Master Chef Contest Savory Second Runner-Up: Rib-Sticking Biscuits and Gravy

Scouting Magazine Master Chef Contest Savory Second Runner-Up
Rib-Sticking Biscuits and Gravy, by Mark Daspit

Judges’ Comments: A cowboy might try to tell you there’s nothing more satisfying than a Dutch oven full of hot biscuits in the morning. But they’d be spinning a yarn because Mark Daspit’s biscuits and gravy recipe just took this buckaroo favorite up a notch!

What you’ll need:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground white pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 2 (1-pound) containers breakfast sausage
• 1/2 gallon whole milk
• 2 (7.5-ounce) containers regular-size Pillsbury biscuits

What you’ll do:

1. Light and heat 25 briquettes.
2. Add flour, salt, ground peppers and nutmeg together in a ziplock bag. Seal bag and shake well.
3. Preheat Dutch oven over 15 coals.
4. Add sausage to oven and break into small chunks with a spatula. Cook thoroughly, but not until crispy.
5. Evenly sprinkle flour mixture from ziplock bag over sausage and stir.
6. Allow flour to cook for about 30 seconds to saturate in sausage grease and coat the pieces, making a roux.
7. Pour milk into oven and stir.
8. Place lid on oven and add remaining 10 coals on top.
9. Occasionally remove lid to stir. Once gravy has reached a boil and thickened to desired consistency, remove oven from coals to prevent gravy from burning.
10. Open tubes of biscuits and evenly distribute over gravy, completely covering the top surface. The thickness of the gravy will support the biscuits. Do not submerge the biscuits! Otherwise, they won’t brown.
11. Replace lid on oven and set 17 coals on lid and 8 coals underneath. Refresh coals if necessary.
12. Bake for about 15 minutes, checking biscuits after 5 minutes and rotating lid a quarter-turn.
13. Serve once biscuits are golden brown. Use a large spoon to pull out a biscuit then ladle gravy over the top.

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Find even more Dutch oven recipes at scoutingmagazine.org/dutchoven.

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About the judges: Tim and Christine Conners are proud parents of two Scouts and authors of several camping cookbooks. Find their books at local Scout shops or at booksbyconners.com.