The Ridiculously Creamy 3-Ingredient Gravy That's Perfect For Jimmy Dean Sausage

Biscuits smothered in sausage gravy is a classic American diner order. Thick and rich seasoned ground pork sausage gravy with fluffy biscuits used to mop it all up. While many (particularly Southern) households do make it at home, it might seem like too much work if it's not part of your family history. For the sake of ease, you can upgrade your canned sausage gravy with some simple tricks, but it still won't taste perfectly homemade. And when you don't want to go with the more involved process of making a classic buttermilk biscuit and sausage gravy recipe, we have the absolute simplest sausage gravy with only three ingredients (and you can still make the biscuits yourself if you'd like).

Whip up a fresh, homemade sausage gravy with just Jimmy Dean sausage, cream cheese, and heavy cream. This sauce is thick and creamy, salty, and wonderfully seasoned from the sausage. While Jimmy Dean sausage didn't take the top spot in Chowhound's ranking of sausage brands, it was the highest ranked raw pork sausage (the stuff in the tube, usually eaten at breakfast), so it's a solid choice. Not only this an easy dish to make, but because it doesn't use any of the flour of regular sausage gravy, it's a great low-carb or keto option.

While any brand of breakfast sausage will do, Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage comes in flavors like sage, maple, country mild, and hot, making it easy to buy and customize to get exactly the flavor you'd like in your gravy. For the proper crumbles, you'll need a 1-pound tube (or roll) of raw sausage browned and drained. The base consists of half a block of cream cheese, and around a half cup each of heavy cream and water, which heats together in a pan. You can change the ratio of cream to water to make thicker or thinner gravy. The key is simmering your sausage and seasonings so that the gravy infuses with the flavor of the spiced breakfast meat. After just a few minutes, it should turn out creamy, buttery, and deliciously savory.

Depending on the sausage flavor, you may not need to add anything else, aside from a little salt and pepper. But if you'd like to kick up the heat, some red pepper flakes or even a bit of fresh, diced jalapeño will do the trick. And if you want some extra sage flavor, but on the milder side, you can add some rubbed sage. It's a very finely powdered sage with a fluffy texture that has less of a pungent flavor than ground, dried sage. As for what to ladle it over, homemade biscuits are, of course, the ideal, but with a good boxed variety, no one's likely to know the difference. Even store-bought Texas toast will work in a pinch.