20 Minutes · One Skillet · Scales to 100
The Best Sausage Gravy Recipe Ever (Easy & Southern-Style)
Creamy, peppery and thick enough to cling to a warm biscuit. Made with turkey or beef breakfast sausage, with a batch chart from 2 servings to 100.
- 20 minutes
- Serves 8
- One skillet
- Printable card
Split biscuits, a ladle of gravy and more black pepper than you think you need.
This is the best sausage gravy recipe for a slow weekend breakfast, and it takes 20 minutes from a cold skillet to a plate of biscuits. Brown the sausage, sprinkle in flour, add milk, and finish with plenty of black pepper.
It is made with turkey or beef breakfast sausage, and that changes one thing. Lean sausage does not leave enough fat to cook the flour, which is why so many versions turn out pasty. A spoonful of butter fixes it, and the ratio below works for any size batch, from 8 ounces for four people to enough for 100.
The Ratio Behind Great Sausage Gravy
Thick, creamy and full of sausage: that is what the ratio gets you.
Once you know this ratio, you never need to look up a sausage gravy recipe again. It is the same for 8 ounces or 12 pounds.
1 lb sausage : ⅓ cup flour : 3 cups milk
That is the whole recipe in one line, and it scales to any size. Every pound of sausage gets a third of a cup of flour and three cups of milk, and makes about four cups of gravy.
Fat is what cooks the flour
The flour needs about 2 tablespoons of fat per pound to coat it. Turkey and beef sausage are leaner, so a little butter makes up the difference. Skip it and the gravy turns pasty.
Milk goes in gradually
Dump it all in at once and the flour clumps. Add it in thirds and the gravy stays silky, with no whisking marathon at the end.
Pepper is the seasoning
Good sausage gravy is more peppery than you think it should be. A full teaspoon of coarse black pepper per pound is the Southern standard.
How Thick Do You Like It?
The flour stays the same. Only the milk changes:
| Thickness | Milk per 1 lb sausage | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| ThicknessThick and spoonable | Milk per 1 lb sausage2½ cups | Best forBiscuits and gravy, the diner way. Sits on top of the biscuit. |
| ThicknessClassic (this recipe) | Milk per 1 lb sausage3 cups | Best forCoats the biscuit and soaks in a little. The one most people want. |
| ThicknessPourable | Milk per 1 lb sausage3½ to 4 cups | Best forChicken-fried steak, hash browns, breakfast casseroles. |
The Best Sausage Gravy Recipe
Tap how many you are feeding and every amount on the card changes, including the printable version.
Best Sausage Gravy Recipe
Creamy, peppery Southern-style sausage gravy made with turkey or beef breakfast sausage. One skillet, 20 minutes, and enough to smother a warm biscuit per person. A serving is about ½ cup of gravy.
How many are you feeding?
Ingredients
- 8 oz1 lb3 lb12½ lb breakfast sausage, turkey or beef (bulk, or links squeezed out of their casings)
- 1 tbsp2 tbsp6 tbsp1½ cups + 1 tbsp unsalted butter (for lean sausage — see step 2)
- 2 tbsp + 2 tsp⅓ cup1 cup4¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups3 cups9 cupsabout 2⅓ gallons whole milk, plus a splash more to thin
- ½ tsp1 tsp1 tbsp¼ cup coarsely ground black pepper
- ⅛ tsp¼ tsp¾ tsp1 tbsp rubbed sage (optional, but good with turkey)
- a pincha pinch¼ tsp1 tsp cayenne or red pepper flakes (optional)
- a pinch¼ tsp¾ tsp1 tbsp kosher salt, to taste
- 4824100 warm biscuits, split, to serve
Instructions
Brown the sausage
Set a 12-inch cast iron or heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and break it into small crumbles with a wooden spoon as it cooks, 6 to 8 minutes, until no pink is left. Small crumbles mean sausage in every bite.
