Grilled Honey Biscuits with Thyme: A Flaky, Smoky Delight for Your Grill
Imagine the delightful aroma of freshly baked biscuits, but with an irresistible smoky undertone. That’s precisely what you get with these Grilled Honey Biscuits with Thyme. These aren’t just any biscuits; they are flaky, savory buttermilk biscuits, subtly sweetened with honey and infused with fragrant thyme, all expertly baked on your Big Green Egg or gas grill. Preparing these culinary gems on the grill elevates them to a whole new level, offering a unique flavor profile that perfectly complements any barbecue spread or adds a special touch to your breakfast table. The gentle kiss of smoke from the grill transforms a classic comfort food into an extraordinary experience, making them an ideal side dish or a standalone treat. Why confine your baking to the oven when your grill can unlock such incredible flavors? The next time you fire up your grill for dinner, make sure to save some space for these exceptional biscuits!
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Discovering the Magic of Honey Biscuits
The inspiration for these delectable honey biscuits came from a simple pleasure: spreading honey butter on warm, homemade biscuits. It sparked an idea – why not incorporate that sweet, golden goodness directly into the biscuit dough itself? The result is a biscuit that’s wonderfully tender, richly flavored, and has that signature hint of honey baked right in. While my initial experiments led me to use our Big Green Egg kamado-style cooker, these versatile biscuits can be baked to perfection in a conventional oven, too. The grill simply adds an extra layer of smoky complexity that’s hard to resist.
Essentially, a honey biscuit is a beautiful, buttery, made-from-scratch biscuit with a delicate touch of honey in the dough. My journey began by adapting my tried-and-true Southern Buttermilk Biscuit recipe. The modification was straightforward yet impactful: I simply replaced a portion of the buttermilk with natural honey, achieving a delightful balance of savory and sweet. This simple substitution infuses every bite with a subtle honey flavor, making these biscuits uniquely irresistible. They offer a comforting familiarity with an exciting twist, perfect for breakfast, brunch, or alongside your favorite savory meal.
Explore More Big Green Egg Recipes
For those who love to cook outdoors and appreciate the unique flavors imparted by a Big Green Egg, here are some other fantastic recipes that celebrate the art of grilling and smoking:
The Art of Cooking Biscuits on the Grill for Smoky Flavor
My passion for biscuits runs deep, so much so that my son affectionately gave me the trail name “Biscuits” during a camping trip. This moniker was earned through sheer determination, as I embarked on a personal quest to create the perfect breakfast biscuits over a campfire. That summer, I hiked 167 miles of the Appalachian Trail solo, and every morning of that adventure, I attempted to bake biscuits using every method imaginable: on a Coleman stove, directly over the fire, in various pans, wrapped around sticks, and on a griddle. Each attempt met with failure, until I finally discovered the secret: indirect heat in a covered pan by the fire. Just as I achieved biscuit perfection, disaster struck – I burned myself and dropped the pan, scattering my precious biscuits into the dirt. And so, “Biscuits” I became.
This personal journey highlights the challenges and rewards of outdoor baking. For our honey biscuits, we’re not aiming for the rustic, open-fire method that gave me my trail name. Instead, we’re employing a much more controlled and reliable technique: cooking our honey biscuits over indirect heat in a Big Green Egg kamado-style cooker or a conventional gas grill. This method essentially transforms your grill into a high-performance outdoor oven, allowing the biscuits to bake evenly and thoroughly. The key difference, and indeed the magic, is the subtle yet distinct smoky flavor that the Big Green Egg or gas grill imparts. This unique smoky essence elevates the familiar comfort of a buttermilk biscuit, creating a truly unforgettable culinary experience that you simply cannot replicate in a standard indoor oven. It’s the ideal way to add depth and character to your homemade biscuits, making them a standout at any meal.
Essential Honey Biscuit Ingredients
Crafting perfect honey biscuits begins with selecting the right ingredients. Each component plays a crucial role in achieving that desired flaky texture, rich flavor, and beautiful rise. Here’s a closer look at what you’ll need and why each element is important:
- Unsalted Butter: This is an absolute must for achieving flaky, buttery biscuits. We use sweet cream, unsalted butter, and it must be very cold when you start to create those desirable layers. A small amount is also melted to brush over the tops of the hot, cooked biscuits for an extra touch of richness and shine.
- All-Purpose Flour: The foundational ingredient, providing structure to our biscuits. While other flours can be used, all-purpose flour offers the best balance for tenderness and chewiness.
- Baking Powder: Our primary leavening agent. When baking powder reacts with the acid in buttermilk, it produces carbon dioxide gas, which creates air pockets and gives the biscuits their characteristic rise and lightness.
- Kosher Salt: Enhances all the flavors in the biscuit, balancing the sweetness of the honey and bringing out the richness of the butter.
- Buttermilk: Essential for tender biscuits with a slight tang. The acidity of buttermilk reacts with the baking powder, contributing significantly to the biscuit’s rise. Always remember to shake your buttermilk well before using, as the solids can separate in the container.
