These tender fluffy masa harina biscuits are everything! They’re kind of a cross between a classic biscuit and a corn muffin, and the perfect accompaniment to chilis, soups, and stews of all sorts.
masa harina biscuits are uniquely delicious
I originally formulated this recipe back in 2012 to go with my chicken chile verde, and I’ve been enjoying them ever since. The flavor and texture is out of this world, and unlike any other biscuit I make. What makes them so appealing? It’s all about the masa harina, and it starts with the fragrance that hits you when you open up the oven, it’s that unmistakeable tamale/tortilla aroma. The biscuits have a soft plush texture that melts in your mouth and a beautiful pale golden yellow color. If you love all things corn, these are a must try.
what is masa harina?
Masa harina is a very fine corn flour that’s used to make masa for tortillas or the filling for tamales. It has a wonderful fragrant corn flavor, and bakes up with a fabulous tender texture. Masa harina is made from dried corn that’s been soaked in calcium hydroxide, and then finely ground. Â It is not the same thing as corn meal. Look for it in the flour and grains section of your supermarket. You may also find it in the international section. (Bob’s Red Mill sells it as well.)
In addition to making amazing biscuits, I also use masa harina to thicken my chiles ~ it adds wonderful body to the chile, and lovely flavor, too. I just stir a couple of tablespoons at the end of cooking.
the 3 secrets to great biscuits
- Use cold butter and buttermilk.
- Don’t over work the dough. Pat it together, and then gently roll or pat out to the desired thickness.
- Make SURE your oven is at temperature before you bake.
masa harina biscuits faqs
Yes, you can freeze them after they’ve cooled completely. Put them in a freezer safe container or a heavy duty zip lock freezer bag. You can freeze the uncooked biscuits, too. Thaw frozen uncooked biscuits in the fridge overnight, before baking.
Yes, and while you won’t get the same flavor or texture, they will be delicious. You can use yellow or white cornmeal.
I like to cover them with foil and reheat in a 300F oven until warm to the touch, about 15 minutes or so.
The obvious answer is chili, and I mean every type of chili from a creamy white turkey chili, to a classic red chili, a Hatch pepper chili, or a zippy chile verde. But don’t stop at chilis, these biscuits are at home with all sorts of comfort foods like pot roast and soups.
more biscuit recipes
- 3 ingredient biscuits that will change your life
- Apple, Cheddar and Sage Biscuits
- Peanut Butter Biscuits from Princess Pamela’s Soul Food Cookbook
- Cheddar Cornmeal Biscuits
- Down Home Sweet Potato Biscuits with Country Gravy
Masa Harina Biscuits
Equipment
- 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups cold cultured buttermilk
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup masa harina
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 12 Tbsp cold salted butter, cut in pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F
- Mix the buttermilk and honey and set aside.
- Put the dry ingredients (flour, masa harina, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) in the bowl of the food processor and pulse to combine.
- Add the cold butter, in pieces, to the machine.
- Pulse in the cold butter, about 25 pulses, to combine and create a coarse crumbly mixture.
- Slowly add in the buttermilk, while pulsing, until the dough comes together.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and bring the dough together, adding a little flour if it's too wet and to prevent sticking.
- Pat or roll to about 1 inch thick and cut into biscuits. I used a 2 1/2 inch round biscuit cutter. You'll get about 10+ biscuits. Note: it helps to flour the edges of the biscuit cutter between cuts to prevent sticking.
- Place them on parchment paper or a Silpat liner and bake at 425 for about 15 minutes. They don't get brown, so don't overcook waiting for them to take on color.
- Serve hot out of the oven (my preference!) with butter or honey.
Nutrition
Great recipe! I used my fingers as a food processor to crumble in the butter (I used 8 tbs, as suggested by another reviewer). I ended up with 14 biscuits, less than 1 inch high, and they browned nicely in the oven. Next time I will use sugar rather than honey as it didn’t really blend with the cold milk.
My favorite biscuits! So easy but so so good. Made with GF flour, they were so light and fluffy. This is my new go-to recipe. Thank you!
Made these as written to pair with chili and they just didn’t work for us,the masa flavor and texture were more tamale like and not biscuity.
I’m sorry these weren’t a hit for you! They do have a denser texture because of the masa harina, but that’s what I like about them. Any time you add corn meal or corn flour to something like a biscuit you will sacrifice some flakiness, but I think you get it back in that wonderful flavor. You might try again using less masa harina.
These are the best biscuits I have ever made!!! I made them as specified in the recipe except I didn’t have buttermilk so I substituted whole milk with sour cream mixed into it. I brushed the tops with milk before baking and they came out a beautiful golden color on top. My husband LOVED them so I will be making these a lot from now on. Thanks for the great recipe!
I adore these biscuits Helen, and I’m so happy to hear you do too. Masa harina has the best flavor!
I’ve made these twice. The first batch exactly according to the recipe (worked out great and delicious). I liked my second batch better however with the following changes. I used sugar instead of honey because the honey was too difficult to dissolve in the cold milk. I decreased the butter to 1/2 cup or one stick, because I wanted to feel less guilty slathering butter on the hot biscuit. Also I grated (large holes) the very cold butter into the flour mixture, which made the biscuits flakier in texture. I rolled the dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness to get more to go around (made 20). They baked up more golden brown on top and bottom, they achieved a little more lift, and were flakier. I’ve made several of your biscuit recipes and like them all very much. This is the only one I made some changes to.
I did a 2/3 recipe of these to have with some back beans for dinner. Woah. I am hooked. It’s the perfect marriage of cornbread and biscuits. My 4 year old had two, and she rarely enjoys biscuits (I don’t get it). I could see these being delicious with honey butter, but they are utterly addictive even without.
I used a milk & vinegar approximation for the buttermilk, and used unsalted butter but added extra salt to compensate. Um, I might have to make these again (full recipe this time) for breakfast!
I’m so happy you loved these Nathalie, this is one of my personal favorite recipes, the texture slays me!
Do I have to have a food processor to mix it?
No, you can do this by hand, a pastry cutter helps.
Hi there would using gluten-free flour make a difference with the outcome? Thanks very much.
I haven’t tried it, but it should work fine. The texture will be quite delicate.
Do I need adjust the liquid if I don’t add honey?
No you don’t need any extra liquid.
These look amazing! I have been curious about cooking with masa harina lately. I like the taste of the corn tortillas and I want to try it in some flatbread as well. and I think it would give chili a good flavor as well. gona have to experiment. Thanks for sharing Sue much appreciated. I have not tried this recipe yet but will .