Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

Bettie likes a lot of pepper on hers

 Bettie and Lyle are both fond of Sausage gravy and biscuits. Bettie just recently bought me the Southern Living Feel Good Food cookbook. One of her requests was this recipe for sausage and gravy over biscuits.

 I must confess folks, I used Bisquick for the biscuits which were just fine. The gravy was, according to both of them “Great.”  I used a roll Sausage and it was so lean that I didn’t have any drippings to stir the flour into. I used butter for the full amount and did leave out the mushrooms, the recipe calls for as neither of them wanted them.

  If you like this type of breakfast this recipe is worth trying.

Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

 ½ lb. Mild ground pork sausage

¼ cup drippings or butter to make this amount

1 4 ounce package fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced

2 shallots (or ⅛ to ¼  cup onion) minced

¼ cup all purpose flour

½ cup chicken broth

¼ cup dry sherry or white wine (I used Sherry)

2 cups half and half

2 Tbsp. Chopped fresh parsley

1 tbsp chopped fresh sage

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground pepper

Cook sausage in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat, stirring for 3 to 5 minutes or until sausage crumbles and is no longer pink: drain, reserving ¼ cup drippings in skillet. (If necessary, add melted butter to equal ¼ cup.

 Sauté mushrooms if using, and shallots in hot drippings over medium-high heat 4 to 5 minutes or until golden. Whisk flour into mixture and cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Add chicken broth and sherry and cook 2 minutes, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of skillet. Stir in sausage.

 Gradually add half and half and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. 

Stir in parsley, sage, Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Serve warm over baking powder biscuits.

*Use a dry Sherry not Creme or Sweet Sherry