I’ve never been moved to recreate a dish that I tasted at a restaurant until I found this simple recipe for Jim ‘N Nick’s Cheese Biscuits. Based in Birmingham, AL, Jim ‘N Nick’s is one of the The Astronomer and my all-time favorite barbecue joints. Whenever we roll down South, we dine here at least once, if not twice. The Cheese Biscuits are always a highlight—sweet, savory, and totally moreish. These moist little muffins are traditionally served with whipped butter, alongside a heap of brisket and pulled pork. I think they’re also terrific eaten plain for breakfast.
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 egg, beaten well
- 4 tablespoon butter, melted
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan.
Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl and set aside. Whisk egg, milk, butter, and vanilla together in a medium-sized bowl and set aside. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend.
Incorporate shredded cheese into batter. Do not over mix.
Divide batter evenly among greased muffin tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the biscuits will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the biscuits will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each biscuit from its mold.
Makes 10 to 12 biscuits.
those look so good. i wonder if the results will be the same if i used a cupcake liner. a little less clean up that way.
angel van – I’m certain the taste won’t be any different. Aesthetically, it will look different from the ones produced in the restaurant, but no matter. Go for it!
those photos are gobstoppingly delicious looking.
oh… biscuits that look like muffins! looks food, sounds delicious
I can’t help but laugh that the post following your finely detailed and documented French Laundry experience was about Jim ‘n Nicks’ cheese biscuits. As a girl from Alabama, I can truly appreciate these little gems. When home, my mom also makes these quite often, and they only seem to taste better each time. I really am just tickled to see The French Laundry and Jim ‘n Nicks sharing the same space! Congratulations on both the engagement and the opportunity to enjoy a night at a foodie’s dream. I’m still waiting on that experience…
I am a huge Jim & Nick’s fan and was there just a week ago!!! The cheeses biscuits/muffins are my main reason for visiting and what I will always eat first!!! Then, if I have room, I might have a little BBQ. However, I tried this recipe and in my humble opinion, although this recipe makes a good muffin, the taste is not Jim & Nick’s. I have tried several different recipes claiming to be the “real deal” but none have turned out to be. One of the main things I noticed comparing my recent visit and actually bringing some muffins home is that Jim & Nick’s are yellow inside and all the recipes I’ve tried, including this one are not. Of course, the main thing is that the taste is just not the same. As I said, this recipe makes a very good muffin but don’t get your hopes up expecting it to taste the same.
Interesting. As an insider I can tell you your recipe is a little off. There are ingredients you need to add and/or change. But I won’t be giving you any hints as to what because that would ruin all the fun!
JnN cheese biscuits are a staple and a huge draw. I don’t know many people who haven’t had them at least once and loved them. Kudos on a very close recreation though, hope you’re enjoying them!
you’ve forgotten one critical ingredient– These are supposed to be cheesy-CORN muffins! Add about an ear’s worth of cooked corn to the recipe above, and you’ve got it!
Also a JNN insider and corn is NOT the missing ingrediant…keep trying
Try buttermilk instead of sweet milk. I’ve found that buttermilk makes all the difference in the world when it comes to making any kind of biscuit.
This recipe tastes exactly the same when using buttermilk.
I am baking some now and I am using half corn meal and half flour, using sharp cheese and a little less sugar.
Buttermilk will make them rise more so that goes into the mix too.
I used to work at Jim ‘N Nick’s in Trussville, Al. (Birmingham) The pictures sure look the same as the ones we made. Wonder if they’ll taste the same. Where’d you get the recipe? It’s sposta be a secret… LOL
I made these last night and I agree with some of the prior comments. I’m a ‘bama girl (War Eagle!) transplanted elsewhere and grew up eating there. First, let me say that the product of this recipe is quite good, but not the same as Jim ‘n Nick’s. I don’t know exactly what the difference is, but I’m guessing that some of that flour needs to be replaced with cornmeal of some sort (my thinking is one cup of flour, half a cup of self-rising cornmeal mix, up to a half-and-half mix; I wish I’d done this, but didn’t). Definitely not corn! Also, I think the mix needs some salt in it, so I added that, and I’m pretty sure the milk portion of the recipe should be replaced with buttermilk (as some others mentioned). Finally, I think I’d reduce the sugar – half a cup would suffice.
If anyone manages to get it just right, let us know!
