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    Home » Recipes » Sauces » How to Make White Sauce

    Modified: May 28, 2025 · Published: Mar 11, 2021 by Angela G. · This post may contain affiliate links.

    How to Make White Sauce

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    Jump to Recipe

    Here's an easy recipe to learn how to make homemade white sauce! Ditch the canned cream-of sauces forever. Made with a butter + flour roux base.

    Easy White Sauce Recipe
    Simple White Sauce Recipe
    Basic White Sauce with Nutmeg
    How to Make White Sauce and Cream of Sauces
    Easy White Sauce Recipe
    Simple White Sauce Recipe
    Basic White Sauce with Nutmeg
    How to Make White Sauce and Cream of Sauces

    Use this homemade white sauce recipe to make my white sauce vegetable lasagna, oven-fried ham steaks or chicken cordon bleu casserole without canned cream sauce.

    Skim by Section
    • ★ Why You’ll Love this Recipe ★
    • ★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
    • ★ How to Make White Sauce ★
    • ★ Tips & FAQs ★
    • ★ Beyond the Basic White Sauce ★
    • ★ More Homemade Sauce Recipes ★
    • How to Make White Sauce

    ★ Why You’ll Love this Recipe ★

    Homemade white sauce is so easy to prepare and once you learn how to make it, you'll find yourself using it or the base of it (a roux) quite frequently in cooking from scratch.

    I'm all for a good shortcut, but white sauce is one of those things that tastes so much better when it's made from scratch. It's worth taking a few minutes to prepare it yourself.

    No more cream of ____ canned sauces.

    Homemade White Sauce

    I have a few recipes that do call for these cream-of sauces for convenience but to be honest when I make these recipes, I usually make my own sauce because it's easy and you get more flavor, less preservatives and typically lower sodium.

    So, I thought it was time I shared with you how to make a white sauce too so you have the option to make your own cream sauces.

    ★ Ingredients You'll Need ★

    You need just 3 main ingredients to make a roux. Then add nutmeg and salt to create a basic white sauce.

    White Sauce (Roux) Ingredients
    • Butter. You can use salted or unsalted. If using unsalted, you will need to add additional salt. This allows you to adjust the level of salt you use to suit your taste or dietary restrictions.
    • Flour. All purpose flour is what you need. You can use gluten-free flour if you need your sauce to be gluten-free.
    • Milk. You can use any liquid to thin out your flour + butter combination to form a sauce, but milk is what's typically used in a classic white sauce. Any percentage works, so you can choose according to your preference.

    This is your roux.

    Turn a Roux into a Sauce:

    • Basic White Sauce: add nutmeg.
    • Cheese Sauce: add shredded cheese
    • Cream of Chicken: add chicken bullion
    • Cream of Mushroom: add minced mushrooms
    • Cream of Onion: add onion powder or minced onion
    • Cream of Potato: Add cooked mashed potatoes or potato flakes.
    • Cream of Vegetable: add vegetable bullion
    • Cream of Celery: Add minced celery or ground celery seed.

    Season to taste with salt and pepper. If you prefer a clean white color, you can use white pepper.

    Add herbs: Feel free to add seasonings to your sauce as well. I find adding herbs in at the melted butter stage, helps them hydrate and infuse the sauce.

    ★ How to Make White Sauce ★

    Here are the basic steps. You can check out the full recipe and how-to below, this is just a quick overview.

    How to Make White Sauce - Steps
    1. Melt butter.
    2. Whisk in flour.
    3. Let bubble.
    4. Whisk in milk.
    5. Season with nutmeg (optional) and salt.
    6. Cool and serve as gravy or use in a recipe.

    That's it! It's very simple and easy to pull off making your own white sauce. Just follow the detailed directions below.

    ★ Tips & FAQs ★

    What is a roux?

    A roux is flour and fat heated together to form a thickener. Any type of fat works but I often make my roux with butter and flour. You can, however, use bacon fat or any animal or vegetable fat. The ratio of fat to flour is 1:1. Pretty easy to remember.
    A white roux is one that you let cook for just about a minute to cook away the floury taste, but not so long that the butter browns and becomes a brown roux. A brown roux is not wrong and actually can taste really great! Browning the butter adds a nutty flavor so if you're into that, go for it. Just don't burn the butter.

