How To Make Sausage Gravy
This Southern sausage gravy takes three ingredients: milk, flour, and sausage. It’s creamy, peppery, and full of browned sausage flavor, and it’s best spooned over a warm, fluffy homemade biscuit.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Sausage Gravy
- Serves: 4
- Main Ingredients: milk, flour, sausage, salt and pepper to taste, biscuits for serving
- Why You'll Love It: Learn how to make sausage gravy with 3 simple ingredients: milk, flour, and sausage. It's so flavorful and best served over a fluffy homemade biscuit.
Nothing beats homemade biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast on a special occasion, or just because it’s Saturday. It’s Southern comfort food at its finest.
Simple, Old-Fashioned, and Just Plain Good
It always unnerves me to see a sausage gravy recipe with an ingredient list that reads like a scientific classification. Southern cooking doesn’t need all that. Milk, flour, and sausage make sausage gravy. That’s all there is to it.
The flavor comes from the drippings. When you brown sausage, it leaves behind seasoned fat and little browned bits stuck to the bottom of the skillet. Cooking the flour in those drippings is what gives homemade sausage gravy its rich, toasty taste. It’s the same method behind the milk gravy I make for cubed steak.
I make mine by browning sliced sausage, then crumbling a piece or two back into the gravy at the end. That way you have extra sausage on the side for anybody who wants it. If you’d rather have your sausage crumbled all through the gravy, I’ll show you that way too.
Ingredients for Sausage Gravy
- Sausage: Ground pork breakfast sausage is classic. Sage sausage adds an herby note, and hot sausage gives the gravy a kick. A roll of sausage works for slicing or crumbling, and any extra is perfect for Rotel cream cheese sausage balls.
- Flour: All-purpose flour or self-rising flour both thicken the gravy. For gluten-free gravy, use a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour blend.
- Milk: Whole milk makes the creamiest gravy. Lower-fat milk works, but the gravy will be a little thinner.
- Salt and black pepper: Be generous with the pepper. Taste before you salt, since sausage is already salty.
You’ll find the amounts in the recipe card below.
Helpful Tips Before You Start
- Use a cast iron skillet if you have one. It browns the sausage evenly and holds the drippings that flavor the gravy. It’s the same skillet I reach for when I make chicken fried steak.
- Measure your drippings. You want about 2 tablespoons of grease in the skillet. If your sausage was lean and you’re short, add a little butter to make up the difference.
- Brown the flour. Let the flour cook in the drippings for a minute or two until it smells toasty. That gets rid of the raw flour taste.
- Add the milk slowly. Pour it in a little at a time and stir the whole while. That’s the secret to gravy with no lumps.
- Give it time to thicken. Gravy keeps thickening as it simmers and as it cools, so pull it off the heat when it’s just a touch thinner than you want.
How to Make Sausage Gravy
1. Brown the Sausage
Slice your sausage to whatever thickness you like. I usually go about half an inch.
Place the sausage in a skillet over medium heat.
Cook until browned on both sides and cooked through.
2. Drain and Save the Drippings
Move the cooked sausage to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
You’ll have a good bit of grease left in the skillet. You need about 2 tablespoons, so pour off any extra.
3. Cook the Flour
Sprinkle 3 to 4 tablespoons of flour into the skillet. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until the flour turns light brown.
Scrape up the browned sausage bits from the bottom of the skillet as you stir, then season with salt and pepper.
4. Add the Milk
Slowly pour in the milk, about a cup and a half, stirring the whole time. Keep stirring until the gravy is smooth, creamy, and thick enough to coat a spoon.
5. Crumble in the Sausage
Crumble a piece or two of the cooked sausage into the gravy and stir. I made a small batch here, so one patty was plenty.
There you have it. Now you know how to make sausage gravy. Spoon it over warm cathead biscuits while it’s hot.
How to Make It With Crumbled Sausage
If you like sausage in every bite, brown bulk sausage in the skillet and break it into small crumbles with a spatula as it cooks. Leave the sausage right in the pan and spoon off extra grease until about 2 tablespoons remain.
Sprinkle the flour over the sausage, stir it until it’s coated and lightly toasted, then slowly stir in the milk. More sausage in the pan means you may need a splash more milk to get the gravy where you like it. This version is great spooned over grits.
How to Serve Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
Most folks set a biscuit on the plate, split it in half, and spoon gravy over both halves.
That’s not how we really like it, though. We tear our biscuits up in a bowl and pour the sausage gravy over the top, because that’s how our mamas did it when we were little. Grab a spoon and pretend your mama is there.
- Biscuits: big, fluffy cathead biscuits, 3-ingredient buttermilk biscuits, or quick drop biscuits
- Beyond biscuits: spooned over Southern grits, fried potatoes, or a slice of hash brown casserole
- Round out breakfast: cheesy scrambled eggs and a bowl of Southern fried apples
- For the sweet tooth: pass a second bowl of chocolate gravy for dessert biscuits
Make-Ahead, Storage, and Reheating
- Make ahead: Make the gravy the night before and store it in the fridge. Reheat it on the stovetop in the morning while the biscuits bake.
- Fridge: Store leftover gravy in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
- Reheat: Warm it in a saucepan over low heat or in the microwave. Gravy thickens as it sits, so stir in a splash of milk until it’s creamy again.
Sausage Gravy FAQs
Why is my sausage gravy lumpy?
The milk probably went in too fast. Next time, add it a little at a time and keep stirring. To fix lumpy gravy, whisk it hard over low heat for a minute and most of the lumps will smooth out. The same trick works for turkey gravy at Thanksgiving.
How do I thicken sausage gravy?
