Awesome! I've been trying to learn to cook biscuits for the last couple of months, and this was the recipe that actually produced what I was after. I added 1/2 tsp of salt to the recipe and followed Mark's instructions about pulling out a little bit and working it hard before folding it back into the dough. Seems like a big part of success with biscuits has to do with how you cut the shortening into the flour. I've found that doing it by hand works well, because you can actually feel what's going on with the dough, and you can find and break apart the bigger clumps. Great recipe!

Great recipe, I use lard instead of Crisco and it tastes more like Hardees biscuits when you use Lard!!

This looks as close as anyone is going to get it. I was a licensee of Hardees for 30 years and was there when we first rolled out the biscuit program. The biscuits used White Lily self rising four, we used lard and yes you must use a salted butter brushed over the top. The biscuits originated from 2 major Franchisees down South Boddie-Nowell and Spartan Food Systems. We originally had 5 lb. batches and 2 1/2 lb. batches. Once things got rolling the chain tried to improve consistency by moving to pre-measured packets. The first batch never rose as much as the rest as it had no trim dough in it from the prior batch. Here's a tip. Once you have your dough mixed, flour your hands and take about 1/2 lb. out of the bowl. Work it, knead it on the table for about 1 minute. Then put it to the side. Re-flour your surface, Put the rest of the dough right in the center. Now pick up that 1/2 lb. and pull it into a pancake shape. using your finger tips press it lightly into your dough ball before, you pat it down and fold it in. This little extra step will make your biscuits rise an extra 1/2-inch, with straight sides and fluffy tunnels inside. Flour your cutter after each cut and don't twist your wrist. Twisting makes slanted biscuits. Enjoy! Mark

I was working the very first morning they baked biscuits at the Hardees on Wade Hampton in Greenville, SC. I think it was around '79 or '80. They brought in a big, wooden spool table to mix them on and they hired a white haired grandma named "Miss Sadie" to make them from scratch. Sadie's biscuits were a hit from day one! We couldn't keep up with the cars lined up around the parking lot outside. There was no "secret packet" of ingredients back then. Every morning Miss Sadie made her biscuits, and every morning the cars lined up for them. The recipe was pinned to a bulletin board on the wall. I wish I'd have copied it down before I quit working there. Miss Sadie used lard and buttermilk and brushed the biscuits with melted butter as soon as she pulled them hot out of the oven. I will try this recipe and see how close it gets!

I did exactly as stated in directions although I used butter instead of shortening, didn't work the dough too much didn't add salt, twisted a lil when pressing and i halfed the recipe...worked out just great! Fantastic :)

can I substitute butter for lard?

Maggie, sure. They are both shortening.

GREAT!!!!! I halved the recipe, used salted melted butter in the bottom of the pan and on top of the biscuits!

I also worked at Hardee's as a teenager and made the biscuits every weekend for almost 3 years. It is a 5 pound premix bag of lard and all the dry Ingredients and a 1/2 gallon of buttermilk... Don't remember if it was non fat or not, pretty sure it wasn't!! And it was never made the night before cause if its sits overnight it would turn a nasty green color and could not be served, I don't recommend trying that... We would pour all ingredients in a large bowl and and hand work it and break up all the clumps of lard and make a hole in the middle and pour in the buttermilk... Next is to hand mix it till moistened don't over mix it! Lightly flour a workstation to roll it out and roll till about 1/2 inch thick maybe a little more and they are cooked in a convection oven for 8 mins and so I don't know what they would need for a regular oven... Hope this helps good luck!!

The Hardee's biscuits after you mix the ingredients they have to sit in a air tight container in the refrigerator over night. We never made them without sitting time. That makes a big difference! I did this every morning for 12 years.

