Sausage Gravy Recipe

Follow our step-by-step, photo illustrated recipe for making Sausage Gravy from scratch.  Just a few simple ingredients are all you’ll need to prepare a delicious breakfast of Sausage Gravy and Biscuits.  This quick and easy pan gravy is sure to please all the family.

Sausage Gravy Recipe:

NOTE:  This recipe originally appeared here on Taste of Southern on January 28, 2013.  Cooler weather has started to return to the heart of North Carolina and this is a great way to start your day.  I hope you’ll give this recipe a try.  When you do, be sure to leave us a comment or two in the section at the bottom of this page and let me know how it turns out for you.  I’ll be waiting to hear from you. 

Are you looking for something quick and easy to fix for breakfast for the family?  I think you’ll really enjoy topping some, fresh out of the oven,  hot biscuits, with our Sausage Gravy Recipe.  It’s really quick and easy to make and, you can do it all right in one skillet.

When you need something to warm you up on a cool winter morning or, something fast on a warm summer morning, this will surely become one of your favorite things to make.  Of course, if you’re like me, sometimes breakfast-for-supper is just as good.  Either way, I do hope you’ll give our Sausage Gravy recipe a try.

If you don’t make your own biscuits from scratch, there are some pretty good ready-made biscuits in the refrigerator case of your favorite grocery store.  They’ll work just about as good and, if you don’t tell…I’m not going to tell.

I can only imagine what a big old pan of hot biscuits must have smelled and tasted like after being pulled from an old fashioned wood stove oven.  I’ve had some delicious brick oven pizza that was fired with wood and, it just gives a little smokey taste to that…so….imagine what a pan of biscuits would have tasted like baked in a wood stove oven.  It’s my dream one day, when I have the room for it, to have a wood stove of my very own.  My family had one in the early days of my youth but I really don’t have any memory of it.  Of course, daddy made his own sausage too.

You just need a pound of sausage and a few other items to stir up a big old pan of hot Sausage Gravy.  Open up a biscuit or two, ladle on a great big spoonful of gravy and….you’re in for a real treat.  You can buy all the gravy mixes you want but, go ahead and learn how to make your own, you’ll never be disappointed.  Ready to give it a go?  Then….Let’s Get Cooking!!!

Sausage Gravy Recipe:  You’ll need these ingredients.  Simple huh?

Open up your package of sausage and place it in a skillet set to medium heat.  As it begins to brown, use a spatula or spoon and, start to break up the meat.  Spread it around in the pan so it can cook evenly.

Continue to stir the sausage around and crumble it as it cooks.  You’ll need to let it brown just to the point of where it’s fully cooked.

Once the sausage is cooked, use a slotted spoon and remove it from the pan.  Place it in a small bowl and set aside.

You’ll need to remove most of the excess fat from the pan.  I used a spoon to skim it out but, you could just pour it out as well.  You DO want to leave all of the brown bits and any smaller pieces of sausage that might be in the pan.  We’re going to need all the flavor from those.  Don’t remove all of the fat, leave a couple of Tablespoons in the skillet.  We’ll need that to begin making the roux for our gravy.

Toss in a couple of Tablespoons of butter and stir it around as it begins to melt.  The butter should melt slowly and, not start to brown or burn.  Adjust the heat of your pan accordingly if it’s cooking too fast.

We’re using 4 Tablespoons of Flour for our roux.  You always want to have an equal amount of fat and flour in the pan when making a roux.  So, we had a couple of Tablespoons of fat from the sausage and, we’ve added a couple of Tablespoons of butter as well.  Start slowly by adding about half of the flour.  Sprinkle it around the pan as opposed to just dumping it all in one spot.

Grab a spoon and begin to stir the flour into the liquids.  You’ll need to constantly stir this as you go.  It shouldn’t just dry up right away and get thick.  If it does, your pan is probably too hot so, reduce the heat.  Let it slowly blend together as you stir.

Add more of the flour and just keep stirring.  Continue to sprinkle in the flour until it’s all in the pan.

Keep stirring and let the mixture cook for a minute or so.  You have to let it cook a little so it loses the taste of just flour.  Also, the longer it cooks, the more brown it becomes and, that determines whether you have a light gravy or dark gravy in the end.  If you happen to see any lumps, try breaking them up with your spoon and continue to stir them until they’re all gone.

Gradually begin adding the milk.  You will need to add just a little at a time and work it into the mix.  Don’t get in a rush or you’ll be disappointed with the final results.  Just let it happen…but keep stirring the whole time.

This is what it looks like when it starts getting too thick…too fast.  This is where you’ll start to see lumps that you can’t stir away if you aren’t careful.  I stepped away for a minute to adjust the camera and almost messed up.  Fortunately, I was able to stir it out and continued to add the milk until I had it all incorporated into the skillet.  Whew.

Just keep stirring to avoid any lumps as it begins to thicken.

Add the remaining milk as you stir.  Then, add a little salt.  Start out lightly with the salt though and, then you can taste it later to see if it needs more.  Don’t forget there is salt in the sausage and we’re going to add that back into the pan shortly.

Then, add some pepper.  I know you’re thinking this looks like a lot but…I may like a little pepper.  Of course, if you have White Pepper, all the better.  White Pepper doesn’t show up as little black specks in the finished product.  Reminder to self….add White Pepper to the shopping list.

Place the cooked sausage back in the pan.  Give it all a good stir.

Let the gravy simmer on a low heat for a few minutes.  Basically, we just need to warm the sausage back up but, it also helps to bring all the flavors together.  Time to get those biscuits ready.

Split open a couple of biscuits and ladle on a big spoonful or two of your Sausage Gravy.  Enjoy!

The gravy can be refrigerated for a couple of days if you have any leftover.  It’ll be a little thicker but still tasty.  I’m sure you could even add a little more milk and heat it up in a saucepan if you had a bigger amount leftover.