This is one of those “I’ve Never Made This Before” kinds of things. I knew I’d always wanted to give sausage gravy a shot – but I didn’t want to risk the heart attack of having an entire pan to eat. Some family coming in from out of town this weekend provided me the excuse.

Sausage gravy is one of those “the fatter the better” sauces. So don’t imagine that you can buy the reduced-fat sausage and skim milk and have this work out well. It’s gotta be fatty. Work it off later, tons-of-fun. This is good stuff, and I was surprised at how easy it was to make.

Ingredients:

12oz. breakfast sausage (I used Jimmy Dean)
2T all-purpose flour
2C milk (I used 2%, whole milk would be better)
Fresh ground black pepper
Crushed red pepper flakes

Hopefully you have a cast iron skillet. Heat that sucker up and cook your sausage until it’s no longer pink. Make sure the meat breaks down to tiny pieces about the size of a pea or smaller. After that, powder the flour sausage crumbles and stir until the flour is incorporated with the meat. Do not skim the fat from the pan.

Add your milk and simmer. Add pepper to taste – I like it nice and hot. Other hot sauce will work as well – Texas Pete’s or Cholula would be a great addition. In approximately 5 minutes, you should have the consistency of gravy about correct – you should be able to “paint” a line down the center of the pan when you pull your spatula or tool of choice through the skillet.

Serve over biscuits, or the real overachievers will love this gravy over hash browned potatoes with cheese and eggs, skillet style. Or just pour it into a bag, attach an IV and gravy your way into congestive heart failure. (Not recommended.)

Tags: biscuits, breakfast, flour, gravy, Hot Sauce, sausage, skillet