Why Southerners Are Obsessed With Chocolate Gravy (and Why You Should Be, Too)

When you think of breakfast gravy, it's typically salty, meaty, and savory, right? Well, that means you need to try chocolate gravy, an under-the-radar Southern classic that's bomb on biscuits and other breakfast staples. After one bite, you'll question why this recipe hasn't reached the nationwide popularity that other Southern gravies have, such as white sausage gravy or red eye gravy.

What Is Chocolate Gravy?

Also known as sopping chocolate, chocolate gravy is a classic breakfast in the South, particularly in the regions of the Ozark and Appalachian Mountains. Its popularity should not be surprising, since Southerners have been drizzling their biscuits in sweet sorghum syrup and molasses for generations.

The exact origins remain hazy, but The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America suggests that chocolate gravy may have been created through a trading network between the Tennessee Valley and Spanish Louisiana, bringing "Mexican-style breakfast chocolate to the Appalachians."

Try It: Art's Southern-Style Chocolate Gravy

How Do You Make Chocolate Gravy?

Chocolate gravy is traditionally made with a blend of butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and flour, thinned out with milk to create a gravy-like sauce. It's thinner than chocolate pudding but has more heft than any fudge sauce you'd find on an ice cream sundae.

The most popular way to serve chocolate gravy is ladled over freshly-baked biscuits; whether split or crumbled is left up to you. But it's not unheard of to pour chocolate gravy over buttered toast, and we'd guess that it's equally delicious when drizzled on pancakes or French toast.