The Cheese Trick That Cleverly Upgrades Canned Biscuits

Biscuits are a traditional Southern comfort food staple that has become a regular accompaniment to many dishes. And there's no question about it — with their significantly reduced prep time and effort, the many store-bought varieties — from regular to jumbo size, and homestyle to flaky layers — have become a dependable resource to make biscuits quick, easy, and mess-free, and cemented their place as one of the most convenient grocery store products.

But when you're used to diving into the buttery, flaky texture of a homemade buttermilk biscuit, it's understandable that the average store-bought biscuit brands (which can sometimes have that slightly metallic, chemical taste) would leave little to be desired. Sadly, there's nothing you can do about that, right? Wrong! Turns out, you can add a secret ingredient to your store-bought biscuits to capture that buttery, from-scratch taste that'll make you forget that they were actually popped out of a can: cheese. Adding cheese to your canned biscuits is a clever trick that can elevate them to the next level in a way the Pillsbury dough boy could never. 

Adding cheese to your store-bought biscuits is a reasonably straightforward process if you have the correct type of biscuits and a few muffin liners. For this method, flaky layers-style biscuits are better than buttermilk or homestyle biscuits because you'll need to separate each biscuit into layers in order to add your cheese. But first, make sure you're keeping your refrigerated biscuit dough on one of the shelves in the refrigerator, as opposed to in the drawers or the refrigerator door, as the temperature in these places may fluctuate too much, which isn't good for the dough.

Once you've separated your biscuit layers, you'll need to grab your muffin liners and a muffin tin — you'll be baking your biscuits in there to keep the ingredients contained. Then, add about ½ ounce of sliced cheese — any type, as long as it's in slices — between each biscuit layer while inside the muffin liner. Pop those layered biscuits into the muffin pan, then bake them according to the biscuit package directions (but ensure the oven has been preheating for at least 10 minutes before baking). If you'd like, brush the tops of your biscuits with butter before baking for extra luscious buttery flavor. But be sure to use the best quality butter for best results. That's it — a few simple steps, and you have a buttery, pull-apart texture that screams homemade, even if it isn't.

Looking for other ways to elevate your store-bought biscuit dough? You're in luck — biscuit dough can be used for many creative, stress-free meals and snacks. You can roll the biscuits out and deep fry them to golden brown to make fry bread, which you can enjoy as dessert — with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top — or dipped into homemade hummus as an appetizer. Biscuit dough works well as garlic knots when you roll them into ropes and tie them off, creating the perfect Italian dinner side. You can even highlight that buttery biscuit taste by making homemade mini pizzas. To make these, you'll want to roll each biscuit out to about six inches in diameter before adding your pizza toppings of choice. But be sure not to overtop them; you'll want the flavor of that biscuit crust to shine.

If you're going to get creative with your biscuits, don't forget to choose the best brand for your buck. The more flavorful the biscuit, the better the elevated biscuit dish will be — and the more you'll want to return to these easy, weeknight-friendly recipes time and time again.