You might be astonished to believe it, but I’m a big fan of biscuits. I’ve written about them many times and added several variations of biscuit recipes to the biscuits section Bounded by Buns’ recipe bank. If I were not baking bread on a bi-weekly basis for this blog I would probably make a whole lot more biscuits but as it stands, I still make them about once every three months.
I had a craving to make another biscuit sandwich and started thinking about which of my favorite sandwiches I hadn’t written about yet and that led me to create a top five biscuit sandwiches list.
This is my official no-questions-asked perfect list of ranked biscuit sandwiches according to myself and myself only. I’ve linked any biscuit sandwich articles I’ve written about so far. Maybe I will write about the rest at some point.
Official biscuit sandwich ranked list:
| 1 | Fried chicken biscuit | This is my favorite and I also created a crispy, one-pan baked version where you can bake the chicken alongside the biscuit. |
| 2 | Sausage egg and cheese biscuit | A lot of people other than myself might say this is the king of biscuit sandwiches. |
| 3 | Bacon egg and cheese biscuit | I have not written about this biscuit yet – but I did write about a bacon and cheese version in my tea sandwich post. |
| 4 | Country ham biscuit | I wrote a little about country ham but not a full post. But I have plans for a full country ham post in the future. |
| 5 | Fried pork chop biscuit | You’re reading this – we are here. I’ve skipped a step to get to #5 but that’s how the world works when I’m in charge. |
After this list, my honorable mentions would be a steak biscuit (which is pretty similar to a pork chop biscuit—swap out the meat), an egg and cheese biscuit, and then maybe just a straight butter and jelly biscuit sandwich. Feel free to comment below to tell me how wonderful my list is.
Now that we know we’re making a fantastic top-five biscuit sandwich entry for fried pork chop biscuit, we need to make some biscuits.
Lemon pepper biscuits
I’m not sure where the idea for this recipe came from. After I made it the first time, I googled and there are a few other folks who have shared recipes for lemon pepper biscuits so I obviously did not invent it, but I can’t remember seeing the combination in a biscuit before I had the idea jump into my head.
The flavors of lemon and black pepper are such a well-known combination that you can buy lemon pepper seasoning. That might work in a biscuit, but you get a heck of a lot of lemon flavor and aroma into these biscuits by adding the zest directly into the dough.
When the biscuits are fully baked, you baste them with melted butter. You might think they already have enough butter in them—and you might be right—but you should paint that butter on anyway. The painted-on melted butter for this biscuit softens and flavors the top of the biscuit. In the case of these lemon pepper biscuits, it provides moisture to the top that allows extra pepper and lemon zest to stick to the exterior.
After you paint on the layer of butter, you apply a liberal sprinkle of ground black pepper and then grate on a bit more lemon zest.
This pepper and lemon zest will show the person eating the biscuit what they have in store for them. The zest and pepper will last even after you’ve stored them for four or five days as well, and they contribute aroma after they have been toasted or baked to warm for sandwiching.
Below is my newest biscuit recipe, it brings a big punch of citrusy brightness and black pepper spice to an already flavorful buttery biscuit. Both pepper and lemon work well to complement and contrast a creamy gravy and fried pork chop.
Lemon pepper buttermilk biscuits
Lemon zest brings a lot of brightness to a rich buttermilk biscuit and the addition of ground black pepper adds a bite that will complement the sausage, bacon, or even a fried pork chop additions to a sandwich.
Get RecipeChicken fried pork chop
For this sandwich, I picked boneless, center-cut pork chops. You could buy the type with the bones in them if you have dental insurance and are prepared for that, but I let the butchers remove the bones to make them easier to bite. Even if you buy thin pork, you might need to make it a little thinner so that it cooks evenly and quickly enough so that the meat is done in the middle before the exterior gets too brown.
Butterflying process
I’ve written about the butterflying process in the past. It’s a method for taking a piece of raw meat and turning it into a thinner piece of meat with a consistent thickness throughout. The reason it has the name “butterfly” is because you slice from one end horizontally, almost through to the other end, and open the meat up like a book or butterfly.
Pound and tenderize
Once the pork is butterflied, I typically will pound it out a little bit to make sure both sides are the same thickness, and that the pork is a bit wider than it was originally. This is important if you have a larger biscuit, but it also will help make sure your pork fries consistently.
