About Homestyle Sausage Gravy
Last week I posted about buttermilk biscuits, and now here comes the follow up:
Homemade sausage gravy!
This is another breakfast food that The Husband had to introduce me to in the first few years we dated, and I’m so glad he did – it’s become both my ultimate comfort food and the best way to start a lazy Sunday.
Or any lazy day.
… Which, of course, I try to have as many of as I can.
Today is certainly a lazy day for me – or, more accurately, this whole weekend was lazy. We did most of our July 4th celebrating on Friday, but nothing wears me out quite like alcohol and hot, humid weather, both of which made up about 93% of our Independence Day celebrations.
I can handle a little bit of heat or a little bit of drinking on their own, but together, they are my kryptonite. It drains my energy and takes me days to recover, which means I’ll only have begun to start feeling like myself again come Tuesday morning.
But it was totally worth the cost (fun, friends, and seeing how happy The Boyfriend was to watch things explode) and most definitely worth the reward: I had the perfect excuse to make some gravy and biscuits.
Nothing cures a “good day hangover” more than delicious comfort food, amirite?
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, and if you’re feeling worn out like me, take my advice: whip up a biscuits and gravy recipe, curl up on the couch, and binge watch Netflix for a few hours.
You’ll feel better in no time.
notes & tips about this homemade sausage gravy
- You might have noticed that this recipe is really simple, and that’s the point – it’s supposed to be a base recipe for sausage gravy. So while I personally think this recipe is delicious on its own, if you’re the type that likes to add your own personal touch to a dish, then feel free – this is the ideal recipe to experiment with!
- If you’re looking for suggestions on how to jazz up this gravy, check the comment section of this page – there’s a ton of great ideas from other readers like you!
- Quick tip: an easy way to add extra flavor to this gravy is by using flavored sausage. I know, I know, this point is kinda obvious, but sometimes we get so wrapped up in cooking that we over complicate things and look to flavor everything from scratch. There are plenty of delicious flavors of sausage – maple and spicy, just to name a few – that would work great with this recipe!
- Don’t forget that this gravy can be made in advance and frozen! So go ahead and make those Sunday mornings extra lazy by storing cooked gravy in serving-sized bags and heating them up whenever you need them. (Gravy should stay good in the freezer for a few months).
Recipe Details
Homestyle Sausage Gravy
Get your comfort food fix with this base recipe for classic sausage gravy. Perfect for a lazy morning and ready in less than 30 minutes!
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a large skillet, cook and crumble sausage over medium heat. Once cooked, drain sausage, but reserve 1 tablespoon of sausage grease and return it to the skillet. Discard any excess grease.
Add butter and worcestershire sauce to skillet with sausage heat until butter is melted, stirring frequently.
Dust sausage with flour and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until sausage is coated and most of the liquids have been absorbed, about 3-6 minutes.
Pour milk into the skillet and cook, stirring constantly, for another 5-10 minutes or until gravy thickens to desired consistency.
- Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
Recipe adapted from Self Proclaimed Foodie.
Nutrition
I hear ya’ on the hot/humid combo! I have MS, and those two things together zap my energy like crazy. I wish I were one of those people who rejoiced at summer weather–alas, I am not. But I push through and party anyway! Ain’t got no time to miss the chance to cook for friends. :o)
My husband would surely eat this sausage gravy with a spoon. He loves homemade biscuits, too, but the sausage gravy is his favorite. A good southern boy loves sausage gravy on anything!
Seriously, this heat! But we still find a way to cope to make memories with friends 😀
If you guys end up making the recipe, I hope you like it as much as we did!
I was introduced to biscuits and gravy by a good old southern boy years ago. He Aleah sprinkled some sugar on his gravy before eating it. I do that, too. Calories? What’s that? Some kind of seasoning? 😉
I use your recipe to make 48 servings (12 pounds sausage, 2 pounds at a time in two frying pans) at a shot. To make that much in a timely manner, I preheat the milk in the microwave while I brown the sausage. This saves me 15-20 minutes per batch.
Wow, I’m from the south and the sugar is new to me! I might have to try that one day 😀
This looks AMAZING! I’m definitely going to try this recipe – it looks so easy!
And I’ll try your biscuits with it.
I love your photos too! Gorgeous! 🙂
Thank you Amy! 😀
I am also from the deep South,and I havent heard of putting sugar on gravy and biscuits. There was a black family that we lived close to and ate with. Mrs. Little John would cook biscuits & gravy on a wood burning stove and scrambled eggs. They would pour maple syrup over the biscuits & gravy
and it was really good!!
