The Best Store-Bought Biscuit Mix Comes From A Popular Restaurant Chain

Biscuits are the pride and joy of southern cuisine, but they require quite a bit of skill and effort to make from scratch. Thankfully, biscuit mix is the convenient shortcut that has all the dried ingredients measured out and ready to mix with milk or water to form biscuit dough and bake. We tasted and ranked 12 store-bought biscuit mixes and found that the best biscuit mix comes from the popular restaurant chain, Cracker Barrel.

Ironically, we ranked Cracker Barrel's fresh biscuits as the worst chain restaurant biscuit, so the chain's buttermilk baking and pancake mix redeems its reputation for home cooks. Our ranking of biscuit mixes was based on taste, texture, and ease of use. Cracker Barrel's biscuit mix comes together easily with the help of milk and a very thorough set of instructions for both drop biscuits and cut-out biscuits. No other competitor offers such detailed instructions, which ultimately set these biscuits a cut above the rest in terms of ease of use. The dough was smooth and even, a good indicator of its success in the oven.

Once baked, Cracker Barrel's biscuits were perfectly golden brown on top with a fluffy, light crumb, making for the perfect texture. Since the mix works for buttery, savory biscuits, waffles, and pancakes, Cracker Barrel's buttermilk baking and pancake mix also earned points for versatility.

Customers from Walmart and Amazon gave plenty of 5-star reviews that raved about the quality of Cracker Barrel's biscuit mix. They complimented the multi-faceted purpose of the mix, noting that whether they made waffles, pancakes, or biscuits, the crumb was light as a feather. Not only did customers love the fluffy texture, but they also described the flavor as "perfect," "like homemade," and buttery without being sweet.

Since the mix is meant for various dishes, customers also talked about simple customizations to take it in sweet or savory directions. You can transform these biscuits into sweeter scone-like baked goods by adding a dash of vanilla extract and currants or dried cranberries before rolling out and cutting the dough. Another sweet application for these biscuits is as a cobbler topping for this southern blackberry cobbler or this classic peach cobbler recipe

You can also drop this biscuit dough over this recipe for chicken pot pie instead of a scratch-made crust. Drop biscuits would also make the perfect dumplings for this slow cooker chicken and dumplings recipe. If sticking to classic biscuits, you can add chives or shredded cheddar to the dough batter for a flavorful upgrade.