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
A big thank you for posting the pics! I am 60 now and have always made my gravy this way (my sweet mama taught me to do it like this :).. and to this day, I still have to tear up my biscuits on my plate before the gravy goes on! :D. Also, if you want really soft cornbread,,, put the left over gravy in it! Mama showed me that also <3 . And yes, being here on your site and reading is as pleasant as sittin on the front porch with a jar of sweet tea.,, <3
You are too sweet Joyce, I am so grateful to have you here!!
This is just the way we have always made it and it doesn’t get any better. We have Tennessee Pride in Arkansas but I usually use bacon grease to cook the gravy if not making sausage gravy. I also like to make enough for leftovers! ( leftover gravy is good for anything!!!!)
I LOVE this recipe, and especially the step by step pictures, for making sausage gravy. I am terrible at making gravy from scratch and this one always turns out right. I brown my sausage in crumbles instead of patties and season the sausage with garlic and sage. I use a whisk to make the roux and it gets all the bits off the bottom. I use the pictures every time I make it and my hubby is always impressed that it turns out. Thank you so much for posting this on your blog. I have it pinned on Pinterest so I can always find it. I have not made this in several months but I’m planning to make it for breakfast tomorrow. 🙂
I am so glad to hear you like the recipe Melissa!!!
Christy I have a new flavor for you. I am the breakfast king, at home, at the lake amd at the hunting camp. I make gravy all the time. Its the same recipe as set out herein. My grandmother, Nanny, taught me to make it. Except, as noted, you made a very small batch. I usually plan out my roux (the browning of flour in grease) and milk ratio to nearly a cup of milk per person and never have a drop left over. Anyway, I started using Purnells “Old Folks” Smokehouse sausage. Its made from smoked cuts. It provides a deep rich flavor to the gravy. I found the sausage at Publix. Its made in Kentucky. Smiths Farms in Cullman also makes a good smoked breakfast sausage that gives the gravy a deeper flavor. One more thing, the gravy will turn out creamier if your milk is room temperature instead of right out of the ice box. And never use “blue john” (skim or reduced fat milk)
Took me years to figure out my grandma’s “real” recipe for sausage gravy. She used the bacon grease from the coffee can on the counter to brown the flour! She served it w home canned tomato juice and fried apples…mmmmm!
My Papa always loved to eat tomatoes and cantaloupe with his biscuits and gravy. I never was a fan of the cantaloupe/gravy idea until after he died. Now I eat it just to think of him. It’s a big, warm, happy hug from him.
I have finally found someone in life who put sausage gravy over their cantaloupe. My Tennessee grandma used to do it and the Yankees up in Indiana…one of whom I am married to….thinks it sounds horrible…I say…don’t knock it til you try it!
“Sing it over and over and over again……FROS…TEE…MORN……”
That commercial would play every morning at about 7:55 a.m. on WLS Nashville…when we heard it in my dad’s car we knew we were gonna be late for school!
Too bad we can’t buy Frosty Morn sausage here in North Alabama, but Dean’s is made in these parts…