I love biscuits and gravy! I’ll have to try this recipe whenever I can make breakfast at home. This wouldn’t be easy to make at work, unless it was leftovers. 😉
Sausage and gravy is my favorite breakfast ever! This looks so great!
I make sausage gravy often. I season mine with fresh ground WHITE PEPPER. Go easy with it as it has a different flavor than black pepper. I also add a little nutmeg and a dash of cayenne pepper. Just don’t use too much of any of these spices. You want to add background flavor not over power the sausage gravy. I always add the spices near the end just a minute before taking the skillet off the heat.
This Isn’t good without lots of pepper and some salt. And Half and half is better.
( and I have made with skim milk too. ) but… It’s biscuits and gravy. Make sure you use a paper towel to soak up most of the grease from the Sausage. Totally YUM!!
Try this using one can of evaporated milk then add the whole milk until the right consistency is achieved.
Makes it so rich.
My grandmother always used evaporated milk in her gravy. Her gravy was always the best. I have never added worchestire sauce to my gravy. Sounds interesting.
Tried this tonight & it was great!!! Thank you!!
Not sure why you’d get rid of that lovely sausage grease then add butter to make the gravy 🙂
Also probably want to season with salt and lots of pepper. Milk and flour can be very bland tasting. I like some cayenne to wake me up in the morning as well.
I like using 2 links of mild Italian Sausage and 2 links of hot Italian Sausage instead of adding spices to “heat it up.”
Really not too far off USMC “S O S” made the old way.
I am SO looking forward to trying this recipe. LOOKS fantastic. (I got “hooked” on biscuits n’ gravy during my active duty days at AF tech school in Biloxi, MS)
I am also from the deep South,and I havent heard of putting sugar on gravy and biscuits. There was a black family that we lived close to and ate with. Mrs. Little John would cook biscuits & gravy on a wood burning stove and scrambled eggs. They would pour maple syrup over the biscuits & gravy
and it was really good!!
Can the gravy be frozen?
Hey Ellen! You can freeze the sausage gravy, but it typically tastes better when eaten the same day it’s made. When ready to serve the frozen gravy, thaw it and then heat it up in a pan on the stove. Another idea: Since this recipe doesn’t use the grease from the sausage, you could cook the sausage and freeze that by itself. Still means a little cooking on the day you intend to have the gravy but shorter cooking time.
I am Midwestern raised and this is a staple meal (Breakfast, lunch or dinner)! I always make extra and with my leftovers I take a freezer bowl and put in a biscuit and put the gravy on top. Then when I am in the mood I pull it out and set on the counter. Later I can then pop it in the microwave and heat slowly. Yummy.
Yes I use the same
Recipe except
I use seasoned sausage. I put it in quart size freezer bags and freeze it as flat as I can get it. When I am ready to eat it I defrost it on low in the mocrowave or put it in a pot of boiling water for about ten minutes. Works great! You might have to add a little milk because when reheating it thickens up more.
That is the most basic sausage gravy that you can make. You should try adding some salt and lots of pepper. Adding one medium onion also adds tons of flavor. And Nutmeg Nanny try a little nutmeg a great flavor enhancement.
Hi there ! that looks rather tastie …. I am from Australia and self confessed foodie, up until a few years ago when I finaly buckled and bought a laptop and signed up to the internet, I really didn’t know much about American foods…. Biscuits comes up a lot this is the first time I have actually seen a photo of some, my question are they similar to our scones, we have plain scones, fruit, chocolate chip & cheese scones.. the good old Aussie Damper which outback bushies and farmers etc used to whip up on their campfires and we more ‘modern’ Aussies have tarted up sorry now I’m waffling… My second question which is proably a silly one the sausage meat we get I feel is very sus, so if I just take the casing of pork sausages or whatever flavor this would work..? thankyou for your time and sharing…..
Hey Lindi! Thanks so much for visiting this little food blog 😀 I had to ask around to make sure I could get you the best substitutions, but I think I’ve got it figured out 😀 For the biscuits, these would be very similar to a plain scone or a firm damper. For the sausage, you can use thick pork sausages and remove the casing OR minced beef or pork. Now, for this recipe, the sausage I used already had some flavoring added to the meat, so if this isn’t the case with what you can get in Australia, I know there are plenty of other great seasoning suggestions in the comments on this post that you can check out (especially anything that uses sage – yum!). This recipe was meant to be like a “sausage gravy base” that you can tailor to your liking 😀 Hope that helps!
