Grilled Honey Biscuits with Thyme
Grilled Honey Biscuits with Thyme are flaky savory buttermilk biscuits with hints of honey and thyme baked in the Big Green Egg or gas grill. Enjoy grilled biscuits with the subtle hint of smoky grill flavor at your next barbecue. When you are grilling up your dinner, throw your biscuits in there too!
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What are honey biscuits
We love to put honey butter on our biscuits, so I had the idea to add honey to the biscuit dough and bake that yumminess right in. AND I decided to cook them on our Big Green Egg cooker, but this is not necessary. These delicious biscuits can be cooked in the oven no worries.
Honey biscuits are just that – beautiful, buttery biscuits made from scratch with a touch of honey baked in. I essentially just modified my Southern Buttermilk Biscuit recipe by substituting some of the buttermilk with honey. Easy peasy.
More Big Green Egg recipes
Cooking biscuits on the grill
Among my hobbies, I love to hike. I hiked 167 miles of the Appalachian Trail by myself this summer in fact. Hikers are often given trail names and my trail name is Biscuits, given to me by my son.
We were camping and I was determined to make breakfast biscuits. See, I looooove biscuits. show me a biscuit and I will follow you home. And every morning on that camp trip, I tried every way I could think of – on the Coleman stove, on the fire, in a pan, wrapped around a stick, on a griddle – and nothing worked until I cooked over indirect heat in a covered pan by the fire.
And once I finally had my perfect biscuits, I proceeded to burn myself and drop the pan landing the biscuits in the dirt. So, I am Biscuits.
Now here, we are not grilling biscuits over an open fire. We are cooking our honey biscuits over indirect heat in a Big Green Egg kamado-style cooker or grill as if cooking in an oven but allowing the Egg or grill to impart its magical smoky flavor into our biscuits.
Honey biscuit ingredients
- Unsalted butter. Sweet cream, unsalted butter is a must for flaky buttery biscuits. Cold butter is used to make the dough, then we melt a little to brush on the tops of the biscuits once they are cooked.
- All-purpose flour.
- Baking powder. Baking powder acts as our leavening agent once it reacts with the acid of the buttermilk.
- Kosher salt.
- Buttermilk. Always shake buttermilk really well before using since it will separate in the container.
- Honey.
- Fresh thyme leaves.
Thyme is a lovely herb that pairs so well and I love to use it in unexpected ways. It is easy to grow in a garden or indoors in a pot. To get the leaves off, hold a stem and run your fingers down to get them all off in one motion. If the stems are super thin and delicate (i.e. not woody), do not bother taking the leaves off – just chop the stems with the leaves.
The steps for preparation
I make honey biscuits just the same as traditional biscuits. First, pulse the flour, butter, baking soda, salt, and thyme in a food processor. Dump all that into a mixing bowl, add the buttermilk and honey, and use a fork to stir.
If the mixture looks too dry at this point (i.e. crumbly rather than coming together), then simply add an additional tablespoon or two of buttermilk.
Transfer the dough to a floured surface, sprinkle more flour over top, and form a large disk ~1-inch to 1-1/2 inch thick. We do not want to over work the dough or knead much because that will warm the butter. If the mixture is a little crumbly, then sure, work it together quickly, and it will be fine.
Use a 2-1/2 inch biscuit cutter and cut out biscuits by pushing – not twisting – the biscuit cutter down straight into the dough.
Put the cut biscuits into a cast iron pan and put in the Big Green Egg or grill over indirect heat. Cover the grill and cook ~15 minutes or until biscuits are done. Brush with butter and enjoy!
For indirect heat on the Big Green Egg, cook the biscuits in the BGE 10.5-inch cast iron pan, on the grill grate with the convEGGtor underneath with the legs pointing upward.
For indirect heat in a gas grill, cook the honey biscuits off to one side over burners that are off. Preheat the grill first, turn off 2 burners, and bake them there with the remaining burners on to maintain heat.
Tips and FAQs
In a gas grill: by cooking over indirect heat, we are turning off 2 burners on one side and cooking over them. If the remaining burners cannot sustain 450°F, just cook a little longer and the biscuits will be fine.
Even though we are cooking with indirect heat, the bottoms of these biscuits will still get quite done and will be darker than if baked in the oven. This is to be expected just by the sheer fact of cooking in a grill.
If a food processor is not available, simply use a pastry cutter and form the dough the old fashioned way.
After adding the buttermilk and honey, if the dough seems overly dry and crumbly, simply add another tablespoon or two of buttermilk.
Once the buttermilk is added to the flour mixture, the baking powder will react and start leavening. This is why biscuit dough cannot be made in advance and why we want to get our biscuits cooking straight away so that we can capitalize on that leaving power as much as possible.
Troubleshooting honey biscuits that do not rise
There are 3 culprits for disappointing biscuits that do not rise like they are supposed to.
First, check your baking powder. Baking powder has a great shelf-life, but it is not infinite. Six months to a year is the general guideline, but this can be affected by humidity and moisture.
Even though I keep mine in a dry dark pantry, I live it the humidity capital of the US – Florida – so I give mine no longer than 6 months.
Second, is allowing the butter to warm. Start with very cold butter and waste no time forming the dough, cutting the biscuits, and getting them cooking to avoid this issue.
Lastly, twisting the biscuit cutter into the dough seals the edges and prevents rising. To avoid this problem, take care to push the biscuit cutter straight down into the dough without twisting. My reflex is to want to twist, so I have to consciously make myself not do that.
More recipes for breads, rolls, and biscuits
- Cheesy Stuffed Garlic Bread
- Vegan Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
- Flaky Yogurt Biscuits
- Butter and Herb Artisan Bread
- Roasted Garlic Texas Toast
These biscuits are best with a juicy grilled steak! For my best steak recipe, check out Grilled Steak with Horseradish Dijon Sauce with all the tips for a perfect grilled steak.
Grilled Honey Biscuits with Thyme
Ingredients
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter cubed
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 5 tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- 1 ¼ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter melted
Instructions
- Heat grill or Big Green Egg to 450°F. In the Egg, put the convEGGtor (legs pointing up) under the grill grate.
- Add the cold butter, flour, baking powder, salt, and thyme to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the butter is broken down into pea-sized bits in the flour.
- Pour the butter-flour mixture into a mixing bowl. Add the buttermilk and honey, and use a fork to stir until just incorporated.
- Pour the biscuit dough onto a floured surface and sprinkle flour over top. Quickly form into a ~1 to 1-½-inch thick disk. Use a 3-inch biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits by pushing – not twisting – the biscuit cutter down straight into the dough. Put the biscuits in a cast iron pan.
- Bake in the grill or BGE at 450°F for 12-15 minutes over indirect heat (i.e. over the convEGGtor in a BGE or over burners that are off in a grill) or until biscuits are cooked through and golden on top.
- Brush melted butter over the tops of the biscuits and serve.