Very close to the real deal. I made Hardee's biscuits for two years. They use 5 lbs of flour, mystery pack (my guess is sugar, salt and baking powder), 1 lb. of lard and one half gallon of buttermilk. This makes about 60 biscuits. They butter the top when done. It has been awhile but I do not remember it being self-rising flour. Hardee's does the flour, mystery pack and lard the day before they actually make the biscuits and store it in the refrigerator. This makes the tiny pieces of lard cold again. Hope that helps everyone!

Just so people know, they use non-fat buttermilk and they are baked in a convection oven for 8 minutes at 375°F.

These are the perfect biscuits! I have been experimenting for a month with biscuit recipes only and this is it! Oh my goodness! My family is going to love me. I can bake anything else but I could not get a perfect biscuit recipe. They are not mama's biscuits but they are good enough for Auntie Shirley's biscuits!

Love,

Auntie Shirley

The way we used to fold the dough before you roll it you would place it on the floured table. Start in center push down from middle to left - then push down middle to right, then fold them back into center so they meet in middle but don't overlap - then start at top of flour and roll mixture toward you rolling to form a loose ball type look - then scrap table - lightly flour again and then place biscuit dough in center of floured table and work rolling pin center out center down center left center right till you have it thick enough - don't over work it otherwise it will be tough - and the size of the recipe we used was 5 lb flour - two blocks of solid shortening (lard) you would dump the 2 blocks of shortening into the 5 lb of flour and dry ingredients would have been mixed first - then break up shortening by dipping into flour and pulling off 1/2-inch cubes to have it break down - don't use a cutter cuz it doesn't work and then the dough is tough. Also use buttermilk cold - do not let it get to room temp - and always use butter on top after baking we never brushed the biscuits with butter till it was baked and then as soon as it came out we did use melted butter and brushed it then. They cooked at 400°F for 8 to 12 minutes.

Karen has the original recipe for Hardees biscuits.

I managed several Hardees years ago and I made a lot biscuits. Karen nailed it!

Very much the real deal. The only missing link is in the beginning we never had a mystery packet of salt, sugar and baking powder. We we measure it up the day before, put it in a small drink cup and put lids on in so that when we needed some for the next batch we didnt have to stop and weigh.

You are correct. Made them at Hardees for 5 years back in the 80's. We did them from scratch.

Your so right. I was the GM of Hardee's as a training manager and there is no packet of tricks, it's all simple stuff: lard, self rising flour, buttermilk and salt. Roll out dough 3 times with finger holes each time then on third time cut out biscuits. Bake at around 400°F depending on oven calibration. Me made about two hundred pounds of biscuits every weekend.

I used a combination of methods from previous posts. I sifted the flour, used lard instead of Crisco and bumped it up to 1 cup, added 1/2 t. salt, but kept the buttermilk the same. The biscuits were INCREDIBLE! A wonderful texture, moist, and 2" tall.
I'm looking for something to make them 4" tall. Anybody have any suggestions? I don't have access to white lily or any southern flour since we're currently stationed in Montana.

Misty, the way to bump up biscuit height above the regular cutter size, the way old timers did it. They would use an empty can. Cut out both ends of a large can, completely wash & dry (most people used the same can, once one was picked). If you use a Tuna can, it makes huge biscuits and used to be called "cat head biscuits" because that was about the size. Most cans are actually bigger than a large biscuit cutter.

Haven't tried this recipe, but since I live in MA, we don't get White Lily up here either. Check your grocery for King Arthur Self Rising flour, or order it online. It has worked out well for me for homemade biscuits!

Thanks for the recipe. The are cooking now and have the entire house smelling mmmmmmmmmmmm good. I will be using the recipe more often, I actually cooked mines at a temperature of 350°F for 30 minutes. They turned out great!

OMG, this recipe is great. Its not quite a Hardee's biscuit but it's the closest I've ever tasted. I followed the advice in the other posts and added a half tsp of salt, sifted every dry ingredient, added an extra half cup of buttermilk and used lard instead of shortening. Salted butter brushed on top before baking was great. Nothing bad to say about them... light and fluffy. Perfect biscuits.