Check the fat, and do not drain it
Tilt the pan. You want about 2 tablespoons of fat for every pound of sausage, because that fat is what cooks the flour. Turkey and lean beef sausage leave very little, so add the butter now and let it melt. If your sausage left a pool of fat, spoon some off instead and skip the butter.
Sprinkle in the flour and cook it
Scatter the flour evenly over the sausage and stir for 1 to 2 minutes, until you cannot see any dry flour and it smells lightly toasty. This minute is what stops the gravy tasting of raw flour.
Add the milk in three goes
Pour in about a third of the milk and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan, until it turns thick and smooth. Add the next third, stir until smooth again, then the rest. Adding it gradually is the whole secret to gravy with no lumps.
Simmer until it coats a spoon
Bring it to a gentle bubble and let it simmer for 4 to 6 minutes, stirring often, until the gravy is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and leave a clean line when you run a finger through it.
Season at the end
Stir in the black pepper, sage and cayenne. Taste before you add any salt, because most breakfast sausage is already salty. Southern-style sausage gravy should taste properly peppery, so do not be shy with it.
Adjust the thickness
Too thick? Whisk in a splash of milk. Too thin? Simmer it for another 2 minutes. Remember it keeps thickening as it stands, so take it off the heat when it is a touch looser than you want.
Serve it hot
Split warm biscuits onto plates and spoon the gravy over the top straight away. Finish with one more grind of black pepper.
How to Make Sausage Gravy, Step by Step
Sausage browned, fat left in the pan, flour going in. This is the step that makes or breaks it.
The card has every step. These four are the ones that decide whether your gravy is silky or lumpy, rich or pasty.
Once the sausage has finished cooking, leave the fat in
This is the moment most recipes skip past. Do not drain the pan. That fat carries the sausage flavor into the gravy and cooks the flour. Check you have about 2 tablespoons per pound and add butter if you do not.
Give the flour a full minute
Stir the flour through the sausage until every crumble looks dusted and the pan smells toasty. Raw flour is the most common reason homemade gravy tastes flat.
Use a whisk only if you need one
The sausage itself breaks up the flour, so a wooden spoon usually does the job. If you do see lumps, a flat whisk gets into the edges of a skillet better than a balloon whisk.
Pull it off the heat early
Sausage gravy thickens as it cools. Take it off when it is slightly looser than you want on the plate, and it will be perfect by the time it hits the biscuits.
The Best Pan for Sausage Gravy
A 12-inch cast iron skillet is the classic for a reason: it browns the sausage well and holds steady heat while the gravy simmers. A heavy stainless steel skillet does the same job. Nonstick works, but the sausage will not brown as deeply, and that browning is flavor.
Cooking for a crowd? Move up to a Dutch oven or a wide braiser for 3 pounds of sausage or more.
Sausage Gravy for 2, 4, 24 or 100: Batch Sizes
Use this chart when you are cooking for a different number of people. A serving is about ½ cup of gravy over one split biscuit. If the sausage is lean, add 2 tablespoons of butter per pound as well.
| Servings | Sausage | Flour | Milk | Pan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Servings2 | Sausage4 oz | Flour4 tsp | Milk¾ cup | Pan8-inch skillet |
| Servings4 | Sausage8 oz | Flour2 tbsp + 2 tsp | Milk1½ cups | Pan10-inch skillet |
| Servings8 | Sausage1 lb | Flour⅓ cup | Milk3 cups | Pan12-inch skillet |
| Servings12 | Sausage1½ lb | Flour½ cup | Milk4½ cups | Pan12-inch deep skillet |
| Servings24 | Sausage3 lb | Flour1 cup | Milk9 cups | PanDutch oven or wide braiser |
| Servings50 | Sausage6¼ lb | Flour2 cups + 1 tbsp | Milkabout 4¾ quarts | PanStockpot, or two batches |
| Servings100 | Sausage12½ lb | Flour4¼ cups | Milkabout 2⅓ gallons | PanFour batches of about 3 lb |
Cooking for 50 or 100? Brown the sausage in batches so it browns instead of steaming, then make the gravy in your largest pots. Four batches of about 3 pounds each is easier to control than one giant pot. Hold it in slow cookers on Warm, stir every 20 minutes, and keep extra milk nearby to loosen it as it sits.
