Southern Biscuit Recipe (3 Ingredients Only)
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Crafted with a mere trio of essential ingredients, this timeless Southern biscuit recipe stands as an enduring cornerstone of Southern culinary tradition. These biscuits, embodying a perfect fusion of simplicity and flavor, hold a cherished place in Southern households. Soft, fluffy, and undeniably delectable, they transcend the boundaries of mealtime, seamlessly transitioning from a morning indulgence to a savory accompaniment for dinner.
Each bite carries with it a taste of Southern heritage, a testament to the art of Southern comfort food. The simplicity of the ingredients belies the rich and comforting flavors that emerge from the oven. Tender and buttery, they exude a warmth that envelopes the senses. Slathered with butter or adorned with gravy, these biscuits become a canvas for a multitude of culinary delights, adapting effortlessly to various accompaniments. These flaky butter biscuits go perfect so many types of soups like Creamy Vegetable Soup, Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup Recipe, Vegan Butternut Squash Soup, and Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Ingredients To Make Homemade Biscuits
- (self-rising)
- Shortening
- Milk or buttermilk
Helpful Kitchen Tools
How to Make This Classic Southern Biscuit Recipe
Place the flour into a medium bowl and add the shortening. Cut in with a fork or pastry cutter.
It will look like this when you are done.
Not incredibly different but you won’t be able to really see the shortening anymore once it is incorporated into the flour.
Most recipes will tell you to cut the shortening into the flour until it resembles peas. I’ve never, in my life, seen peas that look like this, or a flour/shortening mixture that looked like peas. It must have been a high imagination day when that analogy was thought up.
Add in your milk.
Stir that milk in until your dough starts to stick together good.
Sprinkle flour onto a surface. I like to lay out a piece of parchment paper and sprinkle it on top of that for easy clean-up later.
Dump your biscuit dough out onto the floured surface.
Now you need to knead it.
However, you don’t want to over-knead it or you’ll end up with my Daddy’s hockey pucks.
I tell my kids “In biscuits, as in relationships, it’s never good to be too kneady.” LOL
Then, I cut your Southern biscuits.
Cut your biscuits with a biscuit cutter or small glass that has been dipped into flour to keep the cut biscuits from sticking to it.
Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and place your cut biscuits in it, making sure the sides touch. This helps them to rise because they support each other as they bake and rise up.
I tell my kids “You want them touching because biscuits are like good friends, they help each other rise up.”
Bake these at 500 for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
Remove from oven and brush tops of these classic southern biscuits with melted butter, if you’d like. Enjoy all the delicious .
How To Store Homemade Biscuits
- Store leftover biscuits in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Reheat in a low oven or in the air fryer.
- You can also freeze the baked biscuits or unbaked for up to 3 months. Thaw both the and overnight in the fridge before reheating as above or following the instructions.
Recipe FAQs
Why does the recipe have such a large range for how much milk to use?
Sometimes, your flour will need a little more, sometimes a little less. I could have used a little more in this tutorial but it’ll turn out just fine. Biscuits are really hard to mess up, so if yours end up a little dry, no worries, they’ll still be delicious! They’ll actually absorb honey and butter a little better. My daddy used to make hockey puck biscuits on Sunday morning but they still tasted good and we gobbled ’em all down! What’s even better, if there were any left we could use them as weapons on each other out in the backyard. Always a plus side!
How do I avoid over-kneading my Southern biscuit dough?
To avoid over-kneading, I press my dough into a ball and then press it out flat. I do this no more than two or three times. The dough should still stretch. If it rips or tears then it’s probably over kneaded. So once the dough is soft and springs back a little, it’s done.
Can I Create Any Variations With This Recipe?
Here are some fun variations to make with this Southern biscuit recipe:
-
- For a savory alternative, add shredded cheddar cheese, chopped chives, or chopped bacon to your dough.
- For sweet, sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar into your dough.
- To make a scone-like biscuit, add dried fruits.
What Can I Serve With These Biscuits?
These pair best with your favorite Southern . This might be fried chicken, , pimento cheese dip, or bacon, egg, and cheese for the ultimate breakfast sandwich.
