This recipe for easy buttermilk biscuits has just three ingredients and comes out flaky and perfect every time.
Basic buttermilk biscuits are a southern staple
We have some fun and unique biscuits here on our site. Sweet Potato Biscuits are a fall favorite, but really they’re good any time of year.
Asiago Cheese and Black Pepper Biscuits are another super easy recipe with a twist. They go perfectly with lots of soups and stews.
Mexican Style Biscuits will make you think of Mexican Cornbread, but in biscuit form. If you love a spicy kick you’ll love them.
But, we thought it was high time we had a recipe here for basic but easy buttermilk biscuits. We worked a while perfecting the recipe because we want you to be sure your biscuits will come out just right every time.
These biscuits are made with just 3 ingredients:
All you need to make buttermilk biscuits is self-rising flour, buttermilk and butter.
If you don’t have buttermilk you can make a substitute with plain milk and either lemon juice or white vinegar. Just put a Tablespoon of one of those acidics in a measuring cup and then fill it up with milk to make one cup. Stir and let it sit for 5-10 minutes before using.
If you don’t have self-rising flour you can make a substitute for that too. For every cup of all purpose flour add two teaspoons of baking powder and one-half teaspoon of salt. Stir well and then re-measure before adding to your recipe.
How to make perfect and easy buttermilk biscuits:
The number one tip for making flaky biscuits every time is to keep your ingredients cold.
Follow these steps
- Freeze the butter.
- Chill the buttermilk in the measuring cup.
- Measure the flour into a bowl and chill the bowl.
- Lightly flour a surface for rolling and cutting the biscuits.
- Grate the butter with a box grater on the side with the larger holes.
- Add the butter to the flour a little at a time tossing after each addition.
- Stir in the buttermilk just until blended.
- Place the dough onto floured surface and pat down until it’s about 1/2 inch thick.
- Fold the dough over in half and pat down, repeating this step four times.
- Roll with a rolling pin or pat down until about 1/2 inch thick and then cut with biscuit cutter in desired size.
- Place biscuits nearly touching on parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned. Brush with melted butter if desired.
Why it’s so important to keep the ingredients cold:
The little grated pieces of butter are what creates the flakes in your biscuits. If it starts to get warm the butter will just sort of “melt” into the flour.
Keeping everything cold means the butter will remain intact. Then, when you pat down the dough you are flattening the butter bits. Your biscuits will then bake into flaky pillows of southern buttermilk goodness!
Easy Buttermilk Biscuits: 3 Ingredients
Ingredients
- 2½ cups self-rising flour
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 stick salted butter 1 stick equals 1/2 cup
Instructions
- Freeze the stick of butter. Chill the measured flour and buttermilk.
- Grate the buttter, tossing it with the flour a little at a time.
- Stir in the buttermilk just until the ingredients are blended.
- Place dough on a lightly floured surface and pat down to about 1/2 inch thickness. Fold in half and pat to 1/2 inch again. Repeat the fold and pat step 4 times.
- Roll with a rolling pin or pat down with hands until about 1/2 inch thick.
- Cut with a biscuit cutter and place biscuits on parchment lined baking sheet nearly touching.
- Bake at 450 degrees 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned. Brush with melted butter if desired.
Notes
Items you may need for making biscuits:
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- Glass measuring cups
- Box grater for grating the butter
- Rolling pin (we love a traditional wooden one)
- Biscuit cutters
- Parchment paper
If you make this or any of our recipes we’d love for you to snap a photo and tag us when you post it to Facebook or Instagram.
More recipes you’ll want to try:
Southern Style Vegetable Beef Soup 
Shrimp and Grits 
Skillet Potatoes 
Pimento Cheese Grits 
Southern Appetizer Board 
Blueberry Crumb Cake with Cream Cheese 
Mini Strawberry Shortcakes 
Spicy Chicken Sandwich with Yogurt Sauce
More recipe sources we recommend:
Meal Plan Monday
Weekend Potluck
WOW, those biscuits look so flaky, buttery and inviting. With just 3 ingredients – this is such an easy to make recipe. Thank you for the detailed tips – will try these out for my family.
Hope everyone loves them as much as we do!
These biscuits were so good! And the recipe is really easy to follow!
Awesome! Thanks for letting us know, Toni.
A nice easy to follow recipe for buttermilk biscuits.
Thanks, Beth!
These look so light and fluffy. I am definetly going to try these with a little sausage and gravy this weekend.
That sounds wonderful!
I didn’t know you could make them eggless..will try this for sure.
Well, that’s a new one on us as we have never heard of putting eggs in biscuits. Hope you’ll enjoy this recipe.
Saw a chef on TV who’s specializes in biscuits and gravy but prior to starting he takes his measured flour and the bowl and puts both in the freezer. When he’s ready to make them just pulls it and the butter out, which has been cut and frozen and makes the biscuits. I’ve thought what a neat idea but I’m only cooking for one now and it takes a real special occasion to make these but always thought I would try his method.
Interesting… same concept except we just chill the bowl and flour.
what temperature do you bake these at ? i did’nt see that in the instruction s!?
Hi Harold, Yes, please check the recipe card for step #7. It starts out “Bake at 450 degrees…”
Enjoy those biscuits!