Need it on paper? Tap 100 (or any size) on the recipe card, then tap download. The printable card shows the quantities for the size you picked.
How to Fix Lumpy, Thin, Thick or Bland Sausage Gravy
Every one of these can be fixed in the pan. Tap the problem you have:
Lumpy gravy
Take the pan off the heat and whisk hard for 30 seconds; most small lumps dissolve. For stubborn ones, push the gravy through a sieve, then stir the sausage back in.
Next time: cook the flour in the fat for a full minute and add the milk in thirds.
Too thin
Simmer it for 2 to 3 minutes more, stirring. Still thin? Shake 1 tablespoon of flour with ¼ cup of cold milk in a jar until smooth, stir it in and simmer for 2 minutes.
Never sprinkle dry flour straight into hot gravy; that is how lumps happen.
Too thick
Whisk in milk a splash at a time over low heat until it loosens. Gravy that has been sitting, or reheated leftovers, always needs this.
Greasy or separated
Too much fat for the flour. Tilt the pan and spoon off the fat that pools at the edge, or whisk in a little more milk to bring it back together.
With fatty beef sausage, spoon some fat off before the flour goes in.
Bland
It almost always needs more black pepper, then a pinch of salt. A pinch of sage, cayenne or garlic powder helps lean turkey sausage most of all.
Season after it has thickened, since gravy tastes saltier as it reduces.
The Best Sausage for Sausage Gravy
Any breakfast-style sausage works. The thing to watch is how much fat it leaves in the pan, because that decides whether you need butter.
Turkey breakfast sausage
Mild and lean, so it needs the butter. A pinch of rubbed sage and a little extra pepper bring it closest to classic diner gravy.
Beef breakfast sausage
Richer and fattier, with more savory depth. You may not need any butter at all; check the pan after browning.
Homemade, from ground turkey or beef
For each pound: 1 tsp rubbed sage, ¾ tsp kosher salt, ½ tsp black pepper, ½ tsp crushed fennel seed, ¼ tsp each garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme and red pepper flakes. Mix it in and let it sit 10 minutes before browning.
Bulk or links?
Bulk sausage crumbles best. Links work too: slit the casings, squeeze the meat out and brown it the same way.
What to Serve with Sausage Gravy
Warm buttermilk biscuits
The classic. Split them, spoon the gravy over and eat it with a fork and knife.
Hash browns or home fries
Crispy potatoes under creamy gravy is a whole breakfast on its own.
Scrambled or fried eggs
Spoon a little gravy alongside the eggs for a proper country breakfast plate.
Chicken-fried steak
Thin the gravy to pourable and smother a crispy beef cube steak with it.
Toast or English muffins
No biscuits in the house? Toasted bread holds up to gravy surprisingly well.
A breakfast casserole spread
Feeding a crowd? Pair a pot of gravy with a make-ahead breakfast casserole.
Making a whole breakfast spread? Our breakfast casserole recipes can be made the night before, so the gravy is the only thing you cook in the morning.
Make Ahead, Reheat and Freeze Sausage Gravy
| How | How long | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| HowRefrigerator | How long3 to 4 days | What to knowCool, then store in an airtight container. It sets firm in the fridge; that is normal. |
| HowFreezer | How longUp to 3 months | What to knowFreeze in portions. Milk gravy can look grainy after thawing, but a good whisk with a splash of milk brings it back. |
| HowMake ahead | How longUp to 2 days | What to knowMake it completely, refrigerate, and reheat with milk just before serving. |
| HowReheat on the stove | How long5 minutes | What to knowLow heat, a splash of milk, and keep stirring until it is smooth and steaming. |
| HowReheat in the microwave | How long1 to 2 minutes | What to knowHeat in 30-second bursts, stirring between each, and loosen it with milk. |
| HowKeeping it warm for a crowd | How longUp to 2 hours | What to knowHold it in a slow cooker on Warm, stir every 20 minutes and add milk as it thickens. Never leave it out at room temperature for more than 2 hours. |
Save the pin so the batch chart is there the next time you are cooking for a crowd.
