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
Now I have to start by pointing out that I’m a transplant. I’ve lived in the South for about a quarter of my life and before that I lived in the northernmost end of Michigan. My grandma (born, raised, and only left to visit the grandkids in Iowa) used to make milk gravy out of pretty much whatever meat she used, so I never really associated it with just sausage much less a biscuit.
When I married a southern woman, and learned that such gravy was a staple, I was thrilled, but for some reason in this region they seem to leave out the “brown stuff in the bottom” and just use the flour and milk. No sausage, no pepper, no salt, no taste.
I’m wondering if it is a regional thing or if I’ve just hit a run of bad luck.
Your recipe makes me nostalgic for my grandma’s cooking, even if it was not Southern.
(And I’ll take sweet tea over unsweetened tea any day, thank you.)
This is just the way my family has always made it… the way Granny made it, the way my dad taught my mom (who is from Idaho) to make it, and the way she taught me to make it. Once when I was a kid, my dad made it for us on a Saturday morning and he was so proud of how it turned out, he kept saying “that’s good gravy, ain’t it”… my sisters and I of course agreed, and he kept saying it so much we got to laughing about it. NOW, years later, whenever ANYTHING is good, we say still “that’s good gravy, ain’t it”… This post made me miss my sweet Granny, I might have to make some sausage gravy this weekend to remember her….
Hi Christy.
I was introduced to Sausage gravy and bisquits about 10 years ago .. and I just love it……but….livng in Canada, Nova Scotia to be exact, we can’t buy sausage like in the states…..I buy ground pork and spice it up…. but have never come up with the right taste….. do you have ideas or recipes to give it the “southern” taste. ? That is what we miss, mine tastes OK but it lacks tthe “southern flavor”. Hope you can help me. Thanks
Hey Rosemary! Have you tried sage?
I’ll add making homemade sausage to my list of recipes I need to get up but sage is probably just what you need!
Gratefully
Christy 🙂
Thanks Christy, I will try that…..never did add sage
I keep missing the PRINT button on the recipes…?? This is classic dish…will have to make it your way next time… yummm…..
Just tried this dish, and it’s absolutely delicious. It could have been a little spicier, so I think next time I’ll pick up some spicy sausage, or maybe put in a couple splashes of Tabasco. I’m also going to give the southernplate biscuit recipe a try next; canned biscuits will do in a pinch, but I’m not going to think of myself as an accomplished Southern cook until I make biscuits and gravy completely from scratch. Thanks Christy!
I was raised in Missouri and always thought of myself as Southern until I moved to Georgia. They set me straight on that real fast. So I will claim this as part of my Mammo’s Kentucky lineage. We always cooked the sausage chopped up and left in the gravy. The first time I made this for my true Yank (Illinois) husband he didn’t want to eat it. He was 24 and I couldn’t believe he had NEVER had biscuits and gravy for breakfast. After I convinced him that he had led a neglected and abused childhood he gave it a taste and now it’s his favorite breakfast. He even thinks he makes it better than me. I have graciously allowed him to continue in his fairytale land because this gives me a break from Saturday morning cooking from time to time.
Smart lady!
I only found one thing wrong with this recipe. You didn’t make nearly enough gravy!