With a kiss of smoke, these mile-high light Flaky Smoked Biscuits will rock your world! They’re so insanely good, all you need is a bit of butter and a dollop of honey to be in biscuit bliss. Can you make biscuits on the smoker? You bet you can, and here’s how!
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There’s nothing quite like the flavor of just-off-the-smoker homemade biscuits, and these Flaky Smoked Biscuits are so good that they’ll outshine anything else on the table! Making light, flaky biscuits isn’t hard – it’s all in the technique! Start with super cold butter, and you’re halfway there.
I’ve included a secret and unexpected optional ingredient that turns this smoked biscuit recipe into a keeper! Sour cream! Yes, that’s right. Skip the buttermilk and add some sour cream to the biscuit dough. It adds tang, some fat, and moisture that keeps these biscuits soft and moist during the smoking process.
Grab some ingredients, fire up the smoker, and make these Smoked Biscuits today!
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Butter – I use salted butter for my biscuits. If you don’t use salted, double the added salt in the recipe. Keep the butter extremely cold.
- Milk – Whole milk.
- Sour cream – Full fat.
How To Make Smoked Biscuits
For a complete list of ingredients and instructions, please scroll down to the recipe at the bottom of this page.
Smoking biscuits isn’t hard when you have a pellet smoker. I make Smoked Biscuits in my Traeger, but any pellet grill/smoker will work as long as you can get the heat up to around 425-F. If you’ve ever wondered if you can cook biscuits in a smoker, this recipe is for you!
- Cut the very cold butter into cubes and pop it back into the fridge until you’re ready for it.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
- Mix the milk and sour cream in another bowl.
- Work the butter cubes into the flour with your hands. You want to squish the butter so that it is flat and about the size of a shelled pecan or almond. Pea-sized is too small to create big, flaky layers.
- Stir in the milk-sour cream mixture with a spoon to create a shaggy dough. The dough should be tacky but not sticky. You may need to add a touch more milk to work in all the flour.
- Turn the dough onto a very clean counter and pat the dough into a 1-inch thick rectangle.
- Fold the rectangle in half and then cut the dough in half with a bench scraper or large knife.
- Stack the cut halves on top of each other, then pat it down into a 1-inch thick rectangle.
- Repeat the process: make a rectangle, fold it in half, cut it, stack it, and pat it down into a rectangle, 3 more times.
- Cut the biscuits out of your 1-inch thick rectangle. Don’t twist the biscuit cutter as you cut, or that’ll seal the edges of the biscuit, and you won’t get flaky layers.
- Place the pellet grill biscuits into the fridge for about 20 minutes to get good and cold.
- Fire your smoker up to 425-F, then smoke the biscuits on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet for about 15 minutes or until they are golden brown on top.
- Serve your Traeger biscuits with butter and honey, and enjoy!
This full-color ebook cookbook features more than 50 of Chef Jenn’s tried, tested, and favorite smoker recipes! Enjoy:
- Smoked Beef Kabobs
- Smoked Chicken Thighs
- Smoked Bacon-Wrapped Pork Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers
- Smoked Spaghetti Squash with Herbs
and so much more!
Recommended
Chef Jenn’s Tips
- Warm butter is your enemy when making biscuits. Keep it as cold as possible. The butter chunks will melt and expand (steam) when baking to create flaky layers.
- If your kitchen is warm, pop the flour in the fridge for an hour to get nice and cold before making the biscuit dough.
- No sour cream? No problem – add a touch of heavy cream if you have it. You need 1 1/3 cups of liquid (possibly a touch more depending on your flour measuring) in total.
- It is the folding and cutting that creates the layers. It takes a bit of time, but it is so worth it and creates the most amazing flaky pellet smoker biscuits.
- Cut the biscuits with a thin metal biscuit cutter. Twisting while you cut the biscuits will ruin your efforts to get flaky biscuits.
- Don’t skip refrigerating the biscuits before smoking – everything should be cold, cold, cold to give your flaky layers the best chance.
Storage
Smoked Biscuits are best enjoyed fresh and still warm from the smoker. If you have leftovers, wrap them tightly and freeze them to keep them as fresh as possible.
This recipe makes about a dozen biscuits. If you don’t need that many, freeze the uncooked biscuits and just smoke as many as you need. You can smoke the frozen biscuits from frozen – just add about an extra 10-15 minutes to the cooking time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! As long as you can get your smoker up to about 425-F and maintain that heat for about 20 minutes, then you can smoke biscuits. I use a pellet smoker to make my biscuits.
I won’t lie – this Smoked Biscuit recipe takes some time, and you don’t want to rush them! There aren’t many ingredients, and they don’t cook for long, but it will take some time to work the dough, chill the dough, and then smoke them. Give yourself about 2 hours from start to finish if your butter is already ice-cold.
Yes! You can smoke biscuits that are frozen. Simply pop them into a 425-F smoker for about 20-25 minutes, depending on the size of the biscuits.
Step By Step Instructions
Smoked Biscuits
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter salted, very cold
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/3 cup sour cream
Instructions
- Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
- Mix the milk and sour cream in another bowl.
- Work the very cold butter cubes into the flour with your hands. You want to squish the butter so that it is flat and about the size of a shelled pecan or almond. Pea-sized is too small to create big, flaky layers.
- Stir in the milk-sour cream mixture with a spoon to create a shaggy dough. The dough should be tacky but not sticky. You may need to add a touch more milk to work in all the flour.
- Turn the dough out onto a very clean counter and pat the dough into a 1-inch thick rectangle.
- Fold the rectangle in half and then cut the dough in half with a bench scraper or large knife.
- Stack the cut halves on top of each other then pat it down into a 1-inch thick rectangle.
- Repeat the process: make a rectangle, fold it in half, cut it, stack it, and pat it down into a rectangle, 3 more times.
- Cut the biscuits out of your 1-inch thick rectangle. Don't twist the biscuit cutter as you cut or that'll seal the edges of the biscuit and you won't get flaky layers.
- Place the biscuits into the fridge for about 20 minutes to get good and cold.
- Fire your smoker up to 425-F then smoke the biscuits on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet for about 15 minutes or until they are golden brown on top.
- Serve with butter and honey and enjoy!
Notes
Chef Jenn’s Tips
- Warm butter is your enemy when making biscuits. Keep it as cold as possible. The butter chunks will melt and expand (steam) when baking to create flaky layers.
- If your kitchen is warm, pop the flour in the fridge for an hour to get nice and cold before making the biscuit dough.
- No sour cream? No problem – add a touch of heavy cream if you have it. You need 1 1/3 cups of liquid (possibly a touch more depending on your flour measuring) in total.
- It is the folding and cutting that creates the layers. It takes a bit of time, but it so worth it and creates the most amazing flaky pellet smoker biscuits.
- Cut the biscuits with a thin metal biscuit cutter. Twisting while you cut the biscuits will ruin your efforts to get flaky biscuits.
- Don’t skip refrigerating the biscuits before smoking – everything should be cold cold cold to give your flaky layers the best chance.
Nutrition
A Note on Nutritional Information
Nutritional information for this recipe is provided as a courtesy and is calculated based on available online ingredient information. It is only an approximate value. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site cannot be guaranteed.
