Most home biscuit recipes call for cold butter. Butter contains water, which converts to steam during baking and pushes the layers apart, creating the flaky, puff-pastry-like texture of biscuits like those at Cracker Barrel or a Southern diner. That is a great biscuit. It is not a Hardee’s biscuit.

Hardee’s uses vegetable shortening — Crisco or a commercial equivalent. Shortening is 100% fat with no water. It coats the flour proteins without creating steam layers, producing a biscuit that is dense in the best sense: tight-crumbed, soft, and sturdy. It is the same principle that makes pie crust made with Crisco more tender than a butter crust. The flavor is milder and cleaner, which lets the buttermilk tang come through without competition.

If you want to split the difference, you can use 1/2 cup shortening plus 2 tablespoons cold cubed butter. You get a biscuit that leans toward Hardee’s texture but with a slightly richer flavor. Both versions work.

Hardee’s uses a proprietary self-rising flour blend developed for consistent results across thousands of locations. At home, self-rising flour (which already contains baking powder and salt) is the closest match. The leavener ratio is calibrated for tender rise without any sourness, and the consistent protein content produces a predictable biscuit every time.

If you don’t have self-rising flour, substitute 4 cups all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons baking powder + 1 teaspoon salt + 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. The baking soda adds a tiny bit of additional rise and reacts with the buttermilk for tenderness.

Hardee’s employees do not use a rolling pin. They pat the dough out by hand to an even thickness, then cut it with a round cutter. This matters because a rolling pin applies even, compressive pressure that can seal the top and bottom of the biscuit, inhibiting rise. Hand-patting is uneven and gentle, leaving air pockets throughout the dough.

At home, flour your hands generously and press the dough into a rough rectangle on a floured surface. It does not need to be perfect. Cut your rounds, re-pat the scraps once, and bake. The less you touch the dough, the better the biscuit.

Hardee’s biscuits are built for breakfast sandwiches. The Monster Biscuit — the chain’s most famous breakfast item — stacks two folded eggs, a sausage patty, two strips of bacon, and two slices of cheese (American and Swiss) inside one of these biscuits. It weighs in at 700+ calories and is exactly as satisfying as it sounds. At home, you can replicate the same build using two eggs cooked flat in butter and folded, a pork sausage patty, crisp bacon, and slices of American and Swiss cheese melted on while still in the pan.

These biscuits are also excellent with Bob Evans Sausage Gravy — the shortening base absorbs thick, creamy gravy in a way that butter-laminated biscuits sometimes don’t, holding their shape rather than dissolving.

• Cold ingredients, cold hands. The entire premise of a good biscuit is cold fat that has not melted into the flour. Run your hands under cold water before working the shortening in, or use a pastry cutter the whole way to keep hand heat out of the equation.
• Don’t overmix. Fifteen strokes with a spoon is enough. The dough will look rough and shaggy and that is correct. A smooth, fully incorporated dough has already been overworked.
• Touch the scraps once. Pat the scraps together and cut one more round of biscuits from them. Handling them a second time will make the biscuits from those scraps noticeably denser — they are still good, but you will be able to tell the difference.
• Make biscuit sandwiches. These are the right size and structure to hold a fried egg and a sausage patty. The 3-inch cutter produces a large, restaurant-scale biscuit; a 2.5-inch cutter gives you something closer to a slider size.
• Gravy biscuits. Split hot biscuits in half, pour a ladleful of white sausage gravy over the bottom half, and rest the top half on the side. This is biscuits and gravy the fast-food counter way.
• Freeze unbaked. Cut the biscuits, arrange on a sheet pan, freeze solid, then transfer to a zip bag. Bake from frozen at 425°F for 18 to 20 minutes. The results are nearly identical to fresh.

Baked biscuits keep at room temperature in an airtight container for 2 days or refrigerated for up to 4 days. They freeze well for 2 months — wrap individually in plastic wrap, then bag together.

To reheat, place in a 350°F oven for 5 to 7 minutes. Split and toasted cut-side down in a dry skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes is even better for a breakfast sandwich base — it crisps the interior and gives the biscuit structure. Avoid the microwave if possible; it makes the interior gummy.

If you are working through the regional biscuit pantheon:

• Copycat KFC Biscuits — KFC’s biscuits lean buttery and slightly sweet with a tight crumb and golden top; they’re made with Bisquick-style mix and a heavy hand of shortening plus buttermilk.
• Copycat Popeyes Biscuits — Popeyes biscuits are butter-forward, slightly flaky, and heavily salted — a Southern Louisiana style that is richer and more layered than Hardee’s.
• Copycat Cracker Barrel Biscuits — the cold-butter, laminated style with that tall, flaky pull-apart texture; a different technique and a different outcome, but equally worth knowing.