Let it simmer a few more minutes while you stir. It will also thicken as it cools. If it’s still thin, sprinkle in a little more flour and stir until smooth.
How do I thin out gravy that’s too thick?
Stir in milk a tablespoon or two at a time until it’s the way you like it.
What kind of sausage is best for sausage gravy?
Pork breakfast sausage is the classic choice. Spicy pork sausage and sage sausage are great too, and some folks use Italian sausage. For a little extra heat, add a pinch of cayenne or red pepper flakes.
Can I make gluten-free sausage gravy?
Yes. Use a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour blend in place of the flour, and check your sausage label to make sure it’s gluten-free.
Sausage Gravy
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups milk
- 3 tbsp flour
- 8 oz pork breakfast sausage
- salt and pepper to taste
- biscuits for serving
Instructions
- Slice your sausage in whatever thickness you prefer. I usually go for about half an inch but some people like it thinner. Place sausage in a pan or skillet over medium heat and cook until brown. Remove the cooked sausage from the pan and place it on a paper towel-lined plate to drain.8 oz pork breakfast sausage
- You will have a good bit of grease left in your skillet. You need about two tablespoons, so if you have more drain it off to leave about that much.
- Sprinkle three to four tablespoons of flour in your skillet. Cook this over medium-low heat until the flour is brown. Scrape the bottom of the skillet to stir the sausage bits into your gravy, then salt and pepper to taste. Add milk and stir well until smooth and creamy.3 tbsp flour, salt and pepper to taste, 1.5 cups milk
- Take a piece of sausage or two and crumble it up in your gravy. Serve over a warm biscuit.biscuits for serving
Christy I’ve been making your biscuits and gravy over 10 years now.i wouldn’t make anyone’s else!!plus plenty of your other recipes.love you your blog and family.Merry Christmas to all of you and the best in the new year
Merry Christmas to you too! Thank you for the kind words about the biscuits and gravy recipe. Christy mostly works on her fellowship now for the last year and a half but I will pass on your kind words. Thank you also for being such a loyal member of the Southern Plate Family. So lucky to have you with us 🙂
Hi Christie! I need your help. I have a teacher friend who says she remembers a recipe from her youth (she grew up in Michigan but has family in the south.) She says her mom and grandmother made something called ray’s gravy or she puts it, she doesn’t really know if it is Ray’s after a person, or Raise Gravy like “raise yourself out of bed and come to breakfast” As she remembers it is gravy with Pet milk and bacon drippings served over spoon bread. We cannot find any reference to this and I told her if anyone would have an answer, you would. Please don’t let me down!!!! P.S I am a northern girl whose Clarksville mother-in-law, God rest her opened up my world to a whole new way of cooking. My own mother made a great pot roast but I swear I never had a cake made from scratch until I was an adult and most of out veg came from a can. I love your blog and your recipes! Thanks.
Hey Ellen! Thank you so much for your faith and I do believe I can help!
The gravy you are speaking of sounds like our classic milk gravy. I am going to share a recipe that begins with sausage but you can also start it with bacon. Also, back in the day, pet milk (canned milk) was a favorite in the south in recipes and my grandmothers used it quite often. It is a really rich flavor that just makes everything better!
So take this recipe, use bacon and bacon drippings in place of sausage and sausage drippings, and pet milk in place of whole and VOILA! It is DELICIOUS over biscuits, rice, fried chicken, etc. Recipe> https://www.southernplate.com/how-to-make-sausage-milk-gravy/
Excellent recipe and tutorial! I made this this morning with hot Freshland sausage. I served it with homemade biscuits and scrambled eggs. My husband was not fortunate enough to be raised on biscuits and gravy. His mother is half German and half Yankee so she didn’t make them. My husband loves them though, and so do my children (ages 1 and 3). This was plenty of gravy for my small family of 4. I would say it makes about 2 cups once you add a little crumbled up sausage. When I reheated it, I added a bit more milk before I microwaved it. Thanks again!
I love your site my family always loves everything I cook from here keep it going your amazing ! And with added humor to it it makes it a more friendly website I feel…. have a blessed day I’ll definitely be posting again soon.
Thank you so much Cheyenne!!! I am so glad your family is enjoying the recipes!!
I’m a Yankee girl cooking for a Southern-born husband. I’ve mastered the buttermilk biscuits and milk gravy with bacon grease. Yesterday he asked for sausage gravy so that was tonight’s dinner project and it turned out quite well with Jimmy Dean sausage, so I’m quite pleased. Every time he asks for something, I have to search the internet for “southern” kind of recipes so I can get it right! My first peach cobbler was a failure, so I have to work on that one. Thank you, Christy, for making this site for those of us cooking in a mixed marriage!
LOL, so glad I can help out!!
Thank u for posting this simple recipe! I’m from Maryland, so there are a lot of influences from both the north & the south here when it comes to food. My MomMom used to make chipped beef gravy, sausage gravy, & hamburger gravy all the time when I was little, & she’d always tear up the biscuits! Thank you for this simple recipe, as I’ve never made my own gravy. I don’t care for sausage, but I’m going to use this recipe to make hamburger gravy!
I hope you enjoy it Christi!!!
I think you may have a bunch of undercover Yankees here…no one’s mentioned gravy on grits….yum, yum. Yankees seem to believe you eat grits plain. Personally some of my favorites are butter, honey and butter and GRAVEEEEE. YUM, YUM.
Also goes great on scrambled eggs, and mashed or baked ‘taters…
Love this stuff!
Grits served w/ maple syrup ..the climate is too mild for sap/syrup yield. How did yankee maple get to grits?