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These savory homemade cheesy drop biscuits are fitting for every meal of the day, baking up hot in a matter of minutes, and reminiscent of the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits we all know and LOVE!
These popular cheese and garlic biscuits best known from dining at Red Lobster are perfectly easy to make and even more delicious to eat. Use my favorite baking mix highlighted below, or simply substitute a ready-made baking mix such as Bisquick and freshly grated cheddar cheese for the absolute best results.
These biscuits get their flavor not only from garlic powder, but also a teaspoon of dry ranch salad dressing mix. It’s the perfect blend of herbs and spices and GARLIC, and a very little bit mixed into the batter will go a long way! For extra-garlicky biscuits, brush melted butter with additional dry ranch seasoning added, right over the tops just before serving. HOLY SMOKES!
Now, sit back and watch your family take pleasure in dinner for a change! Oh, and don’t forget to check out these biscuits for breakfast when I use them as a savory base for my Best Southern Ham Gravy With Cheesy Biscuits And Eggs!
Table of Contents
The Best Cheesy Garlic Biscuits For Every Meal
I serve bread in some form or another with every meal, and swapping out dinner rolls or baguette for these easy cheddar garlic biscuits means everybody wins. The Best Cheesy Garlic Biscuits For Every Meal are reminiscent of the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits we all know and LOVE! Leftovers also mean that my Southern Ham Gravy And Egg Biscuits get savory fluffy cheese biscuits as the base. This simple restaurant-inspired recipe for garlic cheese biscuits will have everybody saying “pass the biscuits, please!”
In the 1970s, growing up in my house meant being VERY FAMILIAR with pantry staples of the decade like Tang, Mug-o-Lunch, Tab, Hostess Chocodiles, Hi-C, and Bisquick. Snack foods, insta-meals, cereals, and drinks tend to come and go, yet the ones we remember from childhood seem to stick with us. This post is sort of that ‘walk back’ for me and I am betting also for plenty of you who will read this.
Back in the day growing up and living in New Jersey, going out to dinner was a rare treat for a couple of reasons. First, my parents left David and I with a babysitter every chance they had to get in a date night without us. Second, my folks just did not have the money. I knew from an early age that if my birthday was coming, or we were celebrating something REALLY IMPORTANT, I might be looking at a dinner out with my family. David and I had two favorite destinations – Benihana and Red Lobster.
The Best Cheesy Garlic Biscuits For Every Meal really are suitable for every meal, including for breakfast in my Best Southern Ham Gravy With Cheesy Biscuits And Eggs!
Benihana wowed my brother and I with their unique tableside cookery. Nowadays, Japanese Teppanyaki are kind of everywhere, but none as memorable as the original Benihana. Our favorite? Hibachi steak and shrimp. We would both order the same thing and pick off one another’s plates based on likes and dislikes. He loved broccoli, so any and all of that green stuff that landed on my plate went to David, and his extra onions came over to my plate. Food was about the ONLY thing he and I didn’t argue over.
Red Lobster, and all the shrimp you could eat, was also a big outing for us. The kids menu still ‘sounded’ like the adults menu when my Mom would read it to us, so we felt very grown up ordering. And it was the delicious biscuits with cheese, the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits that we CRAVED! My Dad would have to peel our tiny fingers from the basket just so he could ensure we wouldn’t fill up on bread before the dinner came. To this day, give me one of those cheese garlic biscuits and I am good. Well, one or maybe two biscuits!
I began cooking easy suppers in my late teens. Recipes found on the reverse of the soup can and the rice box mostly. My palate was not diverse then, and I was essentially teaching myself how to cook. Easy dishes that specified the use of that product and some proteins likely to be found in your refrigerator.
The 1970s boasted a veritable smorgasbord of ill-conceived and nutritionally suspicious fare to enjoy. Many of the brands did not stick around long. For the sake of our health today, that is probably not such a bad thing. One product that has outlived its competitors is Bisquick. The genius baking mix changed how American’s approached breakfast. Known for their pancake recipe, the product ingredients are more or less wholesome.
Much to my elation, Bisquick came out with a recipe that stole the show the first time I baked them up for my parents. The Red Lobster biscuits with Bisquick became my family’s favorite for a good long time. Garlic cheddar biscuits dotted with bits of dried parsley here and there and brushed with melted butter. Bisquick took bread recipes to another level with their simple dry ingredients baking mix.
I buy the tiny box of Bisquick to this day. I love having it on hand for pancakes, drop biscuits, and shortcakes. But nowadays, I make a simple baking mix knock-off that bakes up PERFECTLY every single time. And it’s the flour mixture used to bake up The Best Cheesy Garlic Biscuits For Every Meal. Grab a baking sheet, some parchment paper, and your mixing bowl so we can get started.
Do you have what’s needed to bake up The Best Cheesy Garlic Biscuits For Every Meal? Check the list!
flour
baking powder
sugar
salt
unsalted butter
sharp cheddar cheese
garlic powder
dry ranch dressing mix
black pepper
buttermilk
All images and text ©Jenny DeRemer for Not Entirely Average, LLC
The Best Cheesy Garlic Biscuits For Every Meal
Equipment
- pastry brush
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1 ¼ tablespoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 6 to 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small cubes
- ¾ cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dry ranch salad dressing mix
- 1 cup buttermilk, very cold
for the garlic butter tops
- ½ cup butter, may be salted or unsalted
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon dry ranch salad dressing mix
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
optional
- ¼ cup parsley, fresh chopped or 1/8 cup dry
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
prepare the biscuit batter
- In a food processor, pulse together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt until well mixed. Alternatively, if you are not working with a food processor, sift flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt at least three times into a large bowl.
- Add the cold butter cubes to the food processor. Pulse to cut in the butter. Mixture is ready when it resembles pea-sized crumbs or slightly finer. Alternatively and if not working with a food processor, cut in cold butter using the tines of a fork until mixture resembles pea-sized crumbs or slightly finer.
- Remove the flour mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the cheese, garlic powder, dry ranch salad dressing mix, and the buttermilk just until moistened.
- Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheet(s). OPTIONAL ** top with a few shreds each additional of cheddar. Bake for 14 to 17 minutes until nicely golden. Due to variations in ovens/oven temperatures, I recommend testing for doneness at 11 minutes by inserting a toothpick.
prepare the garlic butter
- Melt 1/2 cup butter in a small saucepan along with garlic powder, dry ranch salad dressing mix, parsley (if using), and the black pepper. Whisk to mix and to dissolve the dry ranch.
- Use a pastry brush to brush onto baked biscuit tops just before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