After it’s pounded, I usually tenderize, but it’s not really a requirement. I have done it both ways and I’m not 100% sure that it helps that much. After being butterflied and pounded, the meat is thin and will not be very tough to chew through.
Another part of the tenderizing process is the buttermilk marinade. The enzymes in buttermilk help to break down meat proteins by weakening the collagen and fibers that might make meat tough. The highly acidic pH level of buttermilk also helps the meat to retain more moisture, which will leave us with juicier pork chops. Overall, if you ever see a recipe that has a marinade process that contains buttermilk, don’t skip it. Buttermilk is important and not just for biscuits.
Flour seasoning blend
If you live in America, you’ve probably heard of chicken fried steak, chicken fried bacon and maybe chicken fried pork chops because we love frying things. But you might not know why these things are called “chicken fried.”
These pork chops would be considered “chicken-fried” primarily because of the seasonings in the flour or dredge and how the meat is fried. The term chicken-fried probably came about from the invention of chicken-fried steak and it’s called that because it uses the same additions of milk, egg, and seasoned flour that is typically used in southern fried chicken.
I have been using the same seasoned flour algorithm for a few years now and this is what I use per every 1 cup of all-purpose flour:
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
The need for the salt in the coating is self-explanatory and the paprika is added to help with the color in the crust. The other four seasonings have the purpose of adding a boost of flavor to the crust of the fried meat. For two to three pork chops or chicken pieces, you can get away with around 1 cup of all-purpose flour to fully coat the meat, so that’s what I did.
You would be served best if you had some way to tell the temperature of your oil when frying. I use a couple of different tools. But you can fry without a thermometer if you’re just not into consistency. If you don’t have a frying thermometer, you can add a small sprinkle of flour to the hot oil. If it sizzles and disappears quickly, the oil is most likely hot enough.
If you have a frying thermometer or an instant-read thermometer, I shoot for between 325 and 350 F (162 to 176 C) to fry these pork chops.
Creamy onion gravy
If you were a country grandmother feeding the farmhands every morning, you’d likely use some of the leftover grease from frying the pork to create a gravy. I could have done that too, but I was making test batches of the gravy to get the proportions correct and ended up using butter as the fat component.
As I have covered in my chicken fried steak sandwich post, there’s a specific guide I use for Gravy Math™.
2 tablespoons of fat + 2 tablespoons flour + 16 tablespoons liquid (1 cup) = a working gravy.
So, in this creamy onion gravy, I use 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock, and 1/2 cup of heavy cream. After a few minutes of simmering, plus some salt and pepper, you should have a nice thick gravy that will work great on a biscuit sandwich.
Gravy is best enjoyed very soon after you remove it from the heat. But you can reheat gravy and enjoy it the next day if you add more liquid before reheating. You will have to test and come up with exact measurements yourself, but just add a teaspoon or two of liquid and either microwave the gravy or warm it up in a pot. Remember that you can always add more liquid, but you can’t remove liquid quite as easily so add a small amount at first to get to the gravy consistency that you desire.
Creamy onion gravy
A creamy savory gravy created with a big, sweet Vidalia onion flavor. If you opt to use vegetable stock, this gravy can be vegetarian friendly.
Get RecipeThe sandwich build process
Once you have the three main components, this is a super easy sandwich to build. Simply split a biscuit, add a hot, fried pork chop that’s topped with a couple of spoons of gravy and the sandwich is complete.
The ultimate fried pork chop sandwich
Here are some final photos of the sandwich in action as well as the full recipe including all of the components. Please scroll through and check them out.
Make more pork chop biscuit sandwiches!
Ultimate fried pork chop biscuit sandwich
A crispy fried pork chop and creamy onion gravy pair well with a bright lemon and pepper-flavored buttermilk biscuit to create this comforting sandwich experience.
Ingredients:
Lemon pepper buttermilk biscuit- 300 grams self rising flour (2.5 cups)
- 1 stick of frozen butter (grated)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest (around 1.5 to 2 lemons worth)
- 1 to 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1 cup cold buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons melted butter (to be painted on top after baking)
- 2 boneless center cut pork chops
- 3⁄4 cup buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1⁄2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1⁄2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne powder
- canola or vegetable oil (for frying - 1 inch deep in your skillet)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1⁄2 large Vidalia onion, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1⁄2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
- 1⁄2 cup heavy cream
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
Directions:
Lemon pepper buttermilk biscuits: preheat oven to 475 F (245 C).
