Sausage Gravy
Updated June 30, 2016
Craig Lee for The New York Times
- Total Time
- About 25 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
1 pound bulk pork breakfast sausage
¼ cup all-purpose flour, or instant flour like Wondra
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
2½ cups whole milk
Salt to taste
ground sage to taste (optional)
ground fennel to taste (optional)
ground red pepper to taste
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 to 8 servings)
11 grams carbs; 47 milligrams cholesterol; 244 calories; 6 grams monosaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 17 grams fat; 2 grams fiber; 455 milligrams sodium; 12 grams protein; 5 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Set a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat and cook the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until it is loose and no longer pink, approximately 10 minutes. Taste sausage and adjust seasonings — you may wish to add sage and fennel aggressively.
- Step 2
Sprinkle the flour and pepper over the sausage and cook, stirring constantly, until the flour has been absorbed by the fat and has gathered its flavors close, approximately 2 to 5 minutes.
- Step 3
Slowly stir in the milk and cook at a bare simmer until the gravy gets thick and the roux covers the back of a spoon. If it is too thick for your liking add more milk and stir. Check seasonings and serve over split or roughly crumbled biscuits.
Private Notes
Comments
I've been making biscuits and gravy for over 50 years, and have never really considered a recipe, but this one is spot-on (except for the fennel, but it does list it as optional). One thing I always, always do that isn't mentioned: add a splash of my morning coffee to the gravy. It doesn't make it coffee-flavored; it DOES give it more depth and a less pallid color.
In this end of the world, sausage and gravy with biscuits is practically religion. Mighty fine.
I have made this with chorizo (the Mexican kind, not the Spanish), and sometimes I make my biscuits with green chile and cheddar cheese.
Adding yet another 5-star review feels a bit like gilding the proverbial lily. But this recipe from Sam Sifton deserves its propers. Hearty, delicious, seasoned to perfection! And pure delight served over Samantha Seneviratne’s NYTC Drop Biscuit recipe. I followed the recipe closely though not exactly. I used 2.5 cups of half & half instead of the whole milk as another reader suggested and then thinned the gravy a bit with a 1/4 cup of whole milk. I didn’t have fennel and opted to use 1/8 tsp of dried rosemary (pulverized with a mortar & pestle) and dried thyme. I put in 1/8 tsp of the recipe’s ground sage and red pepper flakes (which also got the mortar & pestle treatment). It’s worth noting that giving sufficient time in Step 2 for the flour to absorb the fats and pan flavors is essential to the beautiful depth of flavor that results. This is a dish that is likely to please the persnicketyest of sausage gravy connoisseurs!
Sausage gravy is never a beautiful food, but this is really delicious.
This gravy was great - we changed the spices to include rosemary, red pepper flakes, black pepper, garlic salt, and Trader Joes mushroom umami spice - no sage, no fennel