Southern-Style 3-Ingredient Buttermilk Biscuits

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Say goodbye to dry, dense biscuits that barely qualify as food. These Southern-style buttermilk biscuits are made from scratch with just three simple ingredients, and they bake up tall, tender, and buttery every single time. If you’ve got about 30 minutes and a craving for real comfort food, this is the biscuit recipe worth your time.

If you have half an hour, you can make a batch of these classic 3-ingredient biscuits from scratch.

How to Make Southern Buttermilk Biscuits (Classic Method)

This is the traditional Southern method and the one I recommend if you want flaky layers and that nostalgic biscuit texture.

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. You can line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use an ungreased baking sheet.
2. Place the flour in a large mixing bowl and add the butter, cut into cubes. Using a pastry cutter or forks, “cut” the butter cubes into pea-size pieces or coarse crumbs. It helps to coat the butter in a little flour when doing this. Alternatively, you can place the flour and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the butter is pea-sized.
3. Add buttermilk to the flour and butter, then mix well with a spoon. The mixture will be “sticky.” 
4. Sprinkle a work surface with flour, then place your dough on it. Form the flour mixture into a cohesive ball, then pat it into a circle or rectangle about an inch thick. There’s no need to pull out your rolling pin to roll the dough like it’s a pie crust.

1. Cut out the biscuits from the dough. The number of biscuits you get will vary depending on the size of the biscuit cutter – or cup- that you use. If you use a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter, you might get 8-10 biscuits. If you use a 3-inch biscuit cutter, you will get fewer biscuits.

I like to use a drinking glass. You can dip the open end in a little flour to help prevent sticking. When you are finished, rinse it off, then put it in the dishwasher to clean.

I get about 9 biscuits out of a batch of dough.

Place the cut biscuits on a prepared baking sheet or baking stone. Be sure to leave a couple of inches of space between the biscuits. You don’t want them to bake together.

1. Bake them in the preheated oven for 11-12 minutes. Carefully remove them when they have a nice, golden top. Brush biscuits with butter while they are still warm. Store leftover biscuits at room temperature.

Alternate Method: Melted Butter (Quicker + Beginner-Friendly)

If cutting cold butter isn’t your thing, this method works surprisingly well.

• Melt the butter first.
• Pour cold buttermilk over the melted butter—it helps the butter re-solidify into small bits.
• Stir the butter-buttermilk mixture into the flour until a shaggy dough forms, then proceed with shaping and baking as directed above.

The texture is slightly different, but still soft, tender, and very biscuit-worthy.

If homemade biscuits make your heart (and stomach) happy, you’ll love these other biscuit recipes, too. Try Biscuits and Gravy for the ultimate Southern breakfast, or whip up a batch of Butter Swim Biscuits for a rich, golden twist. Craving restaurant-style flavor? My Red Lobster Biscuit Copycat doesn’t disappoint. And if you’re out of buttermilk, my Biscuits Made Without Buttermilk will save the day without sacrificing taste.

If you’re from the South, these will probably remind you of your grandma’s buttermilk biscuits. All you need now is some red-eye or cocoa (chocolate) gravy to top them with. Of course, they are always great with sausage gravy.

FAQs

If you baked these Southern-style buttermilk biscuits, I want to hear about this batch—how they rose, what you served them with, and whether they disappeared faster than expected. Leave a comment below and tell me how this biscuit recipe worked for you (or what you slathered on first).

Because a good biscuit deserves its moment.