Light and flaky biscuits with rich gluten free sausage gravy. Ready in minutes, this hearty breakfast is a family favorite, and now you can have it back!
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What is sausage gravy?
Sausage gravy and biscuits don't get any better than this. The rich gravy made with the cooked sausage renderings is poured generously over layered light and flaky biscuits.
Gravy is just a roux, or a mixture of cooked meat drippings with flour, mixed with a flavorful liquid, like chicken, beef or vegetable stock. Here, the meat drippings are the rendered fat from cooked sausage, to which we add our most basic gluten free flour blend. To that mixture, we add two liquids: chicken stock and milk.
Gravy made from rendered pork sausage fat is particularly delicious. Pork adds a touch of sweetness and if you buy the good stuff, it even smells good raw. All of that potential flavor just needs to be unlocked.
Make-ahead tips
You can make and shape the biscuit dough ahead of time. Freeze the shaped rounds in a single layer on a lined baking sheet.
Then, pile them into a freezer-safe bag and store them in the freezer. When you're nearly ready to serve the dish, bake the biscuits right from frozen while you're making the gravy.
The gravy is best served fresh, but you can cook the pork ahead of time. Just set the rendered fat aside and refrigerate it. Melt it in a hot pan and proceed with the recipe as written.
If you do make the gravy ahead of time, it can be reheated in a saucepan over low heat. Pour over the warm biscuits and serve.
Ingredients and substitutions
Dairy
There's plenty of dairy in the biscuits, and some in the gravy itself. You can try replacing the butter in the biscuits with Melt or Miyoko's Kitchen brand vegan butter, but they have more moisture than dairy butter and melt more quickly. You may need to use a bit less milk.
The milk in the biscuits and the gravy can both be non-dairy. My favorite non-dairy milk is unsweetened almond milk, since it has fat but little to no flavor. In place the cream, use canned coconut milk.
In place of the dry milk powder in the biscuits, you can use coconut milk powder. It's a great substitute for dairy milk powder.
For a slightly different layered biscuit recipe with more information on dairy free substitutions, here's how to make flaky layered gluten free biscuits. There's also a video of the whole process that can be useful.
Flour blends
You'll need two different flour blends to make both parts of this recipe. One for the light and flaky gluten free biscuits (you really need some xanthan gum for that job, but not a ton), and one for the gravy itself (no xanthan gum please).
Our gum-free gluten free flour blend is very useful for any dishes that are more delicate, like the roux here that forms the base for the gravy. I always have a few cups of it blended and ready in my kitchen. You do need to use a superfine rice flour, though, or your roux will be gritty.
Gluten Free Sausage Gravy and Biscuits
Ingredients
For the biscuits
- 2 cups (280 g) all-purpose gluten-free flour blend plus more for sprinkling
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
- 7 tablespoons (42 g) dry milk powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter roughly chopped and chilled
- ⅞ cup (7 fluid ounces) buttermilk chilled
For the gravy
- 1 pound gluten free bulk pork sausage (or regular pork sausage with the casings removed)
- ¼ cup (36 g) basic xanthan gum-free flour blend (24 g superfine white rice flour + 8 g potato starch + 4 g tapioca starch/flour)
- ¾ cup (6 fluid ounces) milk
- 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 1 ½ cups (12 fluid ounces) low-sodium chicken stock
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Freshly grated nutmeg to taste (optional)
Instructions
First, make the biscuits.
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, nonfat dry milk, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and whisk to combine well.
- Add the chopped and chilled butter, and toss to coat it in the dry ingredients.
- Flatten each chunk of butter between your thumb and forefinger.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the milk or cream, and mix until the dough begins to come together. If necessary, press together into a dough with floured hands, handling it as little as possible.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured piece of unbleached parchment paper and press into a disk.
- Place another piece of unbleached parchment paper on top of the dough, and roll out into a rectangle that is about 1 inch thick.
- Remove the top piece of parchment paper, sprinkle lightly with flour, and fold the dough over on itself like you would a business letter.
- Sprinkle the dough again lightly with flour, replace the parchment paper and roll out the dough once again into a rectangle about 1 inch thick.
- Once more, remove the top piece of parchment paper, sprinkle lightly with flour, and fold the dough over on itself like you would a business letter.
- Sprinkle the dough again lightly with flour, replace the parchment paper and roll out the dough, but this time into a disk about 1-1/2 to 2 inches thick. Peel back the top piece of parchment paper, and, using a floured 3 1/2-inch cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out rounds of dough.
