Easy Drop Biscuits
Need a quick, buttery, and flakey side dish for your weeknight meal? You'll love these easy drop biscuits! They're super simple to make and have the most addictive flavor. A fabulous pairing with any meal.
This dough is wetter and stickier than traditional biscuits (which use cold butter) but that's exactly what gives them their tender, fluffy texture.
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Easy Drop Biscuits Recipe
While traditional buttermilk biscuits with all their flaky layers are irresistible, sometimes a classic biscuit recipe can just take a little too much time to make. You can skip all the steps of rolling out dough and using a biscuit cutter by making easy drop biscuits instead!
A drop biscuit is so much more simple and requires less technical skill than other more traditional biscuits. So if you're not much of a baker, yet still want fluffy biscuits at your meal, then you should give this easy biscuit recipe a shot.
Drop biscuits have come in handy more times than I can count. Oftentimes, I'm whipping up a a quick and easy meal like rotisserie chicken enchiladas and then I realize that I don't have a side dish to go with it!
That is when I turn to the easiest biscuit recipe for a quick way to make a side the entire family will enjoy. Not only can these be served as a side, but they're great for breakfast too!
Pair them with a breakfast casserole or some sausage gravy and you've got a delicious way to start your day. So let's get started and make some fluffy drop biscuits.
Why You'll Love this Recipe
The main reason I love this recipe is because it's so darn easy. But I also love it because:
- It only takes about 20 minutes to make these buttery biscuits from start to finish. Quick and simple is the name of the game.
- There are no artificial ingredients or flavors in homemade biscuits like there are in store-bought. Even though canned biscuits and frozen biscuits are quick, these are just as fast and taste way better!
- Many recipes for drop biscuits are dry and crumbly. This easy drop biscuit recipe produces tender biscuits every single time — we don't have time for a dry and flavorless cardboard biscuit!
Ingredients
These simple ingredients are all you need to make easy biscuits. Check your pantry and fridge to see if you have everything on hand:
- all purpose flour
- baking powder
- granulated sugar
- kosher salt
- unsalted butter, melted
- whole milk
Substitutions and Variations
While I have not personally tried it, you can use a gluten-free 1:1 flour substitute, such as King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour, to make gluten free biscuits.
You can use salted butter, just omit or reduce the the kosher salt called for in this recipe.
To make these southern biscuits dairy free, use a your favorite dairy free milk substitute. You can also turn these into buttermilk biscuits by using cold buttermilk.
Use this as a base recipe and change up the type of biscuit you are making with any delicious mix-in. Add shredded cheese and jalapeños for a jalapeño cheddar biscuits. Or, add rosemary with the cheese for a sophisticated rosemary biscuit.
Top these biscuits with garlic butter by mixing some garlic powder and melted butter together. I think butter is my favorite part about homemade drop biscuits!
How to Make Easy Drop Biscuits
This is a great recipe to follow after a long day. It is really simple and requires minimal effort. Here's what you'll need to do:
Preheat your oven to 400°F (204°C) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, then set it aside.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
Then pour the melted butter into the dry ingredients and stir gently. Add the milk to the butter and flour mixture and mix until the sticky dough comes together.
The dough will be thick and wet - not stiff like a cut-out biscuit dough. It should hold together in a mound when scooped but not be firm enough that you could roll out the dough.
Use a spoon or large cookie scoop to drop the biscuits onto the previously prepared baking sheet, then pop them into the preheated oven.
Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.
Once done, brush with melted butter if desired and serve!
How to Store Easy Drop Biscuits
Place leftovers into an airtight container, or a plastic bag with all of the air squeezed out. Store at room temperature for 3-4 days. The longer they are stored, the more dry they will become.
You can also freeze leftover biscuits in an airtight container or freezer bag for about 2 months. Allow to thaw before reheating and serving!
What to Serve with Easy Drop Biscuits
These flaky biscuits go with pretty much anything! Eat them on their own with honey butter, jam, Instant Pot Apple Butter or gravy or use them as a side dish. You could even add a sausage patty and some eggs to make a quick breakfast sandwich.
Serve homemade biscuits with meals like sheet pan chicken and veggies or one pan chicken piccata. They're even great with hearty soups like taco soup and Italian wedding soup. And it's a fun addition to a meal like sheet pan shrimp boil.
Bread and pasta go together like two peas in a pod, so serve these easy biscuits with baked rigatoni or lemon ricotta pasta.
