Cheese Biscuits with Homemade Honey Butter (Jim ‘N Nick’s Copycat)

These copycat Jim ‘N Nick’s biscuits are better than the original and are the perfect addition to any barbecue or steak dinner—sweet, salty, with a hit of sharp cheddar cheese, they’re perfect served warm with a pat of homemade honey butter!

Whenever my family and I go to Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q, cheese biscuits are a nonnegotiable. They have the best mix of salty/sweet in the muffin with sharpness from the cheese and creaminess from the honey butter. Now, are they technically biscuits? I would say no—they err more on the muffin side. But are they insanely delicious? Ab-so-lutely. After a few rounds of testing, I finally cracked the code on how to make them at home, and I think they’re even better than the original!

Cheese Biscuit Ingredients

The biscuits themselves just need 9 ingredients, most of which are pantry staples! Here’s what you’ll need:

• All-purpose flour.
• Granulated sugar. This recipe uses a seemingly large amount of sugar (about half a cup), but it’s necessary. Sugar isn’t just there for sweetness—it creates a tender texture and helps the muffins last longer at room temperature.
• Baking powder and baking soda.
• Salt. You need more salt than you think (2 teaspoons of kosher salt!) but it’s needed to balance the taste of the muffins while also enhancing the cheese.
• Unsalted butter.
• Cheddar cheese. Mild or sharp is fine.
• Eggs.
• Buttermilk. The acidity and tanginess from the buttermilk helps the biscuits rise! But if you don’t have any at home, you can whip up an easy substitute. For every cup of buttermilk you need, simply mix together a tablespoon of white vinegar and 1 cup (minus 1 tablespoon) of whole milk. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes before using, since this lets the milk curdle.
• Unsalted butter, honey, and salt (for the honey butter).

How to Make Cheese Biscuits

1. Mix the dry ingredients. The flour, leaveners, and sugar go together in a large bowl until well combined.
2. Incorporate the butter. Similar to how you make biscuits or scones, the butter is cut into the flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. This, like cakes that use the reverse creaming method, coats the fat in flour and prevents gluten from forming when you add the wet ingredients. The result is an ultra-soft crumb!
3. Fold in the wet ingredients. Be careful not to overmix the batter, otherwise the biscuits will have a tough texture. Just fold the ingredients until there are no more streaks of flour.
4. Bake (or rest the batter). Resting the batter for an hour lets the flour absorb and the leaveners get a head start, similar to the way you rest muffin batter before baking. This gets you the tallest rise on your muffins, but this step is completely optional!
5. Enjoy warm with honey butter!

Leave any questions or reviews in the comments—be sure to leave this recipe a rating if you try it!

Cheese Biscuits with Homemade Honey Butter (Jim ‘N Nick’s Copycat)

These copycat Jim 'N Nick's biscuits are better than the original and are the perfect addition to any barbecue or steak dinner—sweet, salty, with a hit of sharp cheddar cheese, they're perfect served warm with a pat of homemade honey butter!

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack

Prep Time: 1 hour hour

Servings: 13 biscuits

Author: Mae Martin

Ingredients

For the cheese biscuits

• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon Morton's salt (or 2 teaspoons kosher salt)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (around 8 ounces), packed
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

For the honey butter

• ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons honey
• A generous pinch kosher salt

Instructions

• Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Add the cubed butter to the dry mix.
• Use a pastry cutter or your fingers to incorporate the butter into the flour, pinching and rubbing until you get a coarse, crumbly mixture. Add the cheese to the dry mix and toss to combine.
• In a liquid measuring cup, stir together the eggs and buttermilk until homogeneous. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk mixture. Gently fold together the wet and dry ingredients until just combined with no streaks of flour, being careful not to overmix.
• The batter can be baked immediately or can rest, covered, at room temperature for up to one hour.
• When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400℉. Lightly grease a standard muffin tray with baking spray, then use a heaping 1.5-ounce cookie scoop to portion the batter into each tin. Top the biscuits with a bit more cheese, if desired, then bake for around 8-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes before flipping out of the tin and serving.

For the honey butter

• With a handheld mixer, stand mixer, or whisk, mix the softened butter in a bowl until smooth. Add in the honey and salt, then whip the mixture until light and fluffy. Serve immediately with the cheese biscuits.