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
Happy New Year!
I grew up in Florida, which doesn’t really count as the south with all the New Yorkers, but my grandparents were from Huntington, WV and so I miss all the delicious southern cooking that sadly never had the opportunity to be passed along. At 26, I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know how to make sausage gravy, but you make it look so easy! I’m sure it will be delicious for supper tonight.
Ooooooh, I love sausage gravy! It has to be, hands down, one of the best comfort foods out there. My mom would always make it for us on Christmas day. Of course, the biscuits were always canned and ended up getting burned on the bottom, but that was a tradition. 😉
I’m so going to make me a BIG batch soon! The best thing about this is that it is sooooo yummy as leftovers. I always consider it to be even better the next morning! If there is any left, of course.
Thanks for the reminder. 🙂
Hey Christy,
Just an update. I made the sausage/milk gravy tonight and we LOVED it! I even found Tennessee Pride sausage to use! I have to confess I didn’t make your biscuit recipe tonight. I cheated, making Bisquick biscuits, so I know for certain they weren’t as good as yours (dare I say, y’all’s?) … but the gravy was what we call in the Southernmost state in the U.S.A., “winnahs!”
I was born a person of the Northern persuasion, but I’ll definitely be making this Southern classic again and I PROMISE to try it with your biscuit recipe, when I’m not pressed for time!
Hugs from Hawaii!
— Erika
You are so very welcome and I am making the biscuts and gravy for dinner tonight my kids and daddy cant seem to get enough of them. I am even contemplating making the Sweet Tea. The only why that I get it is from a can or jusg and i am so in love with it. My husband got me hooked on it just before he passed away. So I thank you once again for this wonderful site.
Oh Darlynda,
I cannot thank you enough for this comment. This is what Southern Plate is all about.
You’ve just made my entire week.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Gratefully,
Christy
Hey there I just stumbled on this site and fell in love. I was looking for a good biscut and gravy recipie (thank the lord for google) and found ya’ll. Now I aint from the south, but love to pretend that I am. My grandparents were from Texas, (great great and so on grandpa founded Peacock Texas) so as a little girl I can remeber getting up in the morning and watching my grandma cook up a storm. Now my grandpa built thier home and they had no electicity or running water (yep real little house on the prarie home) but hey it was awsome. So reading all the recipies ya’ll have on here really brings back the memories and now I cook like my grandma and my daughter (only 8) gets up to watch me with her 3 yo brother. They both beg me to make the biscuts and gravey for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even my daddy says that I can bring back his chilhood memories with ya’lls recipies. So a really big thank you from the state of Washington for giving us a little bit of the South.
Hey April!! You are so very welcome! I cannot thank you enough for all of the smiles you bring to Southern Plate!!!
Ruth: I love having you here!!! I need more bacon drippings in my cooking, don’t I? You are sooooooo right!
Erika: You have just lit me up like a Christmas tree with your complements! thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so thrilled to have you here! you holler at me if I can be of any help or if you have any special requests! Hope the humidity passes soon but if not, it is actually a great took to fight against signs of aging! (Always a positive side to everything!)
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