By Christie Vanover | Published March 19, 2017 | Last Updated October 30, 2021
If you’re looking for tender, buttery, flaky homemade biscuits, this is last biscuit recipe you’ll ever need.
Almost all of the recipes on my website are grilled, but this is one of the few exceptions because it’s a main staple in my household. I love biscuits with all things BBQ.
I eat biscuits for breakfast with grilled steak and cast iron skillet eggs, and I eat them for dinner and lunch sandwiched with leftover BBQ, honey and hot sauce. Heck, I even use this biscuit dough (slightly modified) to make cobbler.
If you’ve ever tried to make homemade biscuits, you know not all recipes result in blissful biscuity magic. Some are dense and dry, but not these.
Because this recipe uses both shortening and butter, they’re uber flaky, and one special ingredient makes them really moist.
My secret ingredient to homemade biscuits
Traditional Southern biscuits get their moistness from buttermilk. But who keeps buttermilk on hand? There aren’t that many recipes that use it, and it doesn’t keep for very long.
My substitute – plain Greek yogurt. It keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks and can be eaten plain or used in lots of other dishes. It has the same sour notes as buttermilk, giving the biscuits that authentic Southern taste. Just combine the yogurt with some regular milk to thin it out.
How to get flaky homemade biscuit layers
If you want delicate homemade biscuits, treat your dough that way. Don’t knead it. Don’t stir it to death. Just press the ingredients together and flatten them into a disc. Next, cut out your circles and chill.
Chilling allows the butter and shortening to firm up, so it melts in the oven during the baking process.
You can also bake these on the grill over indirect heat. To bake in a 12-inch Dutch oven, place 20 briquettes on the lid and six under the oven.
Once you master the recipe – which honestly is so easy, you’ll get there in your first batch – then you can try mixing things up.
You can add chopped fresh herbs or 1/3 cup shredded cheese to the batter for a little variety. You can also make these into “Grands” or mini biscuits by adjusting your biscuit cutter size and the bake time. Mini biscuits make fun appetizers.
Flaky Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- kosher salt to finish
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the first 5 ingredients. Add in the butter and shortening and mix together with your hands, until it is incorporated.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the Greek yogurt and milk. Add it to the other bowl, and combine with your hands.
- Dump the dough onto the counter. Do not knead it. Press the dough together into disc about 1-inch thick. Using a glass or two-inch biscuit cutter, cut out 6-8 circles. You can press the edge pieces together to reform the disc, as needed. Place the biscuits onto a lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush the biscuits with melted butter and a sprinkle of salt and bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden on top.
Notes
Nutrition
This estimate was created using an online nutrition calculator
Cobbler
You can adapt this recipe slightly to make a fantastic cobbler. Instead of 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, mix in 1/3 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Combine everything in the bowl with your hands and chill.
In another bowl, mix some fresh sliced fruit (such as peaches or berries) with white sugar, brown sugar, a touch of cinnamon and little cornstarch. Pour it into a deep dish pan. Then, crumble the sweet cobbler dough on top, covering completely.
Sprinkle a little course sugar on top. Bake in a 375F-degree oven or pellet grill, until the topping is baked through. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Can I make the dough before we leave?
Absolutely. It holds well.
OMG, I am so unspeakably happy with these biscuits. They are incredible. I was looking for a recipe that matched what I had on hand, and this one not only fit that bill but it was preposterously little work and these are far and away the best biscuits I have ever eaten. Like, the 45 min prep time includes the 30 min of resting, which means that this were actually about 15 min of work total and I am completely over the moon.
(Note: I did sub lard for the shortening, because that was what I had in my pantry.)
Yay! I’m so glad you like them as much as my family does.