Homemade Cheddar Jalapeno Biscuits | You'll love this easy, cheesy biscuit recipe made with simple pantry ingredients like flour, baking powder, baking soda, and pickled jalapeños. Grate some sharp cheddar cheese and cold butter and dig out your biscuit cutter. These cheesy jalapeno biscuits are perfect on top of chicken and biscuits casserole or on the side of a big bowl of chili.
Jump to:
- Top 3 Tips for Perfect Flaky Biscuits
- Why do you Need Cold Butter for Biscuits?
- How do you Cut Biscuits?
- Why do you use Buttermilk in Biscuits?
- What Makes Biscuits Fluffy?
- Why are my Biscuits Crumbly?
- Ingredients for Cheddar Jalapeno Biscuits
- Substitutions
- How to make Cheddar Jalapeno Biscuits from Scratch
- Tips for Making Fluffy Jalapeno Cheese Biscuits
- What to Serve with Savory Cheddar Jalapeno Biscuits
- Storage
- FAQs
- Recipe
Top 3 Tips for Perfect Flaky Biscuits
If you love a jalapeño cheddar combo like me, you'll love these savory, spicy buttermilk biscuits. Making Cheddar Jalapeno Biscuits from scratch is easy as long as you follow a few guidelines or tricks.
- Tip 1: Cold, grated butter
- Tip 2: Don't twist, press
- Tip 3: Buttermilk for height
Why do you Need Cold Butter for Biscuits?
Tip 1 is always use very cold butter and grate it.
Pop your butter into the freezer for 10-15 minutes before you start.
Use a cheese grater to grate cold butter on top of the flour. This results in thin little slivers of cold butter, which makes it easy to toss them and cover them in flour which is one of the keys to fluffy biscuits.
A lot of biscuit recipes will have you use cubed cold butter and either a pastry tool or two knives to cut the butter into the flour. You can do that, but you run the risk of crumbling the butter too much if you don't know when to stop.
Grating the butter makes it easier to combine and not overwork. You simply coat the butter in the flour.
How do you Cut Biscuits?
Tip 2 is to never twist your biscuit cutter, simply press it straight down and pull back up.
Twisting the cutter can seal the edges of the biscuits and prevents the biscuits from rising in the oven.
You don't need a special biscuit cutter, by the way. Use anything round in the size that you want. Or simply cut the biscuit dough into squares using a large knife, pressing straight down.
Why do you use Buttermilk in Biscuits?
Tip 3 is to use buttermilk.
Buttermilk is acidic and when combined with baking soda it's what will help these biscuits rise in the hot oven. The baking powder works on its own to help the biscuits rise.
Buttermilk gives a nice tangy flavor to biscuits and helps keep the dough soft.
Don't have buttermilk?
To make homemade buttermilk add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to a one-cup measuring cup. Fill the cup the rest of the way with milk. Wait 5 minutes and then carry on with the recipe.
What Makes Biscuits Fluffy?
Biscuits become fluffy for two reasons.
Butter: Cutting small pieces of butter into the dry ingredients helps trap the butter. When the biscuits heat in the oven, the little pockets of butter melt, leaving fluffy, flaky layers.
Leavening: Mixing buttermilk (an acid) with baking soda causes little air pockets in the dough as it heats which gets trapped by the gluten in the flour, resulting in tall, fluffy biscuits. Baking powder does the same thing on its own.
Why are my Biscuits Crumbly?
If your biscuits are too crumbly, one of these three things might have happened:
- The butter could have been crumbled too small, resulting in more of a scone.
- The leavening agents could have been stale, resulting in no rise.
- Too much flour might have been added. I use 3 cups - which I weigh on my baking scale at a rate of 120 grams per cup. So in total I use 360 grams. If you don't weight your flour, make sure you measure it accurately, by spooning loose flour into a measuring cup. Don't dig and scoop the flour into the cup - this can result in too much flour because it gets packed in. This can lead to dry biscuits.
Ingredients for Cheddar Jalapeno Biscuits
Substitutions
How to make Cheddar Jalapeno Biscuits from Scratch
Prep Tips
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. I use this silicone baking mat by Silpat.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Grate the cold butter on top and gently coat it in the flour.
