Biscuits And Sausage Gravy
(Makes 12 servings)
INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs. breakfast sausage (I use Smith’s bulk and sometimes mix it ½ and ½ with sweet Italian in bulk)
¼ cup flour (more if needed)
¼ cup vegetable oil (or any light oil)
3 cups Biscuit mix (Bisquick)
Enough milk to make dough sticky plus enough for making the gravy
Add the following ingredients to taste:
Cayenne Pepper
Black pepper
Coarse salt
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Make biscuits according to box directions or use a scratch recipe if desired. When mixing the dough, use a fork and GENTLY stir until a soft, sticky dough forms. Add more milk if it is stiff or more Bisquick if it is too soft and sticky making sure not to overwork the dough. Coat your hands with flour and turn the dough onto a floured board. Gently knead the dough about ten times adding enough flour to make it smooth and silky. Let rest for 5 minutes before rolling out to ½-inch thickness and cut biscuits with a 3-inch cutter. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes checking to make sure the bottoms don’t burn.
Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat, add oil and break up sausage into small pieces and brown breaking up the sausage pieces into pea-size chunks. When the sausage is browned, remove it from the pan leaving as much oil as possible. If you like more gravy, add a little more oil and allow it to get hot. Add the flour and mix with a wire whisk until well blended. If it is not fairly stiff, add small amounts of flour until the mixture is clumping together. Add milk and stir until the gravy is thickened to a little more than the consistency of heavy cream. Add more milk or flour as needed to make the proper thickness. Add salt and pepper to taste. Use small amounts of cayenne pepper at a time until the desired taste is achieved. Add the cooked sausage back to the gravy and heat.
Cut the biscuits in half horizontally and serve a good ladle or 2 to 3 large spoonfuls of gravy over the biscuits.
Any leftovers are a bonus.
