It happened again. Five o’clock came and I had made zero plans for my dinner menu. I find myself in this situation a lot lately; being a mom of twins is a constant reminder of my lack of great planning skills. So where do I turn from here? – to my never failing Plan B: Breakfast for Dinner.
At the Campbell household, we are not morning people. Weldon told me when we first got married that if I wanted him to actively listen and respond in important conversations, don’t have any with him until 9 am or later. And now that our babies have us up early, we function just enough to count scoops: scoops of coffee grounds going into the pot’s filter and scoops of formula going into bottles.
Hot breakfasts just don’t happen early enough around here to make them a daily occurrence. We do love hot breakfast foods so if they are showing up on our table, it’s 11:00 on a Saturday or dinner time. I usually keep the main staples like eggs, grits, sausage and bacon on hand. Then I normally have the ingredients to whip up a quick batch of pancakes or biscuits.
My favorite go-to breakfast dish will always be sausage gravy and biscuits. It was a Christmas morning tradition for us but also any other time we gathered the entire family for breakfasts. Sausage gravy and biscuits are most popular in the Southern and Mid-Western regions of the United States, but still no stranger to our friends on the West Coast or in the North East. You could just call it an American classic comfort breakfast food.
Weldon’s family also enjoyed this dish on their tables often but until we met, he never got to experience the full fledged glory of what I was used to. They weren’t just any biscuits with any type of gravy. They were moist, buttery, steamy homemade biscuits with spicy, hearty and creamy gravy. If you were eating with my Hall side of the family, you usually weren’t eating just a store bought breakfast sausage either. It was Pawpaw’s sausage that he made with his venison and pork from his most recent hunting season. Talk about good.
I’ve already shared with you my Nanny’s Biscuit Recipe so starting with that is a must. Those biscuits are my absolute favorite! Last night when we had them in our Breakfast for Dinner, I made enough to have leftovers for breakfast at well, breakfast! Pop that thing in the micro, smother it with plenty of butter and jelly, and you’ll have a ready made treat to wake up to.
When I’m making sausage gravy and biscuits together, I always start by preparing my biscuits first. Preheat the oven, mix them, shape them and get them going. In the 10-12 minutes they’ll need to bake, you can work on your sausage gravy.
Making sausage gravy is very simple. But I’ve learned through the generations of women who’ve taught me things about the kitchen, just because it’s simple doesn’t mean everyone knows how to do it.
Start by browning and crumbling 1 lb. of ground sausage. You can use any type of sausage you prefer: spicy, seasoned, or sweet. I’m using sausage from the hog we bought at our local county fair processed by my favorite hometown butcher, Fussell’s Meats.
Once your sausage is browned, do not drain it. We need that grease! Oh and I never claimed that my favorite breakfast was healthy by the way…
Add in 1/4 cup of flour and saute for about a minute until your flour is well incorporated. You shouldn’t see any grease in the pan after this because the flour will have soaked it all up. However, if you do just add more flour.
From here, gradually stir in milk until your desired consistency of gravy is reached. As you add and stir, the mixture will thicken. Do this in stages though -you can always add more. I prefer my gravy thick and meaty, so I add in the minimum amount of milk. If you prefer it thinner, just increase your milk. This is a great way to stretch it out too if you are feeding a crowd.
Once you have it looking good, give it a taste and season it up. I wait to season until this point because every sausage is different. With my awesome Fussell’s medium pork sausage, I don’t have to add any seasonings to my gravy. With other store bought sausage, I usually add in salt to taste.
Serve it warm, spread over an opened biscuit and enjoy!
Sausage Gravy and Biscuits
Ingredients
- A batch of warm biscuits see my recipe for Nanny's Hand Rolled Biscuits
- 1 lb. ground sausage
- 1/4 cup of flour any kind
- 2-4 cups of milk
- salt or other seasonings to taste
Instructions
- Brown and crumble sausage, do not drain.
- Sprinkle flour on sausage and saute for 1 minute until flour is cooked.
- Gradually stir in milk 1/2 cup at a time until desired consistency is reached. Gravy will thicken upon standing.
- Season with salt and/or pepper to taste.
- Serve immediately over warm open-faced biscuits.