- Honey: The star ingredient that gives these biscuits their name and unique sweet note. It’s incorporated directly into the dough, providing a more consistent and integrated flavor than just a honey glaze.
- Fresh Thyme Leaves: A wonderful herb that introduces a savory, earthy, and slightly floral aroma that pairs surprisingly well with the sweetness of honey. It adds an unexpected depth of flavor that sets these biscuits apart. Thyme is also incredibly easy to grow, whether in a garden bed or a small indoor pot. To efficiently remove the leaves, simply hold a stem at the top and run your fingers downwards. For very delicate, non-woody stems, you can even chop them directly with the leaves to save time.
The Steps for Preparation: Crafting Your Honey Biscuits
Preparing these grilled honey biscuits follows a similar process to traditional biscuit making, with a few key steps to ensure optimal flakiness and flavor. The goal is to work quickly and gently, keeping ingredients cold to achieve that perfect rise and texture.
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First things first, get your grill ready. Preheat your Big Green Egg or gas grill to a steady 450°F (232°C). If you’re using a Big Green Egg, set up the convEGGtor with its legs pointing upwards, which creates the indirect heat zone essential for baking. For a gas grill, you’ll achieve indirect heat by turning off specific burners, as detailed in the grilling instructions below.
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In the bowl of a food processor, combine your very cold, cubed unsalted butter, all-purpose flour, baking powder, kosher salt, and fresh thyme leaves. Pulse the mixture in short bursts until the butter is broken down into small, pea-sized bits and evenly distributed throughout the flour. This process is crucial for creating those flaky layers in the final biscuit. If you don’t have a food processor, a pastry cutter or two knives can achieve the same result, just be sure to work quickly to keep the butter cold.
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Transfer the butter-flour mixture from the food processor to a large mixing bowl. Add the chilled buttermilk and the honey. Using a fork, gently stir the ingredients together until they are just incorporated. Be careful not to overmix; the dough should look shaggy and just come together, not smooth. Overmixing develops gluten, which can lead to tough biscuits.
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Lightly flour a clean work surface and turn out the biscuit dough. Sprinkle a little more flour over the top of the dough. Using your hands, quickly form the dough into a large disk, approximately 1 to 1½ inches thick. Remember, avoid overworking or kneading the dough excessively, as this can warm the butter and prevent flakiness. If the mixture seems a little crumbly, gently push it together – it will come together as you shape it. Now, take a 2½-inch biscuit cutter and press it straight down into the dough to cut out your biscuits. The key here is to push straight down, not twist, as twisting can seal the edges and inhibit the biscuits from rising properly. Carefully transfer your cut biscuits into a cast iron pan.
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Place the cast iron pan with the biscuits directly onto the grill grate over indirect heat. Close the grill lid and bake at 450°F (232°C) for 12-15 minutes, or until the biscuits are cooked through, beautifully golden brown on top, and the internal temperature reaches around 200-210°F (93-99°C). The exact cooking time may vary slightly depending on your grill and ambient temperature, so keep an eye on them.
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Once the biscuits are perfectly baked, carefully remove the pan from the grill. Brush the tops of the hot biscuits with the remaining melted unsalted butter. This adds an extra layer of flavor and gives them a beautiful, glossy finish. Serve immediately and enjoy the warm, flaky, smoky-sweet goodness!
For indirect heat on the Big Green Egg: Position the convEGGtor (plate setter) with the legs pointing upward directly under the grill grate. Place your cast iron pan on the grill grate over the convEGGtor. This creates a barrier between the direct heat and your biscuits, allowing them to bake gently and evenly, much like in an oven.
For indirect heat in a gas grill: Preheat your entire gas grill with all burners on until it reaches 450°F (232°C). Once preheated, turn off two burners on one side of the grill. Place your cast iron pan with the honey biscuits over the burners that are now off. The remaining active burners will maintain the desired temperature, circulating heat around the biscuits and ensuring they bake without burning the bottoms.
Expert Tips and FAQs for Grilling Biscuits
Grilling biscuits might seem unconventional, but with a few tips, you’ll master this technique and consistently produce delicious, smoky, flaky biscuits. Here are some answers to common questions and helpful advice:
- Temperature Management on a Gas Grill: When cooking over indirect heat on a gas grill, you’ll turn off 2 burners on one side and place your biscuit pan over them. The active burners on the other side will maintain the grill’s internal temperature. If your remaining burners struggle to sustain a steady 450°F (232°C), don’t worry! Your biscuits will still cook, just adjust the baking time slightly longer until they are golden and cooked through. Consistency is key, but adaptability is also your friend in grilling.
- Expected Darker Bottoms: It’s important to note that even with indirect heat, the bottoms of biscuits cooked on a grill will naturally be darker and perhaps a bit crisper than those baked in a conventional oven. This is a characteristic feature of grilling and contributes to their unique flavor and texture profile, not a sign of them being overcooked. Embrace that slightly charred, flavorful base!
