This White Cream Sauce with Milk is perfect for pastas and chicken casseroles. Made with milk instead of heavy cream, along with flour, garlic, and grated cheese. A thick creamy sauce that tastes delicious and is ready in only 10 minutes! Better and healthier than store bought cream sauce!
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I know that if I make pasta, my kids will eat. They love pasta. When I'm too tired to even think about mealtime battles, I default to pasta. They could, and would, eat it every night, but are pretty particular about the sauce.
We will never go wrong with tomato sauce, but we all need a change every now and then, so tonight I made a white cream sauce with milk. And it was fabulous!
Making a sauce from scratch might sound overwhelming and time-consuming but it doesn't have to be.
This white cream sauce with milk is incredibly easy and is made with basic pantry and fridge ingredients: milk, flour, garlic, butter, salt + pepper, and Parmesan.
It takes less than 10 minutes to make and is super creamy and tasty. It's very similar to making a homemade mac and cheese sauce and broccoli and cheese soup.
📋 Ingredients
For this white cream sauce with milk, you need:
- minced garlic
- milk
- flour
- butter
- salt + pepper
- Parmesan cheese
Milk. You can use skim, 1%, 2%, whole milk, or evaporated milk. Keep in mind though, that the higher the fat content, the richer the sauce will be.
You can also replace the milk with heavy cream if that’s what you have on hand. Both are delicious, but the milk is lower in calories and fat.
Parmesan cheese. I recommend using grated Parmesan instead of shredded, as grated incorporates better into the milk mixture.
🔪 Step-By-Step Directions
This recipe makes 2 cups of sauce, which is enough for about 12 ounces of pasta. It can be doubled, tripled, or halved. Keep all ingredient ratios proportionate.
It's super simple and takes about 10 minutes. While you're working on the sauce, cook your pasta of choice, and you should have dinner on the table in only 20 minutes.
Here are the steps to making a white cream sauce with milk from scratch:
- Melt the butter in a pan. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the flour and whisk constantly for 1 more minute. This will create a roux, which looks like a white paste. Make sure the heat isn't too high. Roux burns easily.
- Slowly add the milk, stirring as you pour. Keep stirring after all the milk is in the pan, until the sauce thickens a bit. Thickening usually takes a minute or two.
- Once thickened, add the salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese— whisk continuously while the cheese incorporates.
- Simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat right away and use on pasta, chicken, casserole, or even steamed veggies!
If you like my white cream sauce with milk, you might also like my recipe for a quick homemade tomato sauce or this one for a from scratch tomato sauce that is slowly simmered.
📖 Recipe
White Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- In a sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add flour and whisk constantly for about 30 seconds until a paste forms (called a roux).
- Slowly add the milk, being careful not to burn the roux. Whisk constantly until it becomes thick, about 1 minute.
- Add salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Stir constantly until the cheese melts, about 2 minutes. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Remove from heat immediately and add to cooked chicken, pasta, fish, or vegetables.
Nutrition
🍽 Serving
This sauce is delicious on pasta and chicken. It can be drizzled over vegetables or baked salmon and shrimp.
It's also fantastic mixed into rice, especially creamy casseroles that use rice as their base.
🍽 Storing
Store your white cream sauce with milk in a mason jar or airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.
You can store it in the freezer in a plastic bag for around 6 months. However, this cream sauce is best used fresh on the same day.
That is all you need to know about making a homemade white cream sauce with milk for pasta. It’s easy peasy!
Please let me know what you think in the comments below.
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What a delicious and easy recipe!
Delicious and flavorful and a meal to be loved by my family. My weekend is surely a Happy Meal.
My wife will love this White Cream Sauce!
Looks like such a simple and delicious pasta sauce! Perfect for a simple weeknight dinner.
Such an easy to make and versatile sauce.
Finally a delicious and wonderful white sauce recipe without all the heavy cream. So yum!
Such an easy and flavorful sauce! Loved how creamy and smooth this turned out; easily, a new favorite sauce!
Very good recipe for pasta 🙂 Super easy to make it
So creamy and easy
I love how smooth and creamy this is!
So easy and flavorful! Thank you for sharing!
My 12 year old made this for herself and her 3 brothers, she found the instructions really easy to follow and I have pinned the recipe for her so she can make it again as they all had clean plates!
Wow, this makes it so easy, I can't wait to add this into a pasta this weekend!
Love how EASY this is! My son would love it.
My family loved this!
I’ve tried to make this sauce several times but cannot get a thick consistency. Maybe the altitude I’m at requires more flour, but this isn’t working
I'm sorry it's not working! I haven't heard that anyone can't get it to thicken, so it could very well be the altitude. I wouldn't suggest adding more flour yet. If you're at a high altitude, you'll most likely need to increase the cooking time to compensate for a lower boiling point. Once you are simmering after adding the cheese, add time in 30 second increments, until it becomes thick. Hopefully this will work!
I did not realize how easy it is to make white cream from scratch! Tastier too! I'll be trying this for a rice casserole like you suggested. Thanks!
what a perfect dinner!
Simple and tasty! My kind of recipe!
Looks delicious and so tasty. Can't wait to try it!
It’s a perfect recipe! My kids love it and it’s so easy!!
A good way to eat creamy pasta
I love making this white cream sauce for a quick lunch for my kids, super delicious!
A very easy and simple recipe to follow. I love the way it's creamy, this makes the pasta look so yummy
Easy and cheesy is my jam!!
Delicious!
Dinner made real easy!