Healthier Dinner Biscuits and Gravy

Today we ate a creation of mine--healthier dinner biscuits and gravy. You see, I like gravy. It's a family weakness, you could say. Normally gravy is served with pot roast, potatoes and a mountain of fluffy, buttery homemade rolls in our family. So when I saw biscuits and gravy on a breakfast menu at a restaurant, I got excited. It was a bit of a let down.... The gravy wasn't much more than a nearly tasteless paste. Gravy? That was no gravy.

Don't get me wrong, I do like biscuits and gravy, I just usually leave the table saddened by the lack of real flavor in the gravy. The biscuits were always my favorite part.

One Sunday afternoon while Jeff was away on Church duties, I decided to change up biscuits and gravy. I added vegetables to make it a little more healthy and used olive oil instead of bacon or sausage grease. The biscuits still have shortening in them, but I'm convinced that's the only way to get the best sort of flakiness in...well, anything. Never make pie crust or biscuits (unless you want roll-like biscuits) without shortening.

Here's my recipe for the gravy. I used this recipe from allrecipes.com for the biscuits. They weren't my favorite, but that could have been because I rolled them out a little too thin.

Note: I'm not saying this is the healthiest meal you can make. Just that it's healthier than the normal kind. :)

Healthier Dinner Biscuits and Gravy
Good for four or five servings (two 4-inch biscuits each serving).


1 stalk celery
9 baby carrots (about 1 whole carrot)
1/4 of a large onion
3 Tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 Tablespoons flour
14 oz. chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
1 or 2 bouillon cubes
salt and pepper to taste
herbs to taste
1 cooked chicken breast (optional if you want more protein)

First, dice the celery, carrots and onions. You can see that the celery is very finely diced. I don't like celery very much at all. I only like the hint of it that combines with the other flavors to make something amazing. Therefore, the celery gets chopped as small as possible. The onions and carrots get chopped pretty small too, but I'm not as careful with them as with the celery.

You could definitely use a food processor for this. Mine is... Well, let's just say it's not the star of my kitchen. I usually prefer to hand chop.

Put all the vegetables in a frying pan with a little oil and saute them until soft. I also like to put a lid on the pan so they steam as they saute.

While the vegetables cooked, I made the biscuit dough.

When the vegetables are soft, take them off the heat and set aside.

While the biscuits are baking, we make a basic white sauce. Heat the 3 T oil over medium heat, then add the flour.

Whisk them together until smooth. Let the mixture cook a minute or two until it's light brown. This gets rid of the floury taste. I think I learned that from Food Network....

Whisk in the chicken broth and milk. Crumble bouillon cubes into the sauce and whisk until dissolved. If you want a light chicken flavor, add one cube. If you want more chicken flavor, add two. 

Bring sauce to a light simmer and let it simmer for a few minutes until it's thick like gravy. Stir frequently, or it will burn, but you don't have to stir constantly. If you've let it simmer 10 minutes and it still hasn't thickened, dissolve some corn starch in a little cold water and whisk into your sauce. Then bring the sauce back to a simmer for a few minutes and it will thicken right up.

Don't forget to check on your biscuits and take them out when they're golden brown! I checked on them at just the right moment. If I'd let the timer run out before checking on them, they would have burned!

When the gravy is about the consistency you want, add salt and pepper and any seasonings you want. I like to add Italian seasoning, because it's a combination of very basic herbs that taste perfect in country, comfort-food-type meals. I added about a teaspoon (maybe a little less).

Now, stir in your cooked vegetables and diced chicken. I didn't use chicken this time around, but I did the first time and it tasted great.

Your gravy is done!

Ladle it over homemade biscuits for a new take on a classic.

Oh, and I had mine with some butterbeer. We have leftover cream from Jeff's party last month and an extra unopened bottle of cream soda, so we've been trying to finish those. The foam created by the mixing of soda and cream is fantastic. Since the party I've decided that the cream should go on last and get mixed up at the top instead of putting the cream in first and pouring the soda over it. The first method gives you a frothy top, while the second method gives you a cup full of foam. While I like foam, I usually prefer it as an accent to the soda as opposed to the soda being an accent. ;)