Nashville Fried Biscuits

These aren’t your grandma’s baking powder biscuits. Nashville fried biscuits use a yeasted dough enriched with lard and milk, shaped into rounds, and dropped straight into hot fat. The yeast gives them a light, bread-like interior with a golden, crispy shell that regular biscuits just can’t match.

This is a big-batch recipe built for feeding a crowd or stocking the freezer. A full quart of milk and nine cups of flour make a substantial dough. The yeast does most of the heavy lifting for texture, but you don’t want the biscuits to overproof before frying. Let them rise just enough to puff up, then get them into the oil. Overproofed dough fries up greasy because the air pockets are too large and collapse, soaking up fat.

Oil temperature is key and a little tricky here. You want it just above 350°F (175°C), but not raging hot. Too hot and the outside browns before the center cooks through, leaving you with a soggy middle inside a dark crust.

Pro Tips

• Use lard if you can find it. Shortening works but lard adds a savory depth to the dough that shortening doesn’t have.
• Shape the biscuits on the smaller side. Smaller biscuits fry more evenly and cook through without burning the exterior.
• Don’t crowd the frying pot. Too many biscuits at once drop the oil temperature and the biscuits absorb more grease.
• Drain on a wire rack set over a sheet pan, not on paper towels. The rack lets air circulate underneath so the bottoms stay crisp.

Variations

• Dust warm fried biscuits with cinnamon sugar for a doughnut-style treat.
• Serve split and topped with sausage gravy for a hearty Southern breakfast.
• Drizzle with honey butter while still warm for a sweet, salty, rich bite.