This homemade white sauce recipe is super easy to make and is useful for enhancing all kinds of meals. This white sauce is easily adaptable for various recipes and we have included easy dinner recipes and tips for great ways to use the white sauce!
White sauce and white gravy are essentially the same thing, so you can use it for biscuits and gravy or as a sauce for many main dish and breakfast recipes. Read on to find some easy meal ideas you can make with it!
This is the white sauce recipe that grandma used to make when she made biscuits and sausage gravy or hamburger gravy on toast. This classic dish is easy to make and it’s actually pretty nutritious.
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Here are some tips to use white sauce and you’ll find easy recipes below!
How To Use White Sauce – Tips And Ideas
White sauce, also known as white gravy, is super easy to make and a great way to stretch meals, especially when you’re looking to make the most of meat. (Basically, white sauce is just an unflavored gravy.) Below are some creative ways to use homemade white sauce, turning simple ingredients into delicious meals while often utilizing leftovers at the same time!
Ideas for Using White Sauce:
Add to White Sauce:
- Hard-boiled eggs, chopped
- Canned tuna and/or frozen peas
- Ham
- Dried beef
- Fried hamburger
Serve White Sauce on Toast:
- Top with any of the above options for a hearty, flavorful meal.
Make White Gravy:
- Mix with fried sausage and serve over warm biscuits for a classic breakfast dish.
Use White Sauce as a Side with:
- Cubed, cooked potatoes with melted American cheese
- Cooked broccoli with a sprinkle of cheese
- Cooked cauliflower with cheese
- Macaroni and cheese: Mix cooked macaroni and cheese into white sauce, then bake until bubbly and golden.
Use White Sauce as a Base for:
- Chicken pot pies
- Casseroles – It’s the perfect creamy base to bind everything together.
This white sauce recipe is my preferred recipe because I can usually find regular milk on sale, and I personally prefer it over dry milk.
As a side, serve white sauce with:
Easy Recipes That Use White Sauce
This easy meatballs with mushroom gravy recipe combines savory meatballs with a rich mushroom gravy. Add a vegetable on the side, and you’ve got a quick, easy, and delicious home-cooked meal that’s perfect for busy nights!
This golden morning sunshine recipe is a quick and tasty breakfast recipe! You can make it any time but since it’s also a great way to use hard boiled eggs, it’s an especially good way to use all those colored eggs from Easter and have a tasty breakfast or dinner! You can find this recipe in our Dining On A Dime Cookbook, Volume 1.
This sausage stroganoff recipe makes a creamy home cooked dinner that’s hearty and delicious!
This crockpot salisbury steak recipe is an easy comfort food recipe your family is sure to love! Why pay so much for it at a restaurant when you can make it at home fast and save. It’s quick to put together and then you can let it cook in the crockpot until you’re ready to serve!
For this recipe, you can start with white sauce and adapt to make the brown gravy.
This easy ham and noodles recipe is a quick and easy recipe that kids and families love! It’s a great way to use leftover ham! Keep some ham in the freezer just to use for easy recipes like this and it’ll be even quicker!
This easy crockpot meatball soup recipe makes a hearty meal great for busy days! Your family will love this comfort food recipe and you won’t have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen! Win-Win!
This creamy chicken recipe is an easy dinner recipe that you can make in the oven or the crockpot. Serve over rice, potatoes or your choice of vegetables. It takes just a few minutes to make and everyone will love it!
This chicken fried steak recipe is quick and easy and so delicious that your family is sure to love it! Save on your food bill with this inexpensive recipe, which costs dramatically less than the restaurant version!
This chicken supreme recipe makes a hearty casserole that is a great way to use leftover chicken or hard boiled eggs. It’s a nice variation that will please your family or guests!
This easy ham and potatoes recipe makes a tasty one dish meal that’s quick and easy to make. This is a hearty classic favorite comfort food that’s sure to please!
This chicken pot pie recipe is a delicious one dish meal that’s quick and easy to make. This is a great way to use chicken leftovers or use turkey instead of chicken and save even more money on this classic favorite!
This Mexican cheese casserole recipe is a quick and easy meal your family is sure to love! It only takes a few minutes to toss together and you can easily adapt this to your own family’s preferences.
This easy scalloped potatoes recipe makes a super yummy potato side dish to serve alongside your favorite ham or chicken dinner! It’s super cheesy and delicious!
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I don’t use dry milk how would I substitute for this? I have seen several recipes calling for the dry milk on your posts but I have limited storage space and we use organic milk as it has a longer lifetime.
Marianne you just use the first recipe I put there where it says about 2 Tbsp. flour for each cup of milk. This usually works best if the milk is cold. Now depending on what I am making or if I’m not in a hurry I will mix the flour with about 3 Tbsp. of water, shake it or whisk until the lumps are gone then add it to the milk.
When ever you see dry milk in a recipe all you need to do is see how much water it calls for and just substitute milk for the water and dry milk.
thank you for all your help Jill, you are a blessing to me
Oh thank you Briana. Our viewers and readers are such an encouragement to us too. We love you guys and you are the very best.
What a timely post! I already knew how to do this, but I oftenly look at so many new recipes I forget about the simple and cheap ones I grew up making. This sauce will help make the perfect easy meal I was looking for. Thank you!
You are so right Ashley I forget about it too and duhhhh I didn’t think to mention here that you can use cooked hamburger or sausage in this sauce and serve over biscuits. People think sausage and biscuits is a