Grab This Secret Ingredient To Prepare The Easiest Biscuits You've Ever Made

When it comes to savory baking, drop biscuits are one of the simplest things to make—and these mayonnaise biscuits are even easier than usual. You only need three ingredients for the most basic version, and you can customize them any way you want, which means you can serve them with practically anything.

Mayonnaise in Baking

If you recoiled at the sound of mayonnaise in biscuits, hold on a minute. Mayo is made of oil and eggs, which are common ingredients in lots of baking recipes. Using it in biscuits is a brilliant shortcut to a tender, fluffy texture and rich flavor.

In fact, it works just as well in cake, but we understand if you want to test it out here first. Once you're a convert, be sure to check out all the other ways mayo is amazing in the kitchen:

The Beauty of These Biscuits

Need another reason to try this homemade biscuit recipe besides seeing for yourself just how well mayo works in them? They only (technically) require three ingredients: the mayonnaise, self-rising flour, and milk.

If you don't have self-rising flour in your pantry then the total number of ingredients jumps to five, but that still sounds pretty reasonable, right?

Beyond that, you can add whatever mix-ins you want to; our senior video producer Guillermo went with shredded cheddar, garlic powder, and dried thyme (not that far off from Cheddar Bay biscuits in case you were wondering how to get your fix at home…), but the batter is pretty much a blank canvas. Leave it plain and you can spread it with butter and jam for breakfast, or a flavored compound butter for dinner.

Or try tweaking the spices and cheese depending on how you want to serve these: add pepper Jack to serve alongside chili, or parmesan cheese to serve with soup or stew; add black pepper to support pieces of juicy fried chicken (and top it off with a drizzle of honey); or add finely chopped fresh sage to use as the base of a breakfast sandwich or smothered in sausage gravy.

Alternatively, you can take them a little sweeter with a pinch of sugar and scraped vanilla bean seeds or finely grated citrus zest—these would be particularly good for using in a shortcake, whether classic strawberry or an autumn-appropriate version with roasted figs.

Just don't overwork the biscuit dough when mixing in your additional ingredients.

About That Self-Rising Flour

If you don't have a bag in your cupboard, no worries. You can make self-rising flour by mixing 2 cups all-purpose flour with 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt; whisk them until well combined in a bowl and you're good to go.

Related Reading: An A-Z Ingredient Substitution Guide for When You're Out of Everything

How to Make Easy Drop Biscuits with Mayonnaise

As far as equipment, all you'll need is one mixing bowl to whisk everything in (if you're making self-rising flour, just do that first before adding the other ingredients), the whisk itself (a fork will work in a pinch), and a baking sheet. You can grease the sheet, or line it with a silicone mat if you have one.

You'll simply drop the batter by spoonfuls before you bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. If you prefer, you can drop the dough into a greased muffin tin, but check for doneness a little sooner.

Click the link below to view the full recipe instructions:

And if you really want to DIY all the way, you can even make your own mayonnaise.

Jen is an editor at Chowhound. Raised on scrapple and blue crabs, she hails from Baltimore, Maryland, but has lived in Portland (Oregon) for so long it feels like home. She enjoys the rain, reads, writes, eats, and cooks voraciously, and stops to pet every stray cat she sees. Continually working on building her Gourmet magazine collection, she will never get over its cancellation.

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