Country white pepper gravy
15 min · 4 g protein · 105 cals / serving
The creamy, peppery Southern gravy for biscuits, chicken-fried steak, fried chicken and mashed potatoes: a quick butter-and-flour roux, warm milk whisked in a little at a time, and far more cracked black pepper than seems reasonable. Fifteen minutes and five ingredients, and made with 2% milk it is creamy without being heavy.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 cups 2% milk, warmed
- 1 1/2 tsp black pepper, coarsely ground
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper (optional)
Steps
- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking, 1–2 minutes until it smells toasty but is still pale. If you have pan drippings from frying chicken or sausage, use a tablespoon of them in place of some of the butter.
- Pour in about a third of the warm milk and whisk hard until smooth and thick. Add the rest in two more splashes, whisking each one smooth before the next.
- Add the black pepper, onion powder, salt and the white pepper if using. Simmer gently, stirring often and scraping the corners, 6–8 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon. It thickens more as it stands, so take it off a little looser than you want it.
Good to know
Why warm the milk?
Cold milk hitting a hot roux seizes it into lumps. A minute in the microwave is enough. If lumps happen anyway, a minute with a whisk or a pass through a sieve fixes it.
Can I use skim milk?
Yes, it works one-for-one and simmers to the same thickness; it is a touch less creamy, at about 51 instead of 43.
How do I turn it into sausage gravy?
Brown 8 oz of turkey breakfast sausage in the pan first, crumbling it, and cook the roux right in its fat. Then carry on as written and spoon it over warm biscuits.
Alternatives
Per
- Calories
- 99
- Protein
- (16%)
- 4 g
- Fat
- (49%)
- 5 g
- Carbohydrates
- (35%)
- 9 g
- of which sugar
- 5 g
- Fiber
- <1 g
- Sodium
- 249 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 629 kcal goes into the pot and 668 g of ingredients comes out as about 635 g of food: 99 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.