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Biscuits and Gravy are a culinary delight of epic magnitude, the ultimate in comfort food and a truck stop/greasy spoon epicurean delight. They are all things both good and bad; pork, with the requisite pork fat, starch in two 
forbidden forms (for our carb counting friends) and dairy/milk fat. In other words, they are awesome on a cold wet/snowy fall winter morning. We especially love them on a cold morning when you actually intend to go outside and work (or play for hours); they’re perfect before cutting a few cords of firewood or duck hunting. There is no vegetarian alternative and the only way to lighten up the recipe is to use skim milk (as we have here) and it works fine.
This is a “cheat” of sorts, because we didn’t make our own biscuits, we could have, time permitting, but that didn’t happen – there were pumpkins to be picked. So, start by making a roll of biscuits according to the recipe, then to the “gravy”:
Get a one pound package of pork sausage, regular or flavored will work. Start by frying up the sausage over med heat in an un-greased skillet breaking up the sausage with a spatula. You want to get the pieces down to about the size of a marble. If you don’t know what size a marble is, put down the spatula and go back to your childhood, you missed something (while there go check out ‘jacks’, too) Once, the sausage is cooked through, start slowly adding ½ cup of flour (all purpose) the flour will coat the sausage pieces and start to brown, the longer you let the flour brown, the darker your gravy. Next add 2 cups of milk, ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. The mixture will begin to thicken almost immediately, and then cook it until you can drag the spatula across the bottom of the pan and you leave a trail. At this point, you can break from tradition and mess around with the accents. We used the sausage with sage in it and added about 2 or 3 teaspoons of fresh thyme from the window box. We’ve also chopped in some chipotle peppers and added a dob of the adobo sauce for a hot and smoky gravy, or you can add any of the growing number of Tobasco sauces. This is also a great starter for Thanksgiving Day if you’re going to eat an early dinner with family. Start with your biscuits and gravy, play some football with the cousins, watch some football with grandpa and then chow down on the big bird. A day well spent.
Enjoy.
Photos by author.
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yummm. i think the only time i've had bicuits & gravy was (don't kill me) from hardees!
actually, i might have had them once when my aunt juanita in alabama made them but i was so young, i can barely remember..
You forgot to mention what great hangover helper this is.
Mmmm....bisquits & gravy....Heart stoppin' good!
My husband just made biscuits and gravy last weekend for Sunday breakfast. Yummy ... God I love the stuff. We'll try your recipe next time, Kevin!
Rachelle, you need to do them from scratch at home. Most defintely.
Isn't oatmeal a comfort food?
/And actually good for you if you don't load it down with sugar, butter and whole milk?
/Go with oatmeal
Moon, I love you, but "comfort food" is only a comfort if it has the capacity to do serious damage to your body. Oatmeal provides too many benefits to qualify, even if you junk it up to high heaven.
For shame, Moon! For shame!
FYI, after 2 AM the diner at the corner of Damen and Chicago offers up their "Southern Special" which is a big-ass (literally) helping of biscuits and gravy with two eggs for like $3.00.
Actually, I hope and assume most greasy spoons in town have something similar.
Well, most places in town have biscuits & gravy, but they have flavorless biscuits & gravy. The only place I've found areally good, southern-style version on the North Side is at Hillary's Urban Eatery on Division. (And yes, I've been to Wishbone. That's a northern version--yuck!)
I love HUE.. i was just there Sunday. .. but every time I go I get the brunch buffet and there's no biscuits & gravy on the buffet.
One of those things I miss from my years down south. I've tried them a couple times up here but they're never the same...
The quality of most greasy spoon biscuits and gravy in this town is pretty middlin'...the key in this particular situation is that it's three freaking dollars and coats your stomach like concrete mix.
Lorraine's "big ass" Southern Special is notable mostly for the incredible quality of "bad ass" in store the next morning.
Trrue, but it's certainly no Monte Cristo.
You are writing a food article for the very prestigious "Chicagoist" and you can't make biscuits? Maybe your next "Eating In" should be "Spaghetti" where you show us how to boil water and open a box of pasta and a jar of Barilla.
the thing about it is..we know how to make biscuits from scratch, and if you want to be in the kitchen all friggin day, then yeh, make the biscuits from scratch.. but if you want to make sunday breakfast and get on with your life, then why not take a shortcut?
and, btw, i like barilla! it's so much better than ragu & prego!