If you’ve never made sawmill gravy from scratch, this one’s easy and hits HARD boos. It’s creamy, peppery, and full of sausage flavor. I usually make it when I have buttermilk biscuits around or need something hearty to go with eggs.
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How to Make Sawmill Gravy
Step 1: Preheat a saucepan over medium heat, cook the onion in butter until lightly golden, then add garlic and chili flakes and continue cooking until fragrant.
Step 2: Add the sausage and salt. Stir, breaking up the sausage with a wooden spoon.
Step 3: Gradually sprinkle in the flour while stirring.
Step 4: Slowly add stock while stirring. Increase the heat to high and continue cooking until the sauce comes to a boil and starts to thicken.
Step 5: Add cream and season with nutmeg, Tabasco, and pepper.
Step 6: Bring the sawmill gravy up to a boil again while stirring. Remove from heat and cool slightly to thicken.
Sawmill Gravy Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1/4 cup minced onion
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp red chili flakes
- 3/4 lb high quality ground country sausage mild Pine Street Market was used
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 4 dashes Tabasco sauce
- 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat a 4 to 6 quart saucepan over medium heat and begin cooking onion in butter. Once the onion is slightly amber, 2-3 minutes, add garlic and red chili flakes, continue to brown for 1-2 more minutes and then add the sausage and salt. Stir, breaking up sausage with a wooden spoon for another 5 minutes.
- Gradually sprinkle in the flour while stirring. Once flour is incorporated, 1-2 minutes, slowly add stock while stirring. Increase heat to high and continue cooking until sauce comes to a boil and starts to thicken. Add cream and season with nutmeg, Tabasco, and pepper. Bring mixture up to a boil again while stirring. Remove from heat and cool slightly, about 5 minutes, to thicken.
Notes
- Break up the flour. Once you add the stock, whisk out any clumps so your gravy stays smooth.
- Cook out the raw taste. Let the flour cook with the sausage for a minute or two before adding liquid.
- Adjust the texture. Too thick? Add cream. Too thin? Let it simmer. This sawmill gravy recipe is easy to tweak y’all!
- Season last. The sausage brings salt, so wait until the end to add more if needed.
- Fridge: Let your sawmill gravy cool completely, then store it in an airtight container in the fridge. It’ll keep for up to 4 days, just enough time to enjoy it with biscuits!
- Freezer: Freeze your homemade sausage gravy in a sealed container or freezer bag for up to 3 months.
- Reheat: Warm it gently on the stovetop over medium heat until bubbly and hot. If it thickens too much, stir in a splash of cream to loosen it up. Skip the microwave, boos!
Nutrition
Recipe Tips
- Break up the flour. Grab a whisk or spoon once you add the stock and smooth out any clumps so your easy sausage gravy turns out creamy dreamy.
- Cook out that raw flour taste. Let it cook a minute or two with the sausage after sprinkling in the flour.
- Adjust the texture. Stir in a little more cream if your gravy’s too thick. If it’s too thin, let it simmer longer. This sawmill gravy recipe is super forgiving!
- Season last, boos. The sausage already has salt, so wait until the end to add extra.
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Serving Ideas
- Biscuits: This sawmill gravy is any biscuit’s BFF. Pour it over 7 up biscuits, angel biscuits, butter swim biscuits, cathead biscuits, drop biscuits, flaky biscuits, sour cream biscuits, or even some garlic cheddar biscuits.
- Cornbread: Don’t sleep on cornbread! Especially a hot skillet of Southern cornbread, hot water cornbread, or corn muffins.
- Breakfast: Use it as your go-to breakfast gravy over a plate of eggs, hashbrown casserole, or grits.
- Dinner: This gravy ain’t just for mornings! Serve it for dinner over mashed potatoes, white rice, or chicken fried steak.
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Very good! Only change I would make is to double the amount of sausage (I like mine meaty), and that might stand up to how thick the gray becomes with the flour and cream.
I made it with ground beef because I didn’t have any sausage. I just preseasoned 1 pound of ground beef with salt, pepper, crushed fennel seed (optional but it adds sausage-like flavor), papricka, and garlic powder. (I didnt measure but just guessed what amount would be good. I probably used about ¾ teasp. of each. Maybe more pepper. Keep in mind this is just for the meat since there’s plenty more seasoning in the gravy. Mix well with a fork till the spices are distributed throughout the meat. Pack it in a loaf shape, wrap tightly with plastic wrap, then refrigerator 1 hour or longer if you have time to prepare the meat ahead of time. I’m sure it would be fine if you didn’t refrigerate the hamburger after you added seasonings, it just makes the meat more flavored. (Even overnight is good if you have time.)This gives the meat a chance to absorb the flavors as they meld. Then when it comes time to add the meat to the pan crumble it as you cook it. It’s not as fatty as sausage and is a good substitute for people who don’t eat pork or didn’t have any. Since my hamburger was very lean, I added about 1 Tablespoon each of olive oil and butter. (Optional but it added flavor and smoothness to the meat.) Enjoy either way, with sausage or “Fake Sausage” made from hamburger.
This gravy sounds amazing! I am planning brunch, so it will be perfect over Sunday biscuits:)
This really turned our weekend brunch up a notch, everyone loved this recipe thank you!
I would eat this gravy as my whole meal! It sounds amazing and perfect pairing with some eggs and biscuits.
What a wonderful white gravy!!! I would love some with mashed potatoes.
Lordy lordy lordy….nuff said.
That looks beautiful. What are the greens that are sprinkled on top? Is that parsley?