    What is another name for white sauce?

    White sauce is otherwise known as Béchamel sauce. Béchamel sauce is one of the French mother sauces. It is made with a white roux plus milk.
    Another fancy French word. I don't have another less-fancy name for this one, but a roux (pronounced rue, rhymes with clue) is something I use all the time in my cooking and if you browse all my recipes, you're sure to find a roux at play in many of them.

    How do I make white sauce from a roux?

    Once you've made your roux consisting of melted butter and flour, you then add a liquid to make it a sauce.
    For this white sauce, we're adding milk. There is no golden ratio or proper amount of liquid to add. It really just depends on how thick or thin you like your sauce. The less liquid, the more thick your sauce.
    Add liquid and bring it to a boil. Bringing it to a boil activates the thicken powder of the butter and flour combination and makes everything combine. So once that happens, you can see how thick your sauce is and add more liquid if you want.

    What can you make with white sauce?

    I often associate white gravy with breakfast foods. It can dress up a breakfast sandwich or top an otherwise dry egg casserole. However, it can also be enjoyed at dinner time too depending on what you're topping with it.
    White sauce is great with a meat added in. Add chicken, ham, or sausage. Delicious! Serve with biscuits, and you're in business.
    Add white sauce to vegetables for a creamy experience.

    How can I thicken or thin out white sauce?

    You can always add more liquid to thin out your sauce.
    It's more difficult to thicken your sauce because you can't just add butter or flour separately or it will clump and you'll end up with a lump sauce.
    To thicken your sauce, you would need to separately combine additional, equal amounts of flour and butter then add that to your sauce and then bring to a boil before reducing to a simmer.
    You'll want to turn the heat down to a simmer so that you don't overcook things while trying to find your perfect consistency.
    Other than seasoning it a bit, once you have your desired thickness, you're done!

    Should I use salted or unsalted butter for white sauce?

    Either one. You can control the amount of salt you use in your white sauce by opting to start with unsalted butter.
    I typically start with salted butter since I like to add even more salt to season my white sauce.
    However, maybe you are on a low sodium diet or want to use a special salt like sea salt for a different flavor, then you can start with unsalted butter and add your own salt to taste.
    Add salt at the end of the cooking process so that you can taste the sauce to see how much you need to add. Make sure the sauce is still warm so that it dissolves evenly.

    How can I make homemade cream of chicken sauce from white sauce?

    To make your own cream of chicken sauce (similar to the canned condensed soup), create a thick white sauce using a 1:1 butter and flour mixture then slowly add milk until you reach the desired thickness of your sauce.
    Don't forget you need to bring the sauce to a boil for the thickening agent to combine with the milk and "activate."  Then add 1-2 teaspoon of chicken bullion powder for each cup of milk.
    Adjust the amount of chicken bullion to your own taste. More bullion means more chicken flavor but also means more salt so find your happy medium—the beauty of homemade is you can control these things.

    What seasonings go in white sauce?

    A white sauce is just flour, butter and milk. To season your white sauce, some chefs recommend adding nutmeg to give it a depth of flavor and you should add salt and white or black pepper to taste as well. That's all you need for a basic white sauce!
    You can also add herbs if you'd like. Add the herbs to the butter and flour stage so that the oils in the butter activate the herbs' full flavor.
    Typical season for cream of chicken soup includes celery powder, onion powder, and garlic powder. Black or white pepper too.
    Other herbs that pair well with chicken are: thyme, marjoram, tarragon, cilantro, rosemary, sage, oregano, and garlic. If you want a blend of herbs but aren't sure what goes well together, you can opt for a ready-made spice-blend for poultry.

    ★ Beyond the Basic White Sauce ★

    Doctor Your Roux to Create Other Cream Sauces

    When you've mastered how to make a roux and turn it into a delicious sauce by adding a liquid, then you can experiment and branch out almost indefinitely.

    Once you learn how to make a basic white sauce, you can take these same roux-making skills to the next level but adding herbs, cheese, or bullion to transform it into stews, gravy, Alfredo sauce and more!