Do the same with the chopped jalapeños and the cheese.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in most of the buttermilk.
Mix the dough together. It should come together in a shaggy dough. Don't overmix it, just bring it together. If it's too dry to come together, then add in some more buttermilk as needed.
I usually need almost all of the buttermilk, but this will depend on how you measure your flour, etc.
(I always use my kitchen scale and weigh flour, it's the most accurate measurement).
Once your dough has come together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.
You don't need a rolling pin. Just use your hands to press the dough out to about an inch thick.
Gently pressing the dough instead of rolling helps to not overwork the dough and also gives a bumpy, messy top to the dough. All those little bits will crisp up in the oven. If you don't want that, smooth out the top of the dough.
Once the dough is flattened, cut out the biscuits. Remember to press straight down and lift up instead of twisting and turning the cutter.
Place each biscuit on the prepared baking sheet. (I forgot this time, yikes)
Press the scrap together gently and cut more biscuits until you've used all of the dough.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Enjoy these fluffy jalapeno cheese biscuits warm, topped with butter.
Tips for Making Fluffy Jalapeno Cheese Biscuits
What to Serve with Savory Cheddar Jalapeno Biscuits
Serve these biscuits on their own with a swipe of butter or cream cheese or try them on the side of a bowl of chili or soup. These would go well with my Tortellini Soup, Broccoli Cheese Soup, Chicken Pot Pie Soup, or my Easy Minestrone Soup.
For something different have a biscuit with my Ground Turkey Quinoa Skillet, or in a vegetarian version of my Vegan Jackfruit and Biscuits recipe.
Storage
Store the biscuits in a covered container for about 3 days.
FAQs
Coat small pieces of butter in flour, similar to a pastry. The heat melts the butter and releases steam that's trapped in layers of flour, creating a fluffy, layered biscuit. You can see the layers in a properly mixed and baked biscuit.
The acidity in buttermilk (in the case of DIY buttermilk - the vinegar) reacts with the baking soda to create a rise in the biscuit. Baking powder reacts to the heat in the oven to create a rise in biscuit recipes.
You can make buttermilk at home by combining 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Let it sit for 5 minutes and then use in your recipe.
Recipe
Cheddar Jalapeno Biscuits
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup buttermilk or homemade buttermilk, see notes
- 4 oz cheddar cheese grated, about 1 cup
- ¼ cup pickled jalapeno slices chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and black pepper.
- Grate in the cold butter. Cover the butter in the flour mix, pinching the butter to make a crumbly mixture.
- Add the cheese and jalapeno and mix to cover them in flour.
- Make a well in the center and pour in most of the buttermilk. You may not need it all. Mix together to end up with a shaggy dough. Don't over-mix, just bring the dough together with your hands until it just holds together. If the dough is too dry and doesn't stick together, add more buttermilk as needed.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Press the dough out flat until it's about 1 inch thick. Use a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter to cut out circles.When cutting out the circle press straight up and dough with your cutter and do not twist the cutter – this prevents the biscuits from rising fully in the oven because it presses the edges together and seals them.
- Alternatively, you can use a knife and cut the dough into squares.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Notes
Nutritional information is an estimate. Values vary based on products used. Read our full Nutrition Disclaimer.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.
This post was originally posted on November 19, 2020.
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Dimitri Komarov says
I absolutely loved these biscuits. I tried it out and am absolutely floored. It has great flavors especially the spice. Thank you for sharing this.
pipercooks says
I'm glad you enjoyed them, thanks so much for commenting!
Jacqueline
Donna Creamer says
I made these biscuits today to accompany a batch of Bison, Cheddar and Jalapeño Chili.
My husband stopped eating to hold up a biscuit and say “Babe, I think these are the best darned biscuits I’ve ever eaten.!”
This recipe goes in our Repeat Often Recipe file. So tender, fluffy and flavorful.
Thank you so much for publishing this recipe.
Jacqueline Piper says
Yay, love that story, Donna! Glad you found this recipe and thanks so much for commenting.
Jacqueline