Whole Wheat Biscuits & Chicken Sausage Gravy
By: Angela LeMoine
Published: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 - 11:30am

Ingredients




For the biscuits:
2 cups stone ground whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur brand)
5 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, small dice
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup buttermilk
For the gravy:
14 oz sweet Italian chicken sausage (casing removed, I used Premio brand)
1 tsp olive oil
4 Tbsp whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups reduced fat milk
salt & pepper

Preparation

1 In a small bowl mix together the whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Add in the diced up butter and incorporate, with your hands or a fork, a bit into the dry mix. It should look like a course crumble or pea sized flour covered butter. 2 Stir in the buttermilk until just incorporated. You want to make sure not to overwork the dough. Once most of the flour is absorbed into the dry mix remove from the bowl and place on a workable surface. 3 Gently work the dough together into an approx 3/4 inch high round. Using a glass, mason jar or cookie cutter to cut out your biscuits. Work any remaining dough gently back together to continue making the biscuits. I got 10 nice sized biscuits. 4 Place onto a lined baking sheet. 5 Pop into a 450 degree over for 10-12 minutes until the biscuits are cooked through and golden brown. 6 Lets get to the gravy! You can start this while those fabulous biscuits are baking. 7 In a large saute pan, over medium heat, add the olive oil and sausage. Using a wooden spoon break up the sausage as it cooks. Once cooked most of the way through stir in the flour to coat. 8 Reduce the heat to low and add in the milk. Allow to simmer, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened. Season with salt and plenty of black pepper. 9 Pour that delicious sausage gravy overtop the biscuits and enjoy this lightened up southern classic!

About

I am a lover of biscuits but they are so not the healthiest food especially while I am still working hard to  get fit and stay there. I'll be honest, though this is a much lighter version of the traditional I definitely don't classify it as healthy but I totally believe a cheat meal is needed here and there.
I love how these biscuits came out, they were nice and tender inside and rose beautifully. This is a great basic biscuit recipe... want to make it sweet rather then savory, replace the salt and pepper with a little sugar or honey! The gravy is awesome with huge chunks of sweet Italian chicken sausage and plenty of black pepper! On the side, I went nostalgic with steamed peas & carrots.
{I used about half the biscuits for this dinner and the rest with a little jam for breakfast}