Better Than Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons. Taken by user vigilant20 (דָרוּך). Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Biscuits may be the best baked good as it requires so few ingredients and uses things you most likely have. An hour before dinner, at home, I asked, “Would you rather have bread rolls, Naan, or Red Lobster—”

“Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits!” That was the immediate response to my unfinished question, so a biscuit cooking adventure it is.

Cheddar Bay Biscuit ingredients
Photo by Kayless Chalmers

To the right you can see the ingredients from the recipe. I had no buttermilk or parsley, because I’m a college student.

But! Google answers my random cooking questions, so I learned what can be substituted. In place of buttermilk, I used 5 tablespoons of plain Greek yogurt, and for parsley, I used ½ teaspoon of dried oregano (other herbs would work, too!). Note: Be cautious when adding more seasoning. The first time I made these, which quickly disappeared, so I had to make more the next day, I put 1 ½ teaspoons and it was really, really oregano-y.

If you don’t have Greek yogurt, plain yogurt is okay if you don’t mind sweeter biscuits. I (used to) have lots of plain yogurt because it was on sale and it works well as sour cream for tacos.

Unfortunately, I don’t own a pastry cutter, so I swapped in a fork when it was time to “cut” the butter into the flour. Then later, I needed a marinade brush, but instead of brushing on melted butter, I just put a thin pad of butter on the biscuits’ tops. And all this trouble was worth it.

Those biscuits tasted so yummy and garlic-y and biscuit-y. However, I am sometimes biased with what I cook, so I needed a second opinion. Jackson Wrazidlo, fellow Promethean reporter,  tried a biscuit and said, “I could tell oregano was substituted for the parsley, but other than that I couldn’t tell much of a difference from what I remember at Red Lobster. That was buttery, flakey, and delicious.”

I think this recipe is great for an infrequent cook, because its ingredients are inexpensive and common in an average kitchen. The cooking challenge level is lower, too, so with some Googling, baking biscuits can be convenient and easy. The full, altered recipe is below. The original by Kelly Anthony is here.

Cheddar Bay Biscuits, Red Lobster Copy-“Crab”

Prep Time: 15-20 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Servings: 20 biscuits

Ingredients

2 sticks (1 cup) cold butter + 2 tablespoons set aside
4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon oregano
1 ¾ cups shredded cheddar cheese
5 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400° and have ready two sheet pans lined with either parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
  2. Cut 2 sticks of butter into tiny cubes and set aside until ready to use.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, garlic powder, and oregano. Using a pastry blender, cut the cubed butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse, small peas.
  4. Stir in the cheddar. Then, using a sturdy spoon (or your hand), stir in the yogurt just until dough comes together. Do not over mix.
  5. Drop large, heaping spoonfuls, or an ice cream scoop of dough onto the sheet pans, spacing each ½ inch apart and bake for 11 minutes.
  6. Once the biscuits have finished baking, put a thin pad of butter on each biscuit, return to the oven and bake 4 minutes more, until cooked through and a light, golden brown.