How To Make Sausage Gravy
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Learn how to make sausage gravy with 3 simple ingredients: milk, flour, and sausage. It’s so creamy and flavorful and best served over a fluffy homemade biscuit.
Today, we’re going to make a real Southern staple. This sausage gravy recipe is going to separate the men from the mice, as they say. Nothing beats fluffy homemade buttermilk biscuits smothered in homemade sausage gravy for breakfast on a special occasion (or just because). It’s Southern comfort food at its finest. The ingredients might be simple, but the flavor is anything but. The combination of milk, flour, sausage, and salt and pepper is deliciously creamy.
Don’t you just love simple recipes? That is one of the best things about Southern cooking. It’s just plain simple and just plain good. Always unnerves me when I see a recipe for sausage gravy with an ingredient list that reads like a scientific classification. I think Southerners are just trying to show off to folks of the northern persuasion when they do that. There’s no need.
Milk, flour, and sausage = sausage gravy. That’s all there is to it!
Now, who’s ready to learn how to make sausage gravy?
Recipe Ingredients
- Milk
- Flour (self-rising flour, plain flour, almond flour, or coconut flour)
- Sausage
- Salt and pepper
- Biscuits for serving
How to Make Sausage Gravy
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.
Cook until browned.
It will look something like this.
Remove the cooked sausage from the pan and place it on a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
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. I added about a cup and a half here.
Stir well until smooth and creamy.
Take a piece of sausage or two and crumble it up in your gravy.
I made a small amount of gravy so I just used one sausage.
There you have it: you now know how to make sausage gravy It’s that easy.
Now, most folks will take a biscuit, set it on their plate, and spoon gravy onto it.
They might cut it in half first and spoon gravy on both halves.
That’s not how we really like it though. We REALLY like to tear our biscuit up in our bowl, because that’s what our mamas did when we were little! Spoon the creamy sausage gravy all over it. At this point, you can use a fork or get a spoon and really pretend your mama is there.
Storage
- Store homemade gravy leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- You can also freeze leftovers for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge before reheating as above.
Recipe Notes
- You can use either ground pork breakfast sausage, spicy pork sausage, or Italian sausage.
- For heat, add a pinch of cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes.
- For added flavor, add 1/2 teaspoon each of garlic powder and onion powder.
Recipe FAQs
What do you serve with sausage gravy?
Besides some homemade drop biscuits, Southern sausage gravy also tastes great with fried potatoes, hashbrowns, grits, and even just toast.
Can I make this easy sausage gravy recipe ahead of time?
If you like, you can make sausage gravy the night before, store it in the fridge overnight, and quickly reheat it on the stovetop before serving it for breakfast.
How do I make gluten-free sausage gravy?
Simply use your favorite gluten-free flour alternative and you have yourself gluten-free sausage gravy.
Check out these other gourmet gravy recipes:
Chicken Fried Steak Recipe With Gravy
Recipe For Turkey Gravy (Easy and Delicious)
Southern Cubed Steak and Milk Gravy
Crispy Breaded Pork Chops with Milk Gravy (and MeMe’s Mashed Potatoes)
Garlic Cream Biscuits with Bacon Gravy
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups milk
- 3 tbsp flour
- 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.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
I always tear my biscuits up just like my mamaw did for me. I now live in the land of the North. I am slowly trying to teach them the way of our people. I have introduced them to the wonderful world of milk gravy, pimento cheese, chicken fried steak and pinto beans! Won’t be to much longer and they will be sayin’ y’all and fixin’ to.
OK, you might call me a So Cal Redneck, I’m ok with that. I do about the same, except I add a bunch of chopped bacon and use about I third of the sausage. Once this is mostly done, I add a slice of finely diced Jalapeno, handful of onion, half a handful of bell pepper. when those are close to browned (along with the bacon and sausage) I add a handful of diced ham.
Once that is finished browning I add my flour. Once that is ready, i stir in my milk. At this point I add some garlic powder, about 1/2 tsp, chili powder, 1/4 tsp, cayenne powder, 1/8 tsp, and whisk smooth. I simmer until flour taste is gone and there you go. So Cal milk gravy. At least how I make it.
That sounds wonderful Don!
I use the same ingredients, but make it a little differently. I brown and crumble the sausage in the pan and remove (or add) grease as needed. Then sprinkle flour over the sausage and grease letting it cook and the flour brown. Then I add the milk and make the gravy. It’s my Saturday morning treat during the winter months.
Yummy, what a wonderful treat!!
That is exactly how my mom used to cook it. Can’t be topped.
My reply was in response to Sally
How do you print this sausage gravy recipe? Lillian
You go girl on those biscuits and gravy. Yep, that ol’ PC crowd sometimes criticizes our speech but they sure love eating our food and using our recipes, don’t they? 🙂
Love your gravy recipe. Beautiful style. And, of course, bacon grease is better than caviar, sushi, tofu, seaweed or raw fish. No comparison – nor should there be. One is food, the rest is a silly trend.
Prettiest head of hair I ever saw was on a girl with thick shiny hair past her waist and someone asked what she ate and she said: “Meat and potatoes, potatoes mostly fried in bacon grease.” Bacon grease will grow hair back on bald heads, too – also on animals if they have lost hair through an injury, mange, etc. You rub the grease on the spot where you want the hair to come back in.
These old cures have been lost over the decades. Some Southern Folks still know and use them. Like Jesus said, doubters get out of the room. Only those with faith need enter in. 😉
You are my kind of people Ada!!!
Hi Christy.
I have been making gravy for all of my 34 yrs. of marriage. My husband loves it. I just crumble my sausage in the skillet and then add flour to it once it has cooked and then milk. I skip the slicing the sausage and then cooking it and then adding it it. This is easier.
CHRISTY, I LOVE BACON GREASE AND HAVE USED IT FOR YEARS. I KEEP MINE IN A PLASTIC CONTAINER IN THE FRIDGE. IT SEEMS I JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH AND WONDERED WHY THE SUPER MARKETS DON’T PUT IT OUT FOR SALE. SOMETIMES I EVEN FRY BACON JUST TO GET THE GREASE WHEN I AM COOKING SOMETHING THAT I WANT TO SEASON. IF YOU KNOW OF ANY COMPANY THAT SELLS THIS I SURE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW. I WANT THE PURE STUFF NOT THE IMITATION. LOVE YOUR RECIPES AND ALL YOUR ARTICLES. LOOK FORWARD TO THEM. RUBY