I've even been known to whip up a batch of easy drop biscuit with easy ground turkey stir fry because then I've got an extra hearty meal with very little clean-up. No matter what you choose, these biscuits are the perfect pairing!
Tips for Success
While this recipe is simple, there are a few things I can tell you to ensure success. Here's a few helpful tips:
- When mixing the dough together in a large bowl, make sure you are scraping the sides and bottom with a rubber spatula so that all flour mixes into the drop biscuit dough.
- Don't make the drop biscuits uneven sizes. Try to scoop even small clumps of dough to drop onto the rimmed baking sheet. They will all bake evenly and cook through in the middle.
- If you are adding extra ingredients to your biscuits, it is important not to overload the dough! Make sure there is an even ratio of biscuit dough to mix-ins.
- Measuring flour can be tricky! This recipe is a good one to go by consistency and texture. If your dough is too runny to scoop, add flour 1 tablespoon at a time until thick enough to scoop.
FAQ
Traditional biscuits are made with a dough that is not near as moist and has to be kneaded, rolled out, and have biscuits cut with a biscuit cutter. The dough is more pastry like and requires more technical skill to create. Drop biscuits are made from a very wet dough that is not kneaded and not shaped. Instead, the dough is scooped up and simply dropped on the pan to bake! The texture and flavor of the two types of biscuits vary, but both are extremely tasty.
If you end up with a biscuit that is dry and crumbly, you likely added too much flour or not enough whole milk. Make sure you are following the recipe exactly so that the biscuits turn out tender, moist, and full of flavor!
More Side Dish Recipes
Did you make this recipe?
If you make and love this recipe, please leave a ★★★★★ review below! It means so much to me when you try my recipes, and I'd love to know how it goes. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions.
Easy Drop Biscuits
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF (204°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, and set aside.
- Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
- Pour in melted butter and gently stir. Add the milk and mix until dough comes together. Immediately drop biscuits onto the prepared baking sheet and transfer to the oven.
- Bake for 15 minutes until biscuits are golden brown. Brush with melted butter if desired!
Notes
Nutrition
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This is a great biscuit recipe. It’s only six ingredients. Straightforward.
There’s a little crisp on the outside of you bake them closer to 18 minutes. Adding the butter on top per Madison’s recommendation is the way to go. The butter adds just a tad more salt for a perfect compliment.
Overall very tasty. Will definitely make it again!
Should have read the multiple reviews before making these. People who liked it added extra flour, those who didn't got comments back saying they probably measured wrong. If it's a recurring theme, it's time to check the ratios again.
Mixing the butter in first then the milk made it hard to mix with large remaining lumps.
The batter was really runny, they didn't rise, and came out pale and flavorless.
Waste of ingredients. Skip unless you're looking for a recipe for flat, pale, lumpy, flavorless pancakes.
Great recipe! I followed the recipe exactly, except I baked them a couple of minutes longer. Made 12 perfectly sized biscuits! Nice and buttery and salty! I will be making this for the holidays coming up!
My family loved this! Definitely making it again.
Super runny. I even weighed the flour.
Hi Sarah! I'm so sorry you ran into trouble with the recipe, but I think I know what happened here. The standard weighed conversion for flour is 120 grams per cup but when you scoop and level flour it can be closer to 130g per cup, which would definitely cause the dough to be too runny without enough flour. Try 260g next time or just add flour a tablespoon at a time until it's thick and scoopable. Thanks for your feedback though, I have made a few notes in the post to help others not have the same issue!
I wish I could say this was a good recipe however the biscuits were just blah. The dough was so runny I needed to add more flour maybe that was why.
Confident my ratios were correct.
I've made many drop biscuits in my day. Happened to be at my daughter's and didn't have my usual recipe so tried this one.
Thank you for your feedback Patty. I've added a few notes above on some tips to getting the right consistency for these biscuits. So sorry that it didn't work out for you!
A runny disaster that ruined our dinner.
I'm so sorry to hear your biscuits didn't turn out! That's really frustrating, especially when you're counting on them for dinner.
This recipe has been tested multiple times and produces tender, fluffy biscuits when the measurements and baking instructions are followed as written.
The dough should be thick and sticky (not runny) before going into the oven, and after baking for 15 minutes at 400°F, the biscuits should be golden brown and fully set.
If your batter was runny, it's possible there may have been a measuring mishap - perhaps too much milk or not enough flour. I'd also double-check that your oven was fully preheated to 400°F, as a cooler oven can prevent the biscuits from setting properly.
If you'd like to give them another try, I'm happy to help troubleshoot! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the process.