Weigh your flour. Grate frozen butter into the sifted self-rising flour. Stir to combine until the butter is fully coated with flour.
Put the bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes. It's important to keep the butter as cold as possible through this process.
Combine lemon zest, ground black pepper, and buttermilk with the cold flour/butter to bring it together as a dough. Stir no more than 15 times. Overworking the dough at this stage could cause your finished biscuits to be tougher. Your dough at the end of 15 stirs will be very shaggy and not smooth at all.
On a floured surface dump out dough and roll with a rolling pin. If you don't have a rolling pin, you can just use your hands. Dust with flour as needed when the dough gets sticky. Fold the dough over on itself five different times. This folding process is what creates the layers in the biscuits.
Roll or flatten the dough to 3/4 to 1 inch thick/tall.
Cut biscuits into circles or squares and place them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. When cutting, you do not want to twist the cutter or knife. Twisting while cutting will ruin the layers that you created with folding. Place your cut biscuits next to each other (touching) on the sheet pan. Touching biscuits help each other rise taller.
After cutting biscuits, you can grab any scraps of dough and reroll and re-cut them. There's no need to waste any dough. The last few biscuits might not look as uniform as the first ones, but they will all taste the same.
Bake at 475 degrees F (245 C) for around 15 to 20 minutes. Check around the 12-minute mark to make sure they do not brown too much.
When biscuits are done, transfer them from your baking pan onto a cooling rack to stop the bottoms from cooking further.
Paint the melted butter on top of each biscuit and then top the melted butter with a pinch of lemon zest and ground black pepper.
Fried pork chop: butterfly and tenderize two boneless pork chops.
In a medium bowl or zip-top bag, add the pork chops and buttermilk. This buttermilk should help to tenderize the pork chops so you should let them marinate for at least 4 hours.
When you are ready to get started with the frying process, grab two bowls. To the first bowl, crack and add an egg. Pour in some of the buttermilk from the marinade and stir the egg and buttermilk until they are fully combined. Add the pork chops and the rest of the buttermilk. To the second bowl add all-purpose flour, salt, paprika, ground black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne powder. Stir everything to combine.
Shake off the pork chops and add them one at a time to the bowl with the flour mixture. Coat the pork chops thoroughly, making sure that the flour fully coats it and there are no wet spots, uncovered by flour. Move that fully flour-dredged piece of pork chop to a plate to rest. Repeat with the other pork chop.
Add oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Make sure the oil is at least 1 inch deep.
After the oil has had 3 to 5 minutes to heat up, add a pinch of flour to the oil and if it immediately starts to bubble and fizzle, the heat is right. Add pork chops and fry them for 3 minutes on the first side. After three minutes, flip and fry the second side for 3 to 4 minutes or until the batter of the pork chops is nice and golden brown. If you're looking for a specific temperature for the oil for frying, I shoot for between 325 and 350 F (162 to 176 C).
Once the pork chops are golden brown to your liking, remove them from the oil and place them on a paper towel-lined plate or a cooling rack to rest.
Creamy onion gravy: add a tablespoon of olive oil to a medium saucepan or skillet over medium heat. When the olive oil starts shimmering, add the chopped onion, a small pinch of salt and ground black pepper and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 to 7 minutes.
Once the onion is softened and starting to brown a little, add 2 tablespoons of butter and allow it to melt.
When the butter is melted, add 2 tablespoons of flour and stir it in with all the butter and onions. Allow the flour to cook for about 1 to 2 minutes.
After 1 to 2 minutes, add 1/2 cup of chicken/vegetable stock and 1/2 cup of heavy cream to the pan. Stir everything to start the creamy gravy.
In a minute or two, everything should start to thicken, and the gravy should be almost ready. Taste it now to test for seasoning and if you think it needs more salt or ground black pepper, add and stir.
Sandwich assembly: split two fresh biscuits and add a pork chop to the bottom of each. Top with 3 or 4 tablespoons of gravy and close the top of the biscuit to create the sandwich. Serve and enjoy.
Check back next week
I will be revisiting a sandwich I made in the first couple of months of starting this sandwich blog. Let’s see if I still like it.
