage drippings. You don’t want any raw flour taste. Once the flour is in, cook for another two minutes then add in your other spices (garlic, sage, and smoked paprika). Stir for 1-2 minutes or until the flour is completely dissolved into the drippings and spices are distributed throughout.
3 – Make the Gravy
Slowly add one cup of the milk and stir. Add the two remaining cups of milk, stirring constantly until you get a really good pan gravy going. Stir until smooth then add in the sugar and salt. Bring the boil to a mixture, stirring often until you have a thicker, rich gravy.
4 – Thicken the Gravy
Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer until thickened, typically about 10 minutes. You want it thick enough that it’ll coat the back of a spoon and pour off slowly.
5 – Season & Serve
Season with pepper and additional salt if necessary, then serve immediately. While you could just eat this plain, I personally prefer it with some fresh biscuits! It would also be great with toast, eggs, or even on honey cornbread.
What to Eat with White Sausage Gravy
There are a ton of different ways to enjoy this flavorful country gravy, but I recommend trying it on:
Hot biscuits – just pick out your favorite biscuits or even leftover biscuits from a restaurant and enjoy as biscuits and gravy. You could even turn into this biscuits and gravy pizza!French fries – enjoy this kind of like an American poutine that combines fries with gravy.Hash browns – cook up some hash browns (either homemade or store-bought) and pour this gravy over top kind of like a gravy casserole. Or if you don’t want to do hash browns, you could also add it to tater tots for the same flavors. Bread – a good loaf of white bread is also a great base for this white sausage gravy. It’s better with biscuits but if you don’t have biscuits, a slice of bread works great.
Expert Tips
If the gravy thickens too much, add 1/2 cup milk, stir, and cook for a couple of minutes to thin the gravy out. If it’s still too thick, add another 1/2 cup milk and do the same thing. If not serving right away, keep the gravy in the pan turned onto the lowest setting to keep it warm until you’re ready to serve. Allow the milk to come to room temperature before adding to the gravy to avoid lumps in the gravy. Store any leftover gravy in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.
More Breakfast Recipes
If you’re looking for more delicious breakfast recipes to serve alongside your biscuits and gravy, try one of these!
Blueberry yogurt muffins – fluffy and flavorful blueberry muffins made with Greek yogurt!Breakfast egg muffins with hash browns – these yummy egg muffins are made with a delicious hash brown crust!Sausage breakfast casserole with bread – a delicious sausage based breakfast casserole with crispy bread cubes on top! Pineapple bread – if you want something sweet to start out your day, this tropical bread tastes more like a treat! Cinnamon roll monkey bread – a super simple recipe that turns cinnamon rolls into a pull apart breakfast dish!