Sausage Gravy FAQs
What is the best sausage gravy recipe?
The best sausage gravy uses a simple ratio: for every pound of breakfast sausage, about 2 tablespoons of fat, a third of a cup of flour and 3 cups of milk, seasoned with plenty of coarse black pepper. Brown the sausage, cook the flour in the fat for a minute, add the milk in thirds and simmer until it coats a spoon. With lean turkey sausage, add 2 tablespoons of butter for the fat.
How much gravy does 1 pound of sausage make?
About 4 cups, which is 8 servings of half a cup each, or enough for 8 split biscuits. For hungry eaters who want two biscuits each, plan on 1 pound of sausage for 4 people.
How much sausage gravy do I need for 4 people?
Use 8 ounces of sausage, 1 tablespoon of butter if the sausage is lean, 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of flour and 1 and a half cups of milk. That makes about 2 cups of gravy, half a cup per person over a split biscuit.
How much gravy do I make for 3 lb of sausage?
For 3 pounds of sausage, use 1 cup of flour, 9 cups of milk, 6 tablespoons of butter if the sausage is lean, and about 1 tablespoon of black pepper. It makes about 3 quarts of gravy, enough for 24 servings. A Dutch oven or wide braiser is easier than a skillet at this size.
How do I make sausage gravy for 100 people?
Use 12 and a half pounds of sausage, about 4 and a quarter cups of flour and roughly 2 and a third gallons of milk, which makes about 12 and a half quarts of gravy. It is easiest cooked in four batches of about 3 pounds each and held warm in slow cookers. Tap 100 on the recipe card above and download it to print the crowd-size quantities.
What do I do once the sausage has finished cooking?
Do not drain the pan. Check that there are about 2 tablespoons of fat per pound of sausage, adding butter if there is less, then sprinkle the flour over the sausage and stir it for a minute or two before you add any milk.
What is the best pot to make sausage gravy in?
A 12-inch cast iron skillet is the classic choice because it browns the sausage well and holds steady heat while the gravy simmers. A heavy stainless steel skillet works just as well. For 3 pounds of sausage or more, switch to a Dutch oven or a wide braiser.
Can you make sausage gravy with turkey sausage?
Yes, and it is very good. Turkey sausage is lean, so add 2 tablespoons of butter per pound after browning to give the flour enough fat to cook in. A pinch of rubbed sage and extra black pepper give it a classic flavor.
Why is my sausage gravy lumpy?
Usually the milk went in too fast or the flour was not coated in fat first. Whisk hard off the heat to break up small lumps. Next time, cook the flour in the fat for a full minute and add the milk in three additions.
Can you make sausage gravy without milk?
You can use unsweetened plain oat or soy milk in the same amount, or half broth and half cream. Evaporated milk thinned with an equal amount of water also works. Gravy made with broth alone is thinner and more savory, so add a little more flour.
What is the best gravy for sausages?
If you mean sausages with mashed potatoes, the British way, a brown onion gravy is the classic: onions cooked slowly in butter, a spoonful of flour, beef stock and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. This page is the American breakfast version, a creamy white gravy made with the sausage cooked into it.
Can you freeze sausage gravy?
Yes, for up to 3 months in airtight portions. Thaw it in the refrigerator overnight and reheat it gently with a splash of milk, whisking until smooth, because milk gravy can look grainy after freezing.
Related Reads
More gravy, more sausage and more breakfast for a crowd.
Brown it, keep the fat, cook the flour, add the milk in thirds, and pepper it properly. That is all there is to it.
Pin this best sausage gravy recipe so the ratio and the batch chart are there next weekend.
