This super easy biscuit recipe uses no shortening and no butter! It’s quick to make and tastes DELICIOUS!
I’m staying at my sister’s house for a couple of days and last night I REALLY wanted biscuits.
I’m not a big biscuit maker and usually have used a box of Bisquick, but this recipe is VERY simple and uses only ingredients that most people would always have on hand.
Most times when you look in a cookbook or online for a recipe for biscuits it calls for shortening. If you’re like me, shortening isn’t something that’s in the kitchen cupboard.
Technically the word shortening means “any fat that is solid at room temperature and used in baking” but most of us refer to Crisco (or a store brand equivalent) as shortening and when a recipe calls for shortening, that is almost always what they are referring to.
Some biscuit recipes will call for butter and I’m more likely to have that in the refrigerator, but sometimes there’s no butter available either.
Instead of shortening or butter, this easy recipe uses standard cooking oil. That simple change makes it easy to make homemade biscuits without shortening OR a boxed mix! I have make biscuits with olive oil in place of the standard vegetable oil and they tasted amazing too.
Because this recipe is very versatile, you could use whatever oil you have in your kitchen for cooking.
Gold Medal, All Purpose FlourDomino Premium Pure Cane Granulated Sugar
Davis Double Acting Baking Powder
Morton Morton Salt
Crisco, Pure Vegetable Oil
Silicone Spatula 4-piece Set
Easy Biscuit Recipe without Shortening
Biscuit Ingredients:
(Amounts and complete instructions in recipe card below.)
- flour
- Sugar
- baking powder
- salt
- oil
- milk
How to Make Biscuits without Shortening:
Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
Mix all of the dry ingredients together.
Put the oil in a small bowl, add the milk, but do NOT mix together.
Move liquid into dry ingredients and stir until well blended.
Knead a couple of times (I just used a silicone spatula, not my hands) to form it into a ball.
Roll out dough to 1/2″ thick between two pieces of plastic wrap or aluminum foil.
Cut into 10-12 squares. Place on ungreased baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until very lightly browned. – – I spread the tops with butter for the last 2 minutes of baking.
Also try this Sour Milk biscuits recipe. It’s great for using up milk that has just started to go sour:
One more to try is this delicious Copycat Red Lobster biscuits recipe. They’re packed with flavor!
Super Easy Biscuit Recipe with No Shortening
Ingredients
- 2 C flour
- 2 Tbsp Sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 C oil
- 2/3 C milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
- Mix all of the dry ingredients together.
- Put the oil in a small bowl, add the milk, but do NOT mix together.
- Move liquid into dry ingredients and stir until well blended.
- Knead a couple of times (I just used a silicone spatula, not my hands) to form it into a ball.
- Roll out dough to 1/2" thick between two pieces of plastic wrap or aluminum foil.
- Cut into 10-12 squares.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until very lightly browned. - - I spread the tops with butter for the last 2 minutes of baking.
Nutrition
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Cathy says
Can I leave out the sugar? Also, can oat flour be used instead of white flour? Thank you!
Chrysa says
I haven’t tried making it with either of those variations, but if you do – let us know how it turns out!
Robin L Oliver says
LOVE this recipe !!! ran out of the ” canned ” buscuits,,so found this. REALLY did not want to have go ALL the way to grocery store JUST for that !!! THANK YOU !!!!!!!!! MADE MY LIFE SO MUCH EASIER AND THESE ARE ALOT BETTER THAN THE CANNED ONES !!!!!!!
Chrysa says
I’m SO happy to hear that and really glad to give you a new option! I like them a lot better too.
Jay Tee says
I mixed in 1/2 cup of small ham cubes and maybe 3/4 cups shredded cheese, mixing them into the dry ingredients before adding liquids. The dough ended up wetter than normal biscuits, so I merely mixed lightly, then used the same spatula to spread it into a 12″ x 12″ square on cooking paper on a cookie sheet. After cooking as directed, I lowered the temperature and gave it another 7 minutes at about 400 degrees F. The result: very light and tasty ham-cheese biscuits!
Rhoda McGillivray says
These recipes , I believe will fit into my ‘new diet’ prescribed by my Doctor and dietitian .
Chris says
Interesting recipe. I didn’t know that buscuits were made out of shortening, so this was new to me. I thought you made them similar to a pie crust by smearing or cutting in butter but just with a leavener. I make a pressed pie crust with olive oil so I see how this could be just as good. Thanks.
Mari says
Wanted to make comfort food for my daughter who is feeling a little under the weather. Alas, no shortening! Looked to up “biscuit no shortening recipe” and found yours. Tasted great, super easy and I didn’t even have to knead with my hands (bonus!). I like that I can add other seasonings or herbs for variety and can use any oil. I used soy milk (lactose intolerant) and they were fine. Saving this for sure and my daughter liked them too with her soup. Thank you!
Chrysa says
Thanks for sharing that, Mari! This recipe has saved me a bunch of times when I didn’t have any type of bread in the house and wanted to make something easy!
aNgeLicA says
i just rolled mine into balls and baked them the same but for about 10 minutes and they were great!!!
Priscilla S. says
I love how quick and easy this recipe looks! These are definitely ingredients I always have on hand.
Shannon says
These sound so good and thank you for sharing this recipe with us.
Carol Nine says
This is a very good recipe to have. I always have oil on hand, but never have shortening.
Krystl says
I made these twice, the first time they never rose both times I followed the recipe but I used bacon grease instead of oil. The first time they never rose, and the consistency of the dough was like drop cookie dough (Which is not rollable), they tasted good, but came out flat… The second time I did the exact same thing, used bacon grease again, and this time the dough came out like it should, and they rose. I know I didnt make any mistakes the first time. Was the weirdest thing. Either way these came out yummy in the end. Making them again today and praying for good results!
Shashank Tulsian says
Great recipe ! Thanks ! My kids just loved them and my wife just fell in love with them as much as she sent some of them to our neighbours for them to taste ! Thanks again !
Lisa Brown says
I crave biscuits every now and then, want it with chocolate gravy 🙂 Easy recipe, thanks!
Crystal says
Is it veggie oil?
Chrysa says
Yes. Vegetable oil.
HB says
I love biscuits but almost never want to MAKE them. These look easy enough to try for sure, thanks for the post. I do have two questions though about this step:
“Put the oil in a small boil, add the milk, but do NOT mix together. Move liquid into dry ingredients…”
1) Should that be “small BOWL” instead of boil? and 2) Since some small amount of oil would be stuck to the bowl, and since you don’t mix the oil and milk, why not just pour the oil and milk directly onto the dry ingredients before mixing?
Chrysa says
Yes, it is a bowl. You could try making it the other way, but I have always made it the way listed so I can’t guarantee the results like that. Let us know how they turn out if you try it!
Barrie says
This is just what I’ve been looking for! I have my MIL’s biscuit cutter and will make these tonight with our steak dinner. Hubby will be in for a great surprise!