Garlic Cream Sauce
Creamy garlic sauce with only 6-ingredients! This sauce will become your go-to for quick and easy meals.
For an even simpler sauce, try our 3-Ingredient Alfredo Sauce.
Just like our popular Vodka Sauce recipe, this garlic cream sauce will become a staple in your kitchen.
Garlic Cream Sauce
Want to make someone’s day? Make them this garlic cream sauce!
It’s made with basic ingredients such as butter, garlic, and Parmesan cheese. Not to mention it’s ready in about 20 minutes time.
The flavor of this sauce is everything you expect: creamy, garlicky, and rich. It’s delicious tossed with cooked pasta or use as a base in casseroles and bakes.
It will surely become your go-to recipe for quick and easy meals.
What is Garlic Sauce Made Of?
The best part about this garlic cream sauce recipe is that it’s made with only 6-ingredients:
- Butter: Salted or unsalted butter works great.
- Garlic: Fresh garlic is the way to go. Avoid garlic powder. Even the pre-cut garlic is not always fresh. Garlic isn’t the most exciting thing in the world to peel and chop but taking a few extra minutes to do so will make a difference in the taste of your sauce.
- Flour: I like using all-purpose flour to thicken this sauce.
- Half and Half: Half and half is simply equal parts of whole milk and light cream. It adds the perfect amount of creaminess. Avoid fat-free half and half.
- Parmesan Cheese: Get the good stuff! Buy a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano and grate it yourself. It tastes the best. Do not use pre-shredded cheese. It’s normally covered in an anti-clumping powdery coating. It won’t melt well into the sauce.
- Parsley: Delicate fresh parsley adds the perfect bright freshness to the sauce. You can substitute with 2 teaspoons of dried parsley.
Half and Half Substitute
You can easily make the sauce with milk. It’s slightly less creamy with milk but still very good. Make sure to use whole milk. I do not recommend lower-fat milk. Allow an extra few minutes for the milk to thicken.
How to Make Garlic Cream Sauce
- Step 1: Make the roux – In a large non-stick skillet (or a sauté pan) melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in flour and cook for about 1 minute or until lightly golden.
- Step 2: Add half and half – Gradually whisk in the half and half. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Simmer until thickened, about 1-2 minutes.
- Step 3: Stir in Parmesan – Stir in Parmesan cheese and parsley. The cheese should immediately melt into the sauce. Remove from heat and serve immediately.
Cream Sauce Variations
Feel free to change up this recipe and make it your own. Love basil? Make homemade pesto and stir in 1-2 tablespoons of pesto into the sauce to brighten up the flavor.
Make the sauce spicy by adding a sprinkle of chili flakes to the sauce or make cajun cream sauce. The contrast of creamy with spicy is always a delicious combo!
Want more flavor? Try different herbs, like basil or chives. Or different spices, like Italian seasoning, thyme, or rosemary.
Ways to Serve It
Garlic cream sauce is very versatile and can be served with pasta or as a base for many other dishes.
Which pasta is best for cream sauce? Our pick is fettuccine pasta. It’s wide, thick shape allows you to pick up the maximum amount of sauce with each bite. But honestly just about any other pasta works too!
Looking to add more nutrition to your pasta? Toss in your favorite cooked veggies and protein, such as grilled chicken tenders or grilled garlic shrimp.
Also, this cream sauce can serve as a base in other dishes, such as whole wheat mac and cheese, chicken broccoli pasta bake, and chicken mushroom spinach lasagna.
Video: How to Make Garlic Cream Sauce
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Garlic Cream Sauce
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 10 min
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Sauce
- Method: Simmer
- Cuisine: American
Description
Creamy garlicky sauce with only 6-ingredients! This sauce will become your go to for quick and easy meals.
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp. butter, salted or unsalted
- 4 cloves garlic, grated with a microplane
- 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups half and half (not fat-free)
- 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1–2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, minced (or 2 tsp. dried parsley)
- Kosher salt and fresh black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a large non-stick skillet, melt butter over medium heat. When hot, add garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant, stirring constantly. Make sure not to burn the garlic.
- Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute or until lightly golden, stirring constantly. You want to cook it just long enough so it doesn’t taste like raw flour.
- Gradually whisk in half and half. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until thickened, about 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally. If any lumps form, just whisk them out. Simmer time will depend on multiple factors, one of them being the size of your pan. You basically want the sauce to cook just until thickened. Properly thickened sauce should coat the back of your spoon.
- Stir in Parmesan cheese and parsley. Remove pan from heat. Sauce is best when served immediately. It will thicken upon standing. See notes on serving suggestions.
Notes
- Garlic: For best results, use a microplane to grate the garlic. If you do not have a microplane, use a garlic press.
- Parmesan: Buy a chunk of fresh Parmesan cheese and grate it yourself. Bagged cheese normally has anti-clumping agents and does not melt well.
- Half and Half Substitute: You can make this sauce with whole milk. It will be slightly less creamy but still good. I do not recommend lower fat milk. Allow more time for the sauce to thicken when using milk.