We drive for Southern Cal Transport out of Birmingham. Let us tell you we find Jim & Nicks to be the best. WE ALWAYS Stop there when passing through. We are here now and ate there Sat. night ummmmmmmmmmmmmm so good. We travel the 48 states and CANNOT find a better place. They also have excellent fried green tomatoes that are out of this world. They say they only make it on Mondays. BUT because we never know when we will be there the cook will come out of the kitchen to our table and welcome us there and make us fried green tomatoes no matter what day of the week. GREAT PLACE TO EAT EXCELLENT SEVICE AND GREAT FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S. The bisquits are so good my German Sheperad dog would rather eat a three day old Jim & Nicks bisquit than a fresh hamburger!!!! Hard to believe but very true. In fact we are laying over w/the truck in shop. So guess where we are eating tonight?
i tried this recipe but added 2 tbs of cornmeal. wasnt j&n but its closer than the first recipe i tried. im thinking a lil more sugar and a pinch of salt. also. . .hmmmm. im thinking about them melting in my mouth. . .i didnt use butter so yeah, i need to add that.oh, i used a tsp o vanilla and im thinking more of that as well.
i will keep trying until i perfect! lol
maybe its in one of those restaurant secrets cookbook
Someone’s was almost right but you left out VANILLA. No cornmeal
Jim N Nicks biscuits/muffins
4 T butter (no substitutes), melted
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
1 c sugar
3/4 c milk
1 egg
1/4 t vanilla
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
Mix all ingredients together and pour into greased mini-muffin tins. Bake at 400* for 20 minutes.
This was given to me by someone who had worked there but my grandmother says she taste a touch of honey.
I wondered about the missing corn or corn meal as well. Tried this recipe for the first time tonight using all cornbread mix subbed for the flour, and adding 1/4 tsp salt, and using buttermilk instead of sweet milk. Not quite right – next time will do the cornbread mix & flour half & half. Very close & good but not quite “right.” I live just around the corner from J&N Southside – will have to see if I can buddy up to somebody in the kitchen & get the real scoop
Thanks for a great starting point!
I’ve been to Jim and Nick’s many times.. we have two here locally in Charleston, SC and I often say I could have the cheesy biscuits as a meal! Needless to say I was thrilled to find this recipe. I made them recently to go with chicken chili. My fiance LOVED them.. although he says they are more like cheesy cupcakes than cheesy biscuits lol.
This recipe is good but still not as good as the real thing..I have made several times….This morning, I used one cup flour and 1/2 cup boxed corn muffin mix….a little closer but still not as good as Jim n Nicks….there apparently is an ingredient that is needed that everyone is overlooking…
OMG WE MADE THESE N CLASS TODAY 4-2-10 IT WAS SO GOOD. 1ST TIME TRYING IT 2
Thanks a bunch for the recipe- they taste just like Jim n’ Nicks
!
I just made these for the first time this morning. I used self rising flour instead of flour and baking powder. No corn meal. They tasted exactly like J&N biscuits. We ate there last night so I still have a taste for them. Thank you for the recipe.
I tried the recipe and adjusted it and they were great. Here are my changes if you want to try.
only 1 1/4 cup and use self rising flour
add 1/4 cup jiffy buttermilk cornbread mix
change 1/4 teaspoon vanilla to 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
make 1 cup shreaded sharp cheese 1 1/4 cup
17 minutes at 400 degrees in a convection oven
I took this to work and everyone thought Jim N Nick’s started making their cheese biscuits bigger. When I told them I made them at home they couldn’t believe it.
I found the original recipe to be more sweet and less dense than the real thing. It may have been the rainy weather here, but I made a few modification to suit my taste.
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
6 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
I also changed to 375 degrees, to cut down on the browning.
But I enjoyed your recipe!
While these cheese ‘biscuits’ are pretty good, they do not come very close to real Jim N Nick’s cheese biscuits. These biscuits are much sweeter and not salty at all (no salt in the recipe). These taste like sugar cookies with a hint of cheese.
I have the actual recipe JNN uses for the Cheese Bread. It makes 235 at a time. There’s no cornmeal, and it uses European butter (higher fat content). Unfortunately (fortunate for me) the best place to get these is at Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ. Keep trying and have fun tweaking the recipe.
Is it cream cheese that is missing?
Maybe sourcream instead of cream cheese? sorry!!!
1 cup of sugar is definitely too much – makes them taste like breakfast muffins. Perhaps it does need a tweak of salt. I’m thinking the “hint of honey” might have come from a honey butter spread. I might try the buttermilk next time.
I had these at Jim and Nicks in Birmingham and I seriously thought they were cheesy corn muffins. They were so soft too and I was wondering why. Now, finding out that they’re actually biscuits, I see why they were like they were. They’re worth a 3-hour trip back to Birmingham.
Oh, and I thought maybe the cheese in Jim and Nicks was in bigger chunks than just shredded cheese. Anyone else think that?
I personally worked at “JNN” in Jasper, and I have not tested these recipes. I personally do not know the actual recipe because it’s supposed to be made in bulk and stored. One batch of this makes like 10 pans of muffins. Cutting it down by that much would be a task, for sure. I’m willing to bet that most are close, but only taste tests will sufice to being CLOSE to the actual thing.
The only way to get it Just Right, is to have the recipe itself.
I’m taking on this task, and I will do what it takes to get it right.