You may also enjoy these other Southern biscuit recipes:
- Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits
- Pimento Cheese Biscuits
- Easy Chicken and Dumplings (With Canned Biscuit)
- Biscuit Pretzels
- Drop Biscuits Recipe
- Homemade Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups White Lily self-rising flour see notes if using all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 2/3-3/4 cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 500 degrees and lightly spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
- Place flour into a medium bowl and cut in the shortening until well incorporated. Stir in just enough milk until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl.2 cups White Lily self-rising flour, 1/4 cup shortening, 2/3-3/4 cup milk
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead two or three times. Roll dough out to 1/2-inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter or small glass that has been dipped in flour. Place the biscuits onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
Who taught you how to make biscuits? Who made the biscuits in your family? Maybe you’ve never had a biscuit or to you, a “biscuit” is what we think of like a cookie – that’s just fine, too.
When I was a kid, Mom always made biscuits from scratch. I didn’t know canned biscuits even existed. I spent the night with a friend one time and her mom made us breakfast the next morning with canned biscuits. I was so surprised! I went home and asked my mom if she knew about the canned biscuits and she told me yes, but we couldn’t afford them so she made them from scratch. What’s funny is that nowadays I could buy the canned biscuits, but I prefer to make them from scratch for my kids. Not too long ago, my daughter’s boyfriend asked if I could tell him what brand of biscuits I bought because mine were so much better than his mothers. I’ve since taught him how to make biscuits from scratch too!!
Hi there, my mother was the daughter of two born and bred in Missouri transplants, her go to was biscuits or cornbread, I am afraid I wasn’t a big fan of either but ate them because it was what it was and where we lived times were hard so you ate what was put on the table like it or not. I have grown to appreciate both in later years, and biscuits are made quite regularly now.
One time mom and I were down to the bottom of the larder, she had made biscuits with the last of everything, flour, baking powder and bacon grease, didn’t even have enough bacon grease to butter them with! So we ate 2 cold biscuits a day spread with some very thin mustard, and was ever so glad to get the check at the end of the month, so we could stock the larder, never ran out again like that, but it sure made us appreciate the biscuits a whole lot.
I learned to make them from my mother, but we had differing ideas of the perfect biscuit, mom’s were thick and fluffy, and mine are thinner and crispy, but they are still the fastest way to get my husband to the table, bake a pan of them, set the squeeze bottle of Roger’s Golden’ Syrup on the table, along with half a pound of butter or more and watch them disappear! One thing I learned a few years back was to cut them thin (the way I like them) and lay them on the pan, when you have the serving portions you need, butter the tops with softish butter so the next biscuit laid on top doesn’t stick when baked. Bake as usual in a 450F oven for 20 minutes, and when cooled or even warm, split the top biscuit off, put the bottom in a bowl, add on strawberries that have sat on the counter (wild ones are best, but slice store bought and add a bit of sugar) for an hour or so with some sugar, put some whipped cream or plain cream on the strawberries, top with the top biscuit and add more cream and top with strawberries, best darned shortcake ever. This was something my Aunt Sadie was renowned for.
Mmmmm! Breakfast at my Mimi’s house always included hot biscuits and white gravy! Some mornings, we got country ham, but most mornings it was served with sausage patties and scrambled eggs! Even now when I make it for my family, I can close my eyes, inhale deeply and be transported back in time to my Mimi’s kitchen in down south on Chestnut Ridge…some of my favorite memories were made there! <3
I’m on vacation in FL. One of the things on my list to take home is White Lily and I only use it for biscuits back home in MO. It is reserved exclusively for BISCUITS. It is so worth the additional 5# of weight in my luggage. I loved the hints and totally agree that biscuits should be shoulder to shoulder, they just look friendlier!
Yum! Never met a biscuit I didn’t like. A lot.
I always loved helping my grandmother and mother make homemade biscuits. I still love a warm, homemade biscuit right out of the oven. I’m often asked what happened to the missing biscuit on the baking sheet…. I’ll never tell!! 🙂
We lived with my husband’s grandmother “Granny Brown” for several months and she would make Angel Biscuits with every meal. They were always just right! She had a flour drawer in her kitchen for loose flour. She would scoop up flour by the handful and spread out on the counter and then when done would push all the leftover flour back into the drawer for next time. I think that must have been her secret ingredient for the best biscuits ever!