Want a comforting meal with a fun twist? Chef John’s Apple and Pork Sausage Gravy with Dumplings delivers a hearty, flavorful experience without the hassle. In this video, Chef John walks you through making a rich sausage gravy spiced with apples, and loaded with fluffy dumplings.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Apple Sausage Gravy Dumplings.
00:09That's right, I love sausage gravy, which is usually served on biscuits.
00:13But I was in the mood for something a little bit different.
00:16And since I love chicken and dumplings so much, I decided to merge those two things
00:20together.
00:21And what follows is what I thought was a very successful experiment.
00:26And to get started, we will brown a pound of sausage over medium-high heat in a pan
00:30we've greased with just a little bit of vegetable oil.
00:33And we can either use some ready-made sausage from the butcher, or simply buy some coarsely
00:37ground pork and then doctor it up to make sausage.
00:41And we have several videos for that, including a breakfast sausage recipe that would be perfect
00:46for this.
00:47But anyway, no matter what we use, we will break that up while we brown it.
00:51And not only do we want to get a little bit of browning on the meat itself, but also and
00:55maybe more importantly, we want to get some beautiful brown caramelization on the bottom
00:59of the pan, which as you may know is called a fond.
01:03And it really is the key to all great pan sauces and gravies.
01:06And then what we'll do once our pan and meat look a little something like this, is toss
01:11in some diced onion, along with a nice big pinch of salt.
01:15And we'll reduce our heat to medium, and we will cook this for a few minutes, until those
01:19onions start to soften up, and yes, you guessed it, start to turn translucent.
01:25And once I felt like that had happened, I switched to a spoon, and I tossed in a couple
01:29tablespoons of butter, since we are just about to add some flour to make a roux, and for
01:34that we do need a certain amount of fat.
01:37So we will stir that in, and then transfer in our flour, and also put back any pieces
01:42of onion that try to escape.
01:44And then to make a roux, all we have to do is cook this stirring for a few minutes, just
01:49to basically take the raw edge off the flour.
01:52And as you do this, you'll notice the flour is going to want to stick to the bottom of
01:55the pan, which is exactly what we want to happen.
01:59And that's it.
02:00Once we've cooked our flour, which is now officially a roux, for a few minutes, we will
02:04transfer in one large diced apple, that yes, I did peel, but you don't have to.
02:10And we'll stir that in and cook this for a few minutes.
02:12And if you're keeping score at home, I'm using a Honeycrisp, but any apple will work, except
02:17maybe for Golden Delicious.
02:19I just don't like those.
02:21But anyway, no matter what you use, once we've stirred those around in all this goodness
02:25for about a minute, we can go ahead and deglaze the pan with some chicken broth.
02:29And if this is your first gravy video, all we mean by deglaze is pouring in some kind
02:34of liquid that basically dissolves all that goodness from the bottom of the pan.
02:39And you'll see after about a half minute of stirring, the bottom of your pan should be
02:42totally clean.
02:43I mean, you can't really see it, but you will feel it.
02:46You will feel it in more ways than one.
02:49And then what we'll do is raise our heat back up to medium high, since we want this to come
02:52up to a simmer.
02:54And while that's happening, I'm also going to add in a splash of milk, which for a richer
02:58version could also be cream.
03:00Or you know what?
03:01You don't even have to use any dairy here, or you could just use a little more broth,
03:05or maybe even a little splash of cider, which we have around since we're going to use some
03:09of the dumplings.
03:10But anyway, like I said, we'll wait for this to come to a simmer, and we'll reduce our
03:14heat to medium, or maybe slightly under medium, and we will let this simmer, stirring occasionally,
03:20for about 15 minutes.
03:22And during that time, things will thicken up a little bit, as this mixture reduces slightly.
03:27But also, as if by magic, the color of our gravy is going to transform into this gorgeous,
03:33inviting golden brown.
03:35And once our gravy has turned beautiful, we will simply let that continue simmering for
03:39a few minutes, while we move on to mix up our dumpling batter.
03:43And that's going to start with one large egg, to which I'm going to add a splash of
03:47apple cider, and then I followed that with some creme fraiche, although sour cream or
03:52yogurt would also work.
03:54And by the way, not only was the gravy an experiment, but so was this dumpling batter,
03:58since I usually use a splash of milk and not apple cider.
04:02But anyway, we'll also add some fresh thyme, which is a wonderful apple herb and a pork
04:06herb, plus some freshly sliced green onions, and then we'll finish up with some salt, as
04:12well as some baking powder, at which point we'll grab a whisk and give this a thorough
04:16mix.
