Lumpy. Hard. Dry. Impossible! That’s what I used to think every time I thought of making white sauce, also known as béchamel sauce. What seems like a simple mix of roux (butter and flour) and milk, can get messy and lumpy in the blink of an eye.
Fret not. That’s why you’re here. To learn this simple recipe for a lump-free and versatile white sauce. All it requires are four ingredients and and pan and a whisk. There, you’re all set.
After about half a dozen experiments with a few recipes, and some inspiration from Betty Crocker’s and BBC’s recipes, I found that this one works for me, and found that this works for me.
You can use this silky white sauce — béchamel sauce is considered one of the mother sauces of French cuisine — for just about anything, and pair it with a spice or herb to make a variant. Add cheese (white sauce + cheese = Mornay sauce) and you can make it into a pasta sauce; add some dill, and you can spoon it over baked fish, add some mustard, and you can ladle it over roast chicken, or just use it as is in pasta, lasagne, pie, a casserole or serve it as is. You just cannot go wrong!
I used this lovely white sauce to make chicken pasta — I had some leftover roast chicken with root vegetables, and I used that to add to the white sauce chicken pasta.
White Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 and 1/2 cups milk
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
- Add the flour and mix it in. Continue to mix for 2 minutes. At this stage the roux starts to bubble.
- Add the milk to the bubbly roux slowly, while you whisk away.
- Bring the milk to a boil, while you continuously whisk the sauce.
- Once it starts boiling, let it simmer for 5-6 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper, whisk it in, and turn of the heat.
Serving: The way you serve this sauce, and the portion depends entirely on the dish you’re making. For instance, I used all of this sauce to make chicken pasta, and got three portions of chicken pasta.