Traditionally, “Country Gravy” has a bit of sage, salt and black pepper. The best has a slight wave of CAYENNE over the gravy right before you serve it..very slight… =)
looks delicious
… i should try them
Soooooo yummy!!! My husband loves biscuits and gravy! I never really attempted it, but this recipe is awesome!! He thinks I’m the best when I make this. I do add a little worchestire sauce, but otherwise this recipe is yummy as is!!! Too over some yummy buttered biscuits and it’s a party in your mouth! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Anisha! Love the idea of adding worcestershire sauce 😀 Will have to try it!
Looks great!
Thanks Linda!
Great basic recipe. I like canned baby mushrooms in mine. Is excellent over hash browns or home fries. Ah a mound of hash browns topped with sausage gravy, topped with a couple of eggs..you could also add a couple of shakes ot Tabasco. Let’s eat.
Love your additions Mike! I’ll have to try them 😀 My husband is a big fan of eggs with his gravy, too.
This is the best sausage gravy ever! My daughter asked if we could have it every night (we love breakfast for dinner).
I grew up in the west Virginia coal fields and we always used the grease from the sausage or the bacon. After frying the sausage or bacon put the flour into the grease and brown the flour after the flour browns pour in the milk or a 50/50 mixture of milk and water. Stir until it is the thickness you want while stiting put in salt and pepper and add some butter for that rich taste.
That’s exactly how my family makes it. Arkansas. Good gravy!
Charles, you are absolutely correct. I grew up in the South. Still have many relatives in the South. I am 67 years old. My grand mother on my Mother’s side was 4 months from being 90 years old when she died. Both of my grandmothers, one from Kentucky – one from North Carolina made their gravy the exact same way. They used bacon grease!! None of this nasty sausage grease business. All their friends when we would visit would also use bacon grease. Wherever we went throughout the entire South every single person or should I say family made their breakfast gravy with bacon grease!! The first time I ever heard of sausage gravy was when McDonald’s came out with their version of gravy made with sausage. Other restaurants soon followed with the sausage gravy calling it Southern gravy, then Sawmill gravy!! My grandpa worked for the sawmills all throughout the South and guess what – those with cafeterias made their gravy with bacon grease!!! My papa would have called sausage gravy sac religious!! So these people saying they grew up in the South with sausage gravy, I”d very much like to know exactly what part of the South that was! Sausage gravy, if made right, has a respectable taste. However, cannot compare to gravy made with bacon grease! If you love bacon or even like it – you will love bacon gravy!!! A friend of mine has a theory…back when McDonald’s came out with their sausage gravy was at the beginning of the health food/healthy body craze. Which would be better to sell to the public sausage gravy, as you really don’t associate that much grease with sausage or bacon gravy where there is always a whole lot of grease associated with bacon. Good point! We are still in that health craze just not as bad as it originally was. This has bugged me for a long time about sausage gravy being used in restaurants instead bacon gravy when bacon gravy has the far better taste!! Nothing against this sausage recipe at all. But as I said, if you love bacon, and trust me, more people love bacon over sausage, you will love bacon gravy over sausage gravy any day of the week!!
Fry your bacon nice and crisp, no limp half cooked raw bacon here. Remove bacon from pan and put them on a plate with paper towels to absorb the grease. Depending on how much gravy you wish to make and the size of your pan, leave about 3+ tablespoons of bacon grease in pan, less if using smaller pan then 10” skillet. Let the grease gets bit hot again. Starting adding Flour a little at a time until it absorbs all the grease stirring with a fork or whisk constantly. Turn the heat down. You want the Flour to brown not burn. If your skillet is too hot take off heat while you turn down the burner. Don’t let you skillet get cold. You just want to keep your Flour from burning. Put skillet back on burner. Always whisking. Your skillet needs to be hot but not hot enough to burn your flour mixture. I add a can evaporated milk, 1/2 can water, a little mik. Constantly whisking and trying to loosen any of the bacon bits, etc. from the bottom of the pan. Make sure the gravy isn’t burning or sticking to the bottom of the pan. Turn heat down more if you feel your heat is too high. Bring your gravy to a simmer and let it thicken. If it gets too thick add a little more evap milk mixed with water. Add a 1/4th cup at a time depending on how thick it is. Drop it down to 1/8th cup if not that overly thick. While you are doing all this whisking and simmering add salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in. Once desired thickness is reached take off heat. If you have left over gravy after breakfast, don’t throw away. Put in a container. Next day or so when you wish to use the gravy again, either put in skillet or micro wave to warm up or if it to thick just add a little more milk mixed in with a little more water to desired thickness. It will taste great!!!
