sour cream and chive biscuits;

Originally posted on May 8, 2020. Updated for clarity and content on September 28, 2020.

You need these sour cream and chive biscuits in your life. Promise me you’ll try them. They’re so flaky and delicious, and easy. Sometimes I’ll cut the recipe in half just because I know we’ll wreck an entire batch between the two of us. Not very healthy, but slathered with some warm butter. Or better yet, honey butter.

The husband has been watching a lot of Bon Appetit kitchen in quarantine, which is one of those shows where I tend to binge-watch and then kinda forget about until the next time I rediscover it and go on another binge. When it’s in front of me, I love watching them. So thanks to the husband’s current obsession of watching Claire’s Gourmet Makes, our smart TV pops up a suggestion of Bon Appetit’s Sour Cream and Onion Biscuits! We watch the cute video, lamenting how biscuits are so hard and never turn out right. But this one looks easy, so it’s worth a shot right? Of course, I didn’t have scallions, so it’s now sour cream and chive biscuits.

GUYS. THESE ARE AMAZING. Like ate half of them fresh out of the oven, barely waiting for actual dinner to be done. And I made some swaps based on my quarantine fridge. So honestly, I was kinda expecting them to crash and burn, or at least be “meh” and kind of dense. But this will definitely be a new staple for how simple, delicious, flaky, and fluffy they turned out.

Let’s get into the swaps. So I actually halved the recipe because there are two of us here at home right now, and honestly I was a little skeptical about whether I would achieve success with these. Don’t want to waste precious quarantine baking supplies on failed recipes. But also because of quarantine and minimizing trips to the store means I had to swap a few ingredients. The first one is chives for scallions. Chives are the only herb that survived my murderous brown thumb from last year and I’m quite grateful they survived! So even missing scallions, it was a pretty easy swap that didn’t require a trip to the store, check.

We finished up our sour cream a couple of days ago, and it had been low-fat anyway. I’m always skeptical on subbing low-fat options for those buttery-luxurious-down-south kind of recipes, so even if we’d had sour cream I would have approached with the same skepticism. But I do always keep single serve 0% fat greek yogurts in the back of our fridge.

I know it’s more economic and environmentally friendly to buy a single big container over individual cups, but honestly, I find the big containers go bad or get moldy just so much faster. And then I end up throwing away product and being wasteful in a different way. So I find the single cups easier to reach for and only use the amount I need.

One single serving is approximately a cup, give or take. And because this recipe for biscuits looked just so scrumptious, I figured it was worth a shot. And despite being skeptical, it delivered! It worked so well, that I would probably choose that over sour cream for future bakes. And you can be sure there will be future bakes. If I had sour cream available instead of Greek yogurt, no problem, but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to buy it just for this recipe. Assuming my chives survive, this is a perfect little treat to whip up without running to the grocery for me! And you need these guys in your life. Trust me.

Really, the thing I’m most impressed with are the layers. They just rose so well, light and fluffy and flaky, much more impressive than biscuits I’ve made in the past that tend to be dense or not deliver on the fluffy flaky promise. And the chives (or scallions) give a subtle onion flavor that makes it a perfect savory biscuit with just a little bit of butter.

I included the full recipe (double what I did for this batch I photographed), because I will for sure be making the full recipe next time we make this. It probably won’t be too long before I make another batch.

Secrets to Success:

• The pepper is optional, but I really like the depth of flavor. If you’re not a pepper fan, I suggest scaling it back or leaving it out entirely.
• You can use chives or scallions interchangeably. If using scallions, cut the greens and the whites, and use both for a lot of flavor.
• Serve warm, with salted butter. Or, mix a little butter with honey and serve with honey butter for an amazing, delicious, bite.

Need a main dish to go with these amazing biscuits? Check out these other recipes.

• These biscuits are amazing to dip in this delicious Chunky Broccoli Cheddar Soup.
• Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs always need a side biscuit!
• Perfect brunch? Serve this (Biscuits and) Sausage Gravy over these warm biscuits.