Buttermilk Biscuits & Gravy for Backpacking Breakfasts: Recipes & Dehydration Guide

When I roll out of my sleeping bag in the morning, I don’t want to spend much time cooking breakfast. Oatmeal and grits are quick and easy, but a savory breakfast of buttermilk biscuits and gravy really hits the spot.

Making biscuits and gravy on the trail is not only possible—it’s fast. All you need is a backpacking pot and boiled water.

So, grab a spoon. Your homemade biscuits and gravy will be ready in 15 minutes.

How to Make Buttermilk Biscuits

Photo: Buttermilk biscuits fresh out of the oven.

Overview:

These homemade buttermilk biscuits are buttery, light, and perfect for backpacking meals—especially with sausage or chicken gravy. For the best rise and layered flakiness, keep the butter cold, mix it lightly into the dough, and bake in a hot oven.

This recipe uses a simple square-cut method that avoids re-rolling and produces wonderfully flaky biscuits.

Credits and thanks to Dominique for making the biscuits and taking the photos.

Buttermilk Biscuits Ingredients

Makes 8–10 square biscuits.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (240 g)
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder (12 g)
• ¼ tsp. baking soda (2 g)
• 2 tsp. sugar (8 g)
• ¾–1 tsp. salt (6–7g)
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter (85 g)
• ¾ cup buttermilk (180 g), plus 1-2 Tbsp. for brushing tops

Ingredient Notes:

Salt: A ¾ tsp. of salt in the biscuits is sufficient if combining biscuits with a savory gravy. Otherwise, a full teaspoon of salt is just right.

Butter: The unsalted butter should be very cold as you mix it gently into the flour. This will help create flaky layers in the biscuits.

Buttermilk: The buttermilk should also be very cold so that it does not cause the butter to melt while you are making the dough.

Steps for Making Buttermilk Biscuits

1. Preheat Oven

Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C)

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Mix the Dry Ingredients

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt.

Photo: Dry ingredients with butter cubes mixed in.

4. Add the Buttermilk

Pour in the cold buttermilk and gently mix the dough with a spatula, so that it just comes together. Do not overmix! This is called “making a shaggy dough.”

A shaggy dough should be:

• rough and clumpy, not smooth
• slightly sticky

Photo: Biscuit dough with buttermilk gently mixed in.

5. Fold & Shape the Dough to Create Layers

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and gently pat it into a rectangle about 1-inch thick.

Rotate dough and fold it over itself two to three times to create layers.

Photo: Biscuit dough after folding three times and formed into a rectangle.

6. Cut the Biscuits (Square-Cut Method)

After the final fold, pat the dough into a rectangle about ½–¾ inch thick.

Cut straight down with a sharp knife to form 8–10 biscuits.

Avoid cutting biscuits with a sawing motion, as this may reduce the rise of the biscuits.

Photo: Biscuits cut, brushed with buttermilk, and ready to place in preheated oven.

7. Arrange the Biscuits

Place biscuits on a baking tray lined with parchment paper so that the inner edges are just touching. This helps the biscuits rise taller and keeps the sides soft.

Brush the tops with a little buttermilk.

8. Bake the Biscuits

Place biscuits in preheated oven and bake at 425°F (218°C) for 15–17 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Some recipes say to bake the biscuits at 450°F (232°C). If you bake them at that temperature, watch them closely after 10 minutes so that the tops don’t turn overly brown.

We have baked biscuits at both temperatures, and got perfect rise and color at 425°F (218°C).

Photo: Baked buttermilk biscuits with golden brown tops.

The best way to enjoy buttermilk biscuits at home is right out of the oven. To turn them into a delicious trail breakfast, let’s move on to dehydration.

Dehydrating Buttermilk Biscuits

Photo: Biscuit cubes on Excalibur dehydrator tray.

1. Cutting the Biscuits

To use the biscuits in the biscuits & gravy backpacking recipes on this page, cut the biscuits into ½–¾ inch cubes.

Or, to make crunchy biscuits that you can spread jelly on or dip in your coffee or tea, cut each biscuit crosswise into two or three slices about ½-inch thick.

2. Dehydrating the Biscuits

Place biscuit cubes or slices directly on mesh sheets in dehydrator.

Dehydrate at 125°F (52°C) for 3–4 hours. Dehydrated biscuits will be crunchy, but they will hold together well.

3. Storing the Buttermilk Biscuits

Buttermilk biscuits contain a lot of butter and buttermilk. Baked goods made with dairy have a short storage life outside of the refrigerator, so enjoy dehydrated biscuits at the front end of a backpacking trip and not as part of a multi-week trek.

Store dehydrated biscuits in an airtight container until you are ready to leave for the trail.

Next Project:

Now that the biscuits are ready, let’s move on to cooking and dehydrating sausage-seasoned ground beef. It's the spicy ingredient that tastes just like pork sausage in the Buttermilk Biscuits & Sausage Gravy Recipe which follows.

Sausage-Seasoned Ground Beef

Overview:

Dehydrating real pork sausage can be risky due to its high fat content and the potential for pathogens to survive during dehydration.

A safer and delicious alternative is to dehydrate lean ground beef spiced up with traditional sausage seasonings. Ground beef used for dehydration should have a fat content no higher than ten percent. Seven percent is ideal.