- No Food Processor? No Problem! If you don’t have a food processor, you can absolutely make these biscuits the old-fashioned way. Use a pastry cutter or two butter knives to cut the cold butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with pea-sized pieces of butter. The principle remains the same: keep the butter cold and work efficiently.
- Adjusting Dough Consistency: After adding the buttermilk and honey, if your dough appears too dry or excessively crumbly and isn’t coming together, don’t hesitate to add an extra tablespoon or two of buttermilk. Add it gradually, stirring just until the dough forms a cohesive mass. Different flours and humidity levels can affect liquid absorption.
- The Urgency of Baking: Once buttermilk is introduced to the flour mixture, the baking powder immediately begins to react, initiating the leavening process. This chemical reaction creates the gas bubbles that make your biscuits light and fluffy. This is why biscuit dough cannot be made far in advance and stored; you want to get your biscuits into the hot grill or oven as quickly as possible after mixing to maximize that leavening power for the best rise.
- Serving Suggestions: While these biscuits are fantastic on their own, consider serving them alongside a juicy grilled steak, with your morning coffee, or as a unique side for a hearty chili or stew. Their versatility is truly remarkable.
Troubleshooting Honey Biscuits That Don’t Rise
It can be disheartening when your homemade biscuits don’t achieve that characteristic tall, flaky rise. Typically, there are three common culprits behind disappointing, flat biscuits. Understanding these issues can help you diagnose and prevent them in the future, ensuring your grilled honey biscuits are always a success.
- Expired or Weak Baking Powder: Baking powder is a leavening agent with a finite shelf life. While it generally lasts between six months to a year, its efficacy can be significantly reduced by humidity and moisture. Even if you store it in a dry, dark pantry, factors like living in a humid climate (like Florida, for example) can shorten its lifespan. To test if your baking powder is still active, mix a teaspoon of it with a quarter cup of hot water. If it fizzes vigorously, it’s still good. If there’s little to no reaction, it’s time to replace it. Always mark the purchase date on the container to keep track!
- Warm Butter: Cold butter is paramount for flaky biscuits. When cold butter is cut into the flour, it creates tiny pockets. As the biscuits bake, the water in these butter pockets turns to steam, which puffs up and separates the layers of dough, resulting in that coveted flaky texture. If the butter warms up and melts into the dough before baking, these pockets are lost, leading to a denser, less flaky biscuit. To avoid this, start with very cold butter (you can even cube it and chill it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before use) and work quickly through the dough mixing, cutting, and grilling stages.
- Twisting the Biscuit Cutter: This is a common mistake that can seal the edges of your biscuit dough. When you twist the biscuit cutter into the dough, it presses the layers together on the sides, essentially “gluing” them shut. This prevents the edges from rising freely, leading to a sloped or stunted biscuit. To ensure a tall, even rise, make sure to push the biscuit cutter straight down into the dough with a firm, decisive motion, then lift it straight up. It’s a natural reflex to twist, so you might have to consciously remind yourself not to do it, but this simple change can make a huge difference in your biscuit’s stature.
More Recipes for Breads, Rolls, and Biscuits
If you’ve enjoyed making these grilled honey biscuits, you’ll love exploring other homemade bread creations. From savory garlic bread to sweet rolls and other biscuit varieties, there’s always something new to bake. Here are some of our favorites:
- Cheesy Stuffed Garlic Bread
- Vegan Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
- Flaky Yogurt Biscuits
- Butter and Herb Artisan Bread
- Roasted Garlic Texas Toast
These biscuits are truly at their best when paired with a succulent grilled steak! For my ultimate steak recipe, be sure to check out Grilled Steak with Horseradish Dijon Sauce, complete with all the essential tips for achieving a perfectly grilled steak every time.
Grilled Honey Biscuits with Thyme
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Ingredients
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter cubed
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 5 tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- 1 ¼ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter melted
Instructions
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Heat grill or Big Green Egg to 450°F. In the Egg, put the convEGGtor (legs pointing up) under the grill grate.
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Add the cold butter, flour, baking powder, salt, and thyme to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the butter is broken down into pea-sized bits in the flour.
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Pour the butter-flour mixture into a mixing bowl. Add the buttermilk and honey, and use a fork to stir until just incorporated.
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Pour the biscuit dough onto a floured surface and sprinkle flour over top. Quickly form into a ~1 to 1-½-inch thick disk. Use a 3-inch biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits by pushing – not twisting – the biscuit cutter down straight into the dough. Put the biscuits in a cast iron pan.
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Bake in the grill or BGE at 450°F for 12-15 minutes over indirect heat (i.e. over the convEGGtor in a BGE or over burners that are off in a grill) or until biscuits are cooked through and golden on top.
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Brush melted butter over the tops of the biscuits and serve.
Notes
See the body of this post for details and tips not included in the recipe card.