This healthy sausage gravy draws inspiration from southern-style country pepper gravy and turns boring ground chicken into a flavorful base for thick and creamy biscuit dressing. Unlike traditional sausage gravy, this healthy sausage gravy has nearly 5x more protein than fat! And if you pair it with my Greek yogurt biscuits, there’s no doubt you’ll be shredded by lunchtime.
How to Make the Sausage Gravy
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? My recent recipe for homemade chicken breakfast sausage has been a hit. So instead of making patties, this sausage gravy calls for the same sausage recipe crumbled.
Can I get a yay for zero handling or making patties?
Sausage note: If you don’t want to mix the spices for your own breakfast sausage, you could use reduced fat pork sausage like in my egg and chorizo breakfast casserole or maybe even pre-cooked turkey sausage crumbles like in my breakfast chili.
Aside from the chicken sausage, you’ll only need 4 additional ingredients—light butter, flour, white or black pepper, and skim milk (or any milk).
And that’s it. Cook the sausage, stir in the flour and pepper, then add milk and cook until you have thick, super savory healthy sausage gravy!
Making Healthy Biscuits and Gravy
Like I mentioned in the intro, I used my Greek yogurt biscuits recipe to make gravy pillows. They are easy to make, buttery and fluffy, and have just 3 grams of fat each.
If you go the Greek yogurt biscuits route, you may want to double the biscuit recipe to match the amount of gravy this recipe makes. And if you’d rather spend your saved calories on real-deal biscuits, I won’t judge you for it.
And there are always options like the Carbquick biscuits I used in my hot honey oven baked chicken biscuits recipe.
Final Recipe Notes
Don’t sweat perfection in this recipe. It’s difficult to mess up.
If your healthy sausage gravy is too thin, keep cooking over a low heat (or add a bit more flour). Or if it’s too thick, add a bit more milk. The gravy will continue to thicken as it cools so keep that in mind when serving.
You can always season later. If you’re sensitive to spice, start with half the amount of pepper and add as needed when the gravy is ready. There’s even some wiggle room with the spices in the breakfast sausage recipe that I covered in the original sausage recipe.
And finally, the 3 primary healthy sausage gravy ingredients have all kinds of wiggle room. Something like whole milk or adding a bit of butter will make the gravy even creamier. On the other hand, something like almond milk will reduce the calories even further but you may not need as much.
The flour acts as a thickener and absorbs any remaining oil and fat in the pan before adding the milk. I haven’t tested any other flours, but my guess is they’d work just fine, too.
What I’m trying to say is, it’s all gravy, baby. Have fun!
Healthy Sausage Gravy
Ingredients
For the Breakfast Sausage
- 1 lb Ground Chicken, 97/3
- 2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/2-1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt, or 1/4 tsp table salt
- 1/2 tsp Rubbed Sage
- 1/4 tsp Allspice
- 2 Tbsp 24g Swerve Brown, or a brown sugar substitute
For the Gravy
- 2 Tbsp 28g Light Butter
- 1/4 C 30g All Purpose Flour
- 1-2 tsp Ground White Pepper*
- 3 C 720mL Skim Milk, or your choice of milk
Instructions
- Mix the spices for the breakfast sausage together in a small bowl while you heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add the ground chicken to the skillet, using a spatula to finely crumble. Add the spices about halfway through cooking, stirring until the chicken is evenly coated. Continue cooking until the chicken is fully cooked and crumbled.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the butter, flour, and white pepper to the chicken, stirring until no longer visible.
- Gradually add the milk and continue cooking for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the gravy thickens. Once the gravy is as thick as you'd like, reduce the heat to its lowest setting to keep warm. (If the gravy thickens too much as it cools, you can add a bit more milk.)
I make a variation of these gravy and biscuits for breakfast and dinner quite a bit in the fall/winter. I’ve followed mason for over a year now and decided to take a page out of his book and try different methods with this recipe.
It is always a hit with either chicken or turkey sausage but I have also had hits out of using turkey bacon. (Always leave crumbled up pieces in the pan when you go to make the gravy). And during higher carb days we use Kodiak cake buttermilk pancake mix instead of the carbquick.
This is always a hit with my husband and the biscuits are always a must with any form of breakfast.
We have been making this at least a couple of times a month since we found it. My boyfriend- who is usually not into me turning his southern favorites into healthier meals- loved this! The spice level is perfect for me but probably a tab spicy for someone who can’t have too much.
This gravy was perfect! Definitely a little healthier than anything you can get in the store and so easy to make! I opted to just make pillsbury biscuits, and it paired well with those.
I’ve made this 2 days in a row, individual servings using turkey sausage crumbles because i haven’t been able to find chicken sausage. It’s so good!!! Super quick and easy especially with the turkey sausage just needing to heat. I’ve used with both almond milk and regular milk. Don’t see too much of a difference taste wise.
Delicious and just what I was looking for! This seasoning mix is to die for! Thank you!
Made this for brunch and it was a hit!!!
I’m so thankful for this recipe! It’s my staple when having a brunch get together! My in-laws, friends and family think I’m such a good cook because of this recipe lol! No worries I give all the credit to mason 🙌🏼 We always top ours with an egg and chipotle tobasco!
I actually have never made this for breakfast – I always make this for dinner. I love breakfast for dinner and this is the best option. I only use 1 tbsp of brown sugar substitute to make it more savory!
I made this last month for our monthly “breakfast for dinner” night and it was a hit! I will say, next time I will leave out the red pepper flakes because it was a little too spicy for me with them. All around, great recipe! Felt good to enjoy this along with the healthy biscuits recipe and feel guilt free about it!
My first time ever making biscuits and gravy, everyone loved it.