- Place the rounds about 2 inches apart from one another on the prepared baking sheet. Gather and reroll the scraps, and cut out as many more round of dough as possible, as place on the prepared baking sheet.
- Chill in the freezer until firm (about 10 minutes).
- Bake the biscuits. Remove the baking sheet from the freezer place it in the center of the preheated oven.
- Bake until the biscuits are puffed, very fragrant and lightly golden brown around the edges (about 20 minutes).
- Remove from the oven and allow the biscuits to cool briefly on the baking sheet. While the biscuits are cooling, finish making the gravy.
Make the gravy.
- Place the sausage in a heavy-bottom skillet and cook over medium heat, breaking up any large clumps and stirring occasionally, until the sausage is lightly golden brown and cooked through.
- Drain the rendered pork fat away from the cooked pork and transfer it to a separate, small bowl. Remove the cooked pork from the skillet and set it aside.
- Return about 4 tablespoons of the rendered pork fat to the skillet, add the xanthan gum-free flour blend, and mix to combine.
- Cook slowly over medium-low heat, whisking frequently, until the mixture is light golden brown and nutty smelling (about 3 minutes, and it will go from very blond to golden brown and fragrant quite suddenly, so pay close attention).
- Add the stock, and whisk to combine. The mixture will clump at first, but keep whisking.
- Add the milk and cream, and increase the heat to medium.
- Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook, whisking very frequently, until thickened (about 5 minutes).
- Stir in the salt, pepper and the optional nutmeg to taste, add some of the cooked pork, and serve over the warm biscuits immediately.
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Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
Lorraine says
A pot of chilli & your quick biscuits = a perfect meal on a cool fall day. Thank you for teaching me how to bake for my celiac husband ! My suggestion to others make batches of all your flour mixes so your always ready to bake & make up any recipe.
Nicole Hunn says
That does sound perfect, Lorraine! Thank you so much for your kind note. And yes, making the flour blends in batches is a big time-saver!
Elaine says
Can cornstarch be substituted for the xanthan gum-free flour blend? Thanks!
Nicole Hunn says
You can try that, Elaine, but cornstarch tends to “leak” liquid as it cools when used in a roux. I really recommend making the blend!
Dave says
My measuring devices do not show grams, only teaspoons, table spoons and oz.
Nicole Hunn says
Dave, grams are a weight measurement, not a volume measurement like teaspoons. Fluid ounces are a liquid volume measurement. You can’t build a gluten free flour blend of any kind without a simple digital kitchen scale. It shouldn’t cost you more than about $15 for a simple one. Please see my gluten free flour blends page for full information.
Karlie says
I made these tonight, the first time these Canucks have ever had biscuits and sausage gravy! We did like the sausage gravy, but the biscuits were DIVINE. Definitely worth the extra work of rolling and folding! I use a pastry cutter/blender to mix in my solid fats in pastries because I’ve always struggled with the “squash it in your fingers” technique. It works really well!
Dana says
I’ve been gluten free for 4 years. I’ve figured out how to recreate almost everything (some of it thanks to your books and blog) and now I can make biscuits and gravy so the only thing I still need to learn to make is onion rings. The batter. I’ve tried and tried and tried but I can’t come up with a good batter. Any ideas?
Mare Masterson says
Have only had them once (homemade in a contest between 2 people) and then was no longer able to eat them…until today that is!!!!!
Valeska says
You are my hero! Biscuits and gravy is my all time favorite food!
Addy says
Thank you, I had a bit of insomnia this morning so I made these for breakfast :D Normally I don’t get hot breakfast on a weekday as it is out the door as quickly as possible. I subbed bacon for the sausage. Yum!
AmbiaC says
My husband gets biscuits and gravy every weekend when he goes hunting. I have been craving them for over a month now because it’s all he talks about. These look so good, I can almost taste them! Thanks for sharing!
Jennifer Sasse says
I’ve been playing around with biscuits and have determined that it is all down to method. Can’t wait to try this! Thanks!
Nicole Hunn says
I’m kind of confused, Anneke and Jennifer. Have you tried the method I outlined above for making super flaky biscuits and not had good results?
Donia Robinson says
I had just been thinking about how nice it would be to have biscuits in the freezer that could just be pulled out and baked! Looks like I’ll have to abstain because of the dairy, but my family is sure to love these!
Jennifer Sasse says
Donia, use shortening and a nondairy creamer. I bet it will work!
Dawn says
YAYYYY! I have missed biscuits and gravy the most out of all of the things that I used to eat regularly before going GF. Thanks so much for this!
Sharon Cottrell Schulze says
OMG! Heaven . . . :-D