04:17And then once we have all these ingredients combined very thoroughly, we will mix in the
04:21last ingredient, which is just some all-purpose flour.
04:26And we'll use our whisk to carefully blend that in, stirring relatively slowly, until
04:31the flour just barely disappears.
04:34And as soon as that happens, we will stop, and we'll use our whisk to scrape down any
04:38flour that's on the sides of the bowl.
04:41And then we'll switch to a spatula to clean off the whisk.
04:44And besides that, we'll also scrape down the sides of the bowl again.
04:48And then finally, to clean off our spatula, we'll use a teaspoon, since that's going to
04:52be the best tool to use to transfer the batter into the gravy.
04:56And I should say tools, since we're actually going to use two.
05:00And what we'll do is head back to our still simmering gravy, and we will give that a stir
05:04and a taste.
05:06And mostly we're checking for salt content.
05:09And that was fine here, but I decided to season this up a little more with some freshly
05:13ground black pepper, plus a few shakes of cayenne, which never doesn't make things better.
05:19And then I also like to add a little bit of freshly sliced green onion here, since that's
05:23almost always included in any kind of sausage gravy.
05:26And then last but not least, a splash of cider vinegar, just to brighten things up and add
05:31a little bit of acidity to cut through the richness.
05:34And that's it, we'll stir that in.
05:36And then we'll take our dumpling batter, and we'll start transferring rounded teaspoons
05:40into our simmering gravy.
05:43And if you're transferring in the same amount I am, you will probably end up with 12 dumplings.
05:48But fair warning, you might get 11, or 13, right, there's really no way to know for sure.
05:54And of course, if you want to make them a little bigger, and get fewer of them, that's
05:57up to you.
05:58I mean, you are after all the king of how big to make your dumpling.
06:03But as you're about to see, I think a rounded teaspoon gives us the perfect size.
06:08And that's it, once our gravy's been battered, we will place our heat on medium, and we will
06:13cover this tightly.
06:15And then we'll let this cook for about five to six minutes, with absolutely no peeking
06:19or stirring.
06:20Oh yeah, you heard me, no peeking.
06:22Which is why a glass cover is highly recommended, because if you can't see through yours, you're
06:27probably definitely going to peek.
06:29But don't, just wait five or six minutes.
06:31And then we can uncover it, to reveal our beautiful, fully puffed, relatively firm,
06:37very buoyant dumplings, which if we test with a wooden skewer, should come out clean.
06:43And that's it, we can go ahead and pull that off the heat, and pretty much serve immediately.
06:48Although I couldn't help myself, and dusted the tops with some more cayenne, just to warm
06:53things up, with both taste and appearance.
06:57And then I finished up with a few more freshly sliced green onions.
07:00And this experiment, that I'm calling Apple Sausage Gravy Dumplings, was ready to enjoy.
07:06So I served up too, with plenty of our apple sausage gravy, which as you'll notice, I did
07:12not make too thick.
07:13Or if you want yours thicker, you can add more flour, or you can reduce it down before
07:17you add your dumplings on top.
07:19But this will thicken as it cools, and if you save some for leftovers, it will be very
07:23thick the next day.
07:25So this is my preferred texture, but you can decide on yours.
07:30And that's it, after taking some pictures, I grabbed a spoon and dug in.
07:34And that my friends, for a first attempt, I was extremely happy with how this came out.
07:39And I really thought the balance between the savoriness, and the subtle sweetness from
07:43the apple was perfect.
07:45Although next time, just for fun, I might use a little bit of apple cider, in place
07:48of some of the chicken broth, just for a touch more sweetness, and a little more apple flavor.
07:55And yes, adding that little bit of cider into the dumpling batter worked very nicely, and
07:59these pretty much had the exact same texture as my usual dumplings, that I normally enjoy
08:04with a stewed chicken gravy.
08:06But if there's one thing I've learned about dumplings over the years, they are pretty
08:09much perfect with any kind of gravy, whether that's chicken, or beef, or braised pork,
08:15or even a completely vegetarian mushroom gravy.
08:18My only slight issue with this, is that about halfway through the bowl, I started wondering
08:23to myself, why wasn't I enjoying this with some fried or poached eggs, which is of course
08:28how we almost always enjoy sausage gravy when it's on biscuits.
08:32But whether you upgrade with egg, or enjoy this as shown, I thought this was very successful,
08:38and extremely delicious, and I really do hope you give it a try soon.
08:44So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
08:48more info, as usual.
08:51And as always, enjoy!