The only problem with bacon gravy is that it is sooo good, one could gorge themselves on it (eat way too much of it). I am finally glad I got this off my chest, lol.
Sheree, I’m getten to be an ol’ lady. I know this. Bacon grease makes THE BEST gravy. I make it just like you. Always turns out so very wonderful. Everybody brags on it and it just is not that hard to make. Thank you for postin’.
I used a pack of Italian sweet and Italian medium sausage, a little nutmeg and a heaping tsp of black pepper. Poured over Bisquick biscuits and what a hit!!!
i like to use the maple sausage. also will add a lil maple syrup. I like the honey butter flakey layers biscuits….yum
Maple sausage and syrup sounds delicious, Danny! 😀
I made this with chorizo. I also got distracted and accidentally added the flour before the butter. Delicious regardless!
Glad to hear it still worked out, Karen! 😀 And I’ll have to try it with chorizo – sounds delicious!
I personally like to use corn starch in place of flour, if you use too much it doesn’t give a floury taste like the flour does.
Tonyea,
You have to make sure you cook the roux long enough to get rid of the floury taste.
Hi there! First of all.i j uat wanr to say I’m a huuuuge fan of food!! Hehe I just wanted to see what better you used? Salt? Unsalted? Country crock?
Thank you
Hey Annamarie! For this recipe, I tend to use salted 🙂 Though it depends on if I’m using sausage with any sort of flavoring. If it does, I go with unsalted.
I’ve made biscuits and gravy for years. I always use a touch of onion and garlic powder. Just a little…the depth of flavor is perfect. Gives it a perfect zing.
You made me hungry with all this “gravy” talk. I prepare mine as you do in your original recipe but do always add fresh black pepper, a tsp. of soy sauce and between one half to a one fourth tsp. of Knorr powdered beef boullion and a dash of garlic powder. It’s great stuff!
Lloyd Bentley
I also learned how to make a good sausage gravy. My recipe is like yours with one major exception. I use evaporated milk instead of milk from a cartoon. I usually use 3 cans! I’m not sure why this works but it makes for a very smooth, thick, rich gravy. Once you use evaporated milk, you’ll never go back using regular milk…..
I agree on the evaporated milk. I don’t use much pepper but I am not a pepper person. I like to add a little salt, onion and garlic powder and a few shakes of Italian seasoning. This really perks up the taste as well. All of my family loves it.
Yes, I live alone so frz 3-4 small containers at a time. It will need a little milk to thin when you reheat it.
I also leave sausage grease in pan when making gravy, adds a lot of flavor.
I save the water from boiled potatoes, mix it with canned milk
I, too, married a southern boy and didn’t “get” his desire for biscuits and gravy until we happened into a Bob Evans restaurant on a road trip. The B&Q were so good I had to try making it. The bob Evans sausage was the best,but jimmy dean sage recipe worked as well. I eventually perfected my recipe where I felt it was even better than at bob Evans. I make it just like most, but do not drain the meat, just stir in the flour and let it brown so the gravy ends up a rich brown instead of white. Stir in half water and half milk. My seasonings are salt, pepper, onion, garlic powder to taste. (I like to add Alpine seasoning – from Whitefish, Montana. It has msg in it so I just use a little, but it is a great flavor enhancer.) I gauge the amount of flour I use on how much liquid I use… like when making a white sauce. Usually 2 tablespoons for each cup of liquid.
Have you always put the wor (lol sorry not sure of spelling) sauce in it? I have done this recipe before and don’t remember that part.
Hey Amanda! And lol, yeah, that sauce is a mouthful to say 🙂 The worcestershire sauce is a recent addition. Another reader suggested it and it was such a hit at my house I wanted to add it in!
I like to use half sausage and half hamburger meat,also some
sautéed onions. before adding flour I put in two tbsp. butter.
Yum Yum Yum! Looks delicious!
I’m all about lazy days and Netflix binging. That’s actually my plan this weekend. I’m even still in my PJs. With no plans to change that – LOL! I do love a good gravy recipe. This may sound crazy, but I’m not a fan of breakfast sausage so I would likely use a different type of sausage (chorizo perhaps…). However, the boyfriend sure would love if I made this just as is 🙂