Adding fine breadcrumbs or ground oats to ground beef ensures that it rehydrates into tender morsels in backpacking meals, rather than into hard, gravelly bits common when ground beef is dehydrated without an added starch.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef (454 g)
• ½ cup fine breadcrumbs or ground oats (50 g)
• 1 tsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. dried sage
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• ½ tsp. onion powder
• ¼ tsp. dried marjoram
• ¼ to ½ tsp. cayenne pepper
• ⅛ tsp. red pepper flakes

Cooking Sausage-Seasoned Ground Beef

Photo: Lean ground beef with ground oats and sausage seasonings mixed in.

1. Seasoning the Meat

Combine all dry seasonings in a bowl.

Pull meat apart into smaller pieces.

Sprinkle seasonings over meat and work it in with your fingers.

Form ground beef into a big meatball and set aside for 10 minutes to let the meat fully absorb the seasonings.

2. Cooking the Ground Beef

Pull the ground beef apart into small pieces.

Place meat in a cold, nonstick pan. Begin heating the pan on medium. This allows the meat to sweat out a tiny amount of grease, so you don’t need to oil the pan.

Increase the heat to medium-high and continue cooking while stirring continuously (about 10 minutes), until the meat is lightly browned and cooked through.

Dehydrating Sausage-Seasoned Ground Beef

Photo: Cooked sausage-seasoned ground beef on silicone dehydrator tray.

Place cooked ground beef in a single layer on nonstick dehydrator sheets or silicone trays.

Dehydrate at 145°F (63°C) for 4–6 hours.

Storing Dehydrated Ground Beef

Store dehydrated ground beef in an airtight container. For storage longer than a month, place it in the freezer until ready to leave for a trip.

Buttermilk Biscuits & Sausage Gravy Recipe

This recipe was shared by Lora, a Backpacking Chef reader from Oregon, USA. It was also tested and photographed by Chef Glenn.

Photo: Buttermilk biscuits & sausage gravy rehydrated for a trail breakfast.

Ingredients:

• 60 g dried buttermilk biscuit cubes
• 25 g sausage gravy mix (2½ Tbsp.) *
• 35 g dried sausage-seasoned ground beef (Chef Glenn’s recipe)
• 10 g dried vegetables, any kind
• 1¼ cups water to rehydrate

* In the USA, look for Peppered Sausage Gravy Mix from McCormick brand or Country Sausage Gravy Mix from Pioneer brand. Otherwise, any powdered gravy mix will work.

At Home:

Store dehydrated biscuits in an airtight container until ready to use them.

Pack dried ground beef, vegetables, and gravy mix in one bag, and dried biscuits in a separate bag.

On the Trail:

Combine gravy mix, ground beef, and vegetables in pot with water. Stir well to dissolve gravy. Light stove and bring meal to a boil. Maintain a light boil for one minute. Turn off heat, stir in biscuits, cover pot, and wait 10–15 minutes before serving.

Lora’s Comments:

“You wouldn’t know the sausage-seasoned ground beef was not real pork sausage, it’s so good! Thanks, Chef Glenn.

I include all the butter and buttermilk in my biscuits, and they dehydrate and hold up just fine. I keep the dehydrated biscuits in the freezer until I’m ready to use them.

This has become one of our go-to breakfasts. So filling and tasty! Hope you all enjoy.”

Chef Glenn’s Comments:

I enjoyed making this recipe very much. It was spicy and creamy, and the buttermilk biscuit cubes had excellent flavor and texture. A true comfort food for trail breakfasts or dinners. Thanks for sharing, Lora.

Chicken & Biscuits Recipe

I loved the way homemade buttermilk biscuits tasted with gravy, so I added another biscuit recipe with ground chicken and two different types of gravy. Both were delicious.

• Gravy Option #1: Packaged country sausage gravy mix.
• Gravy Option #2: Dehydrated creamy chicken soup.

Photo: Dehydrated biscuits, ground chicken, vegetables, and creamy chicken soup powder.

Ingredients:

• 60 g dried biscuit cubes (1 cup)
• 35 g dried ground chicken (⅓ cup)
• 10 g dried mixed vegetables (2 Tbsp.)

Choose one gravy option:

• #1 25 g packaged country sausage gravy mix. (2½ Tbsp.) or,
• #2 25 g dried creamy chicken soup (3 Tbsp.)

Rehydrate with 1½ cups water.

Ingredient Dehydration Skills:

• Dehydrating Ground Chicken

• Creamy Chicken Soup Recipe

At Home:

Pack biscuits in a separate bag from the other ingredients.

On the Trail:

Combine all ingredients except biscuits in pot with water. Light stove and bring meal to a boil for one minute. Turn off stove and stir in biscuits. Transfer pot to an insulating pot cozy and wait 15 minutes before serving.

Photo: Rehydrated Chicken & Buttermilk Biscuits.

Wrapping Up

I’ve covered a lot of ground in this guide to making Buttermilk Biscuits & Sausage Gravy for the trail. I hope you find the “at home” preparations as enjoyable as I do—and that the meals you prepare “on the trail” are memorable and delicious the next time you roll out of your sleeping bag.

What We Covered:

• How to Make Buttermilk Biscuits

• Dehydrating Buttermilk Biscuits

• Dehydrating Sausage-Seasoned Ground Beef

• Biscuits & Sausage Gravy Recipe

• Chicken & Biscuits Recipe

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