- To Serve: This recipe makes enough sauce for 8 oz. of dry fettuccine pasta. Reserve some of the pasta water to thin out the sauce as it will thicken upon standing and when tossed with cooked pasta.
- Leftovers/Reheating: Sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. Reheat over medium-low heat with a splash or two of half and half or milk.
- Nutrition is for the sauce only, not including pasta.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 159
- Sugar: 5.2 g
- Sodium: 216.6 mg
- Fat: 9.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 13.8 g
- Protein: 5.9 g
- Cholesterol: 25.1 mg
I made this sauce base on this recipe and I was excellent…
Thank you for it:-)
Delicious! Instead of half and half, I used a combination of milk and non-fat plain Greek yogurt.(I do this for any recipe calling for cream, half and half, evaporated milk). Worked great! Boiled rotini pasta, throwing in broccoli florets and chicken apple sausage chunks the last 3 minutes of cooking time. Drained it all and stirred into sauce. Wonderful dinner!
Next time I would only use 1 TBSP flour instead of 2, as my sauce came out way too thick. Like glue. I tried to thin it with pasta sauce, but it was so seized up.
This looks yummy ???? is it possible to make it without flour?
You can but the sauce won’t thicken unless you use a higher fat content cream such as heavy cream.
I added alittle tapioca starch for gluten free sauce.
Great dip for my cream dory fillet
Use corn starchandwater to thicken follow recipe. It works well and you’ll love it.
Can you use minced garlic instead of clove garlic
For ultra-smooth sauce, I recommend using a microplane for grating the garlic.
I used minced garlic and put in six teaspoons. It came out delicious. I also added fire roasted tomatoes and heavy whipping color wan instead of half and half. Don’t forget to drain the juice. Everyone went nuts over it.
It looks yummy I want to ask you if Parmesan cheese is not available so what I’d it’s substitute
Pecorino Romano or Manchego would be great substitutes.
Just made this!! So good!!
So I’m trying to track my macros.
Do you know how much a serving is like in grams/cups/OZ?
I didn’t realize it until after I had already done my serving ???? that it didn’t show anything lol! So I just ate a little bit ????????
Sounds great. But one serving equals how many cups? Thanks
Made this recipe, subsituted half and half with whole milk (1:1). The fam (picky eaters) all loved it. Super easy, simple & delicious. Will be added to the rotation. Thank you.
Thank you! I”m so happy to hear that.
U may also use evaporated milk instead of cream as a sub .works well as long as u add enough garlic ..I always use way more .also thicken wit other flower if u r gluten free. I’m trying the fonio flour in place of white
Very good!! I split the recipe in half and it made one serving! Creamy, but bland so I recommend some spices!!
Sauce worked out great and was really quick to make! Thank you for the recipe! I didn’t have any half and half but scanned another recipe for a substitute which is essentially milk and a good amount of butter (3/4 cup milk with 1/3 cup butter). I also used whole wheat flour and cheddar cheese because it was what I had – still delicious! 🙂
Love that! I’m so happy you enjoyed it.
I’m making Parmesan chicken tonight will the parmesan and garlic sauce make it too much I don’t want it to overpower and everything tastes like Parmesan cheese
You can always cut down on garlic and Parmesan a little if you think it’ll be too much with the chicken.
Can you use almond or coconut flour instead of regular flour.
I’m not sure how almond or coconut flour work as thickeners in the sauce but I do know that arrowroot starch/flour works great. I’ve used it in many recipes where it calls for flour as a thickener.
Try instant potato flakes.
This recipe was super easy to follow and my sauce came out great, I made it extra garlicky and decided to blend my cream (I had evaporated milk on hand) with more garlic cloves, mushrooms, and a mini red bell pepper. I cook for my parents on a low sodium diet so I subbed salt substitute and a little light salt. I also added extra flour to make more sauce and added sodiom free chicken broth. Since it is so easy to make my own sauce, I probably will forgo the garlic alfredo jar at the store. Thanks so much!
That’s so great! Thank you.
Could do with half the amount of flour as its a bit thick and floury. But that’s just my taste. Otherwise a great lil garlic sauce!
Thank you for feedback.
Love your recipes
Thank you!!
I absolutely loveeee this sauce. I’ve used it on butterflied lobster tails, and with pasta. Both times I’ve gotten the best reaction from my family I’ve ever gotten haha. I just have a question, if mine came out a little too thick, do you suggest I add water (pasta water in particular) or more half & half to even it out?
That’s so great! Thank you for your feedback Marisa. With half & half the sauce is going to be creamier so I would do that.
This sauce is absolutely amazing and the uses for it can be endless thanks for such an amazing and simple garlic sauce too make will definitely be cooking this again
Thank you Adam! So happy you enjoyed it.
This was great! I didn’t have parsley so used oregano and it was still delicious. I also used shaved Parmesan from Trader Joe’s. Next time I’ll get it right but even with adjustments, it was excellent!
So glad it worked for you! Thank you for feedback.
Fantastic. Thank you.
Thank you!
Very delicious and turned out amazing! Will be making again.