    How can I enhance the flavor of my white sauce?

    Try different fats other than butter. You can use leftover meat drippings from bacon, or even ground beef. You can also try vegetable-based fats like avocado oil.
    Brown your butter by cooking it longer to achieve that nutty flavor. This transforms your white sauce to a brown-butter sauce.
    Add cheese to your white sauce. Melting in Parmesan cheese creates an awesome homemade Alfredo sauce.
    Adding cheddar cheese creates a wonderful cheese sauce for mac and cheese.
    Add white American cheese and you have the start of a yummy queso dip! The amount of cheese you add is totally customizable. I typically start with 1-2 tablespoon of fresh grated cheese per every 1 cup of milk but you can do less or more depending on how cheesy you like your sauce. You can also add more milk to thin out your sauce.
    Make it into gravy. Instead of or in addition to adding milk to your roux, try adding other liquids. For example, adding chicken broth creates a lovely chicken gravy. Beef broth for a beef gravy. And so on. This can be used as gravy, or a base for stews as well as fillings for things like pot pies.

    ★ More Homemade Sauce Recipes ★

    • Homemade BBQ Sauce for Pulled Pork
      How to Make an Easy Barbecue Sauce from Scratch
    • Easy Hollandaise Sauce
      Homemade Hollandaise Sauce
    • Simple Spinach Pesto in Mason Jar
      Simple Spinach Pesto
    • Homemade Butter and Cultured Buttermilk using Heavy Cream
      Homemade Butter and Cultured Buttermilk from Heavy Cream

    Recipes That Use White Sauce

    Use your homemade white-sauce skills to make these delicious dishes:

    • Parmesan Shrimp Alfredo
    • Oven-fried Ham Steaks
    • Creamed Spinach
    • Creamy Chicken Noodle Casserole

    This tutorial for how to make white sauce was featured on South Your Mouth!

    Easy White Sauce Recipe

    How to Make White Sauce

    Author: Angela G.
    Here's an easy recipe to learn how to make homemade white sauce! Ditch the canned cream-of sauces forever. Made with a butter + flour roux base.
    5 from 3 reviews
    Reviews
    Course: Sauces & Spreads
    Cuisine: American, French
    Skill Level: Easy
    Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 5 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 10 minutes minutes
    Servings: 1 Servings
    Yield: 1 ¼ cups

    Ingredients 

    • 2 tablespoon butter
    • 2 tablespoon flour
    • 1 cup milk
    • salt and black or white pepper to taste

    Optional

    • pinch of ground nutmeg more or less to taste
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    Instructions

    • In a small sauce pot, melt butter over medium heat.
    • As soon as butter is completely melted, whisk in flour. Let bubble for 1 minute to cook out the floury taste. Do not let the butter turn brown. Stir as needed.
    • Next, whisk in milk. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer. Whisk until thickened and smooth.
    • Add salt and nutmeg (optional) to taste.

    Video

    Notes

    Be careful not to overcook butter or butter + flour mixture as it bubbles. You do not want the butter to form brown bits.

    Nutrition Facts

    Calories: 404kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 85mg | Sodium: 887mg | Potassium: 345mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 1095IU | Calcium: 285mg | Iron: 1mg
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      How to Make Rotisserie Chicken Gravy
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    297 shares

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Isabel Mguni says

      November 14, 2023 at 6:55 am

      5 stars
      This is amazing guys keep on doing well. I love the way you present and garnish your food.

      Reply
    2. Jan says

      February 13, 2023 at 11:46 am

      5 stars
      Thank you - I am the worst cook and only have a few dishes I can make - simple pasta dishes and shepherd’s pie - which I make with lentils. I’ve made lasagna twice now and followed your white sauce recipe and I’m so pleased how it came out.

      Thank you for simple, straightforward instructions- and measurements. I can make a white sauce!

      Reply
      • Angela G. says

        February 13, 2023 at 12:14 pm

        That's so great, Jan! Congrats on learning how to make one of the mother sauces! You can make a delicious gravy using this concept too! Check out my rotisserie chicken gravy (also very easy!)

        Reply
    5 from 3 votes (1 rating without comment)

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