Restaurant Hacks: Hardee's Biscuits and Gravy

Two of my son's favorite activities are going to the movies and eating in restaurants.  He knows where are the best deals are and what specials are running on which nights.  Fortunately, he also plays a lot of basketball.  It is no surprise that restaurant recipe hacks are among one of our favorite cooking projects.

So as I managed restaurants for a number of years, it should come to no surprise that I know how to make their biscuits.  I am not sure they still make them from scratch.  I worked there a life time ago (my son's life time, to be precise).

The full blown recipe is on my other blog.


In the bowl combine:

1 1/2 T. salt
1 T. sugar
6 tsp. baking powder
3 cups flour
1/4 cup vegetable shortening

Having good tools, in this case a beautiful stand mixer of near professional grade with all the bells and whistles, I use it to do my mixing.  You can get satisfactory results just using a large bowl and a large fork.  I roll these out on a regular Formica counter top rather than a butcher block specially designed bread making table.

I use a marble rolling pin, but in my college days any cylindrical object would work with mixed results.  I preferred an oatmeal container or coffee can.  The coffee can leave ridges; the paper on the oatmeal can pick up oils.  Maybe a Big Gulp cup filled with water and frozen would work well.  Be creative, if you don't have a rolling pin.

Preheat your oven (or toaster overn) to 400 degrees.  You can use a piece of aluminum foil to lay these out for baking, or a cookie sheet, a 9" x 9" pan, a cake pan or a jelly roll pan.  I prefer my jelly roll pan as it has a 1/2" edge that comes up all the way around.  A pizza stone could work, or even the bottom of the last pizza you carried out or made from the freezer case.  Just remember, your choice of  "pan" will affect cooking time, depending on color; dark colors cook quicker, edges prevent heat circulation and slow down cooking time. For clear glass pans, turn up the temperature 25 degrees.

Then, I add:

1 cup milk

When this has mixed into a cohesive ball, I flour my counter. I use a air sheet cooing sheet, a marble rolling pin (but any rolling pin will do), and a large wine glass which is about 4" in diameter (to cut the biscuits). At Hardee's they have an actual ring biscuit cutter and a measuring blade so you do no roll the dough too flat. You can eyeball the height and use any jar or glass with a strong, but defined edge. The height of the dough should be about 1/2" to 5/8" tall when you roll it out in preparation for cutting.

You should dust your hands, the glass, rolling pin, and counter before you dump out the dough ball and begin to knead the dough. A couple tips here: If you overwork the dough the biscuits tops will be too flat and the biscuits will be denser. Working in too much flour will also result in tough biscuits. The dough ball should be fairly elastic, but smooth before you begin to roll out the dough. When you begin to lose the elasticity, you have begun to overwork your dough.

When cutting out the biscuits you want to cut out as many as you can in each roll-out of the dough. At Hardee's they only would roll out and cut biscuits twice, discarding any remaining dough after the second cut-out. At home I roll out the dough again and cut out the last one or two biscuits.

When laying out the biscuits I place them touching on all sides in a four by 3 or so pattern on the ungreased baking sheet.


The biscuits take about 15 to 20 minutes to bake, depending on the size and height. Lately. I have been using a much smaller glass and they take about 12 minutes.

They should be a light golden brown when done. Usually I can smell them about one minute or so before they are done. I run a stick of butter over the tops of the biscuits when I pull them from the oven.

The gravy recipe using the traditional flour roux method:

In a medium sauce pan over LOW heat, melt: 

3 T. butter 

With a whisk, after the butter has melted blend in: 

3 T. flour. 

It is important to have a cup of milk measured out and sitting on hand. 

What you are making at this point is a roux. You want to bring your mixture to the bubbling point, but not burn it. The flash point between these two options is very thin. Once the butter and flour has been combined and is slowly bubbling, whisk the mixture slowly and add the milk. I use 2%. I tried to use 1% and it was a fail. 

During the making of this gravy, preferably after all the ingredients have been added, you will want to bring this mixture to a boil for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. This can happen with just the butter and flour in the pan or after you have added the cup of milk. 

Now add the additional ingredients: 

3/4 cup additional 2% milk 
1 tsp. black ground pepper 
1/4 tsp. salt 
1 /2 tsp fennel seed 
a dash of paprika 
a dash of crushed red pepper 
2 bay leaves (Remember to fish these out, they are not a prize! I'm talking to you, Alex L.!) 
2 sausage patties, cooked (I use the microwaveable type), and chopped into 1/4" size pieces 


Simmer at the lowest heat you can for about 5 minutes. I typically start the gravy right after the biscuits go in the oven, and turn off the heat to the gravy and cover after it has simmered for 5 minutes.