The most delicious breakfast biscuits ever! Loaded with crumbled sausage, sharp, cheddar and chives. These fluffy, buttery biscuits are irresistible.
One of these biscuits is absolutely an entire meal. Packed with all the breakfast goodies, these Sausage Cheddar Biscuits are perfect on their own, with butter or split open with a fried egg on top. Just DELICIOUS.
Biscuits always remind me of my Grandma Blanche. Whenever we visited as kids, she would make them and let me stand at the counter on a chair and watch as she combined ingredients in a giant bowl with her hands. She never measured a single thing! Grandma Blanche was a magician when it came to biscuits. I still associate homemade biscuits with special occasions and holidays and I love to whip up a batch of these for Christmas morning. These Sausage Cheddar Biscuits are also great for feeding a crowd as it’s half of the breakfast items baked up into a perfect little package.
My Grandma Blanche’s biscuits were the gold standard but I’m pretty sure she would have approved of this jazzed up version. The best thing about homemade biscuits is that the flavor possibilities are truly endless.
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Tips for making Sausage Cheddar Biscuits
Making biscuits is pretty simple and everyone has their own way of doing it. These are some tips that I recommend to get tender, fluffy Sausage Cheddar biscuits with a golden brown crunch on the outside.
- Freeze your butter before you get started. It only takes about 30 minutes for it to harden up but really cold butter is critical to getting the perfect texture.
- Grate your butter. Some recipes call for crumbling it up in the food processor or working it with a pastry cutter. I find that the easiest way to get a perfect result is to grate the frozen butter with a box grater. Perfect, evenly sized little curls of butter.
- Drain your crumbled sausage on a paper towel and let it come to room temperature before you combine the rest of the ingredients. There will be a lot of fat rendered from cooking the sausage and we don’t need it all going into the biscuits. They would come out greasy and too sausage-y, if you know what I mean. After you brown the sausage, use a slotted spoon to transfer the crumbles to a paper towel lined plate and let it hang out and cool completely before you make your dough. Warm sausage will melt the cold butter that you worked so hard to get!
- Do not over mix. All you need to do is make sure that the dough comes together, over mixing will result in tough biscuits. I highly recommend just getting in their with your hands. That’s how Grandma Blanche always did it!
- I like to shape the dough into a rectangle on the baking sheet, cut biscuits and bake them right up against each other. The sausage mixed into the dough is heavy and this allows the biscuits to push up against each other while baking. This maximizes rise and fluff potential.
What do I need to make Sausage Cheddar Biscuits?
The ingredient list is pretty simple. It’s all in the execution.
- Breakfast Sausage – I usually just grab the stuff in the roll. Whatever you use, just make sure there isn’t any casing.
- Sharp Cheddar Cheese – the sharper the better. I also recommend hand grating the cheese. I always recommend hand grating cheese. The bagged, shredded stuff comes with a coating on it to prevent sticking and it doesn’t get as melty. Plus, we don’t need that extra stuff.
- Chives – this ingredient is totally optional. A few tablespoons of chives adds just a hint of mild onion flavor that pairs so well with the sausage and cheddar. You can definitely leave them out, but I highly recommend using them.
- All Purpose Flour – Spoon and level your flour for the most accurate measurements. Biscuits are pretty forgiving but this is generally a good practice. King Arthur Baking products are my favorite. I order everything from my favorite online grocery store, Thrive Market.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda – This recipe uses both baking powder and baking soda. Be sure to measure the right amount of each as there is significantly more baking powder.
- Butter – freeze and grate your butter. This will give you the best result!
- Buttermilk – not fat free. It’s a biscuit recipe, we’re not counting calories here.
- Salt – I’m particular about the salt I use. I’m particular about everything I use. I use Himalayan Pink Salt in all of my recipes.
Just make sure to savor these and breathe. They’re so good, it’s easy to wolf a few down in one sitting!
Sausage Cheddar Biscuits
Ingredients
- 1 pound breakfast sausage
- 1 ½ cups sharp cheddar cheese grated
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup 1 ½ sticks butter, frozen and grated plus 2 tbsp extra for brushing
- 1 ¾ cups buttermilk
- 3 tablespoons chopped chives
Instructions
- In a large skillet, cook breakfast sausage until brown and starting to crisp. Break it up into crumbles with a wooden spoon while cooking, about 5-8 minutes.
- Using a slotted spoon, transfer sausage crumbles to drain on a paper towel lined plate and let cool completely.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Grate frozen butter and place back in the freezer to stay cold while you measure and mix the dry ingredients.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add in cooked, cooled sausage, grated cheddar cheese and chives. Stir until mixture is well combined and all of the sausage and cheese it thoroughly coated in the flour mixture.
- Stir in frozen butter shreds till well combined. Make a well in the center and pour in buttermilk. Give it a few stirs with a spatula and then use your hands to combine the ingredients just until everything comes together in a soft dough. Do not over mix.
- Transfer dough to a parchment lined baking sheet and shape into a large rectangle about an inch thick. With a sharp knife, cut all the way through the dough into 12 squares. Do not separate the biscuits. They will push up against each other while they bake, causing them to rise and get super fluffy. Brush the tops with 2 tbsp melted butter.
- Bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
- Serve warm on their own, with butter or split and topped with eggs.
Tania Hanson-De Young
I made three of these as an appetizer for a Sunday brunch at church. Everyone loved them. I omitted the chives since I’m not a fan. I cut each loaf into 24 pieces. Great recipe and pretty straight forward. You can prep everything in advance, leaving the grated butter in the freezer, and assemble at the last minute.
Jessica
Hi Tania! I’m so happy you loved the recipe. Thank you so much!
Jazz
I was nervous but these came out perfectly for me. Thanks for the tips. Will be making these biscuits again!
Chenée Lewis
These biscuits are incredible! You’re so right — they’re a meal in themselves, and even better sandwiched around an egg! These were perfect for our brunch this weekend.
Capri
These biscuits are sooo good! Thank you for the detailed instructions! They were so much fun to make!
Marsha
These were absolutely delicious and so easy to make. Thanks for the extra tips as well it really helped. Will definitely be making these again!
Tamara
Oh my goodness these biscuits were so delicious! They were a whole meal in and of themselves but I just went ahead and paired them with a side of scrambled egg. My kids keep asking me when I’m going to make them again so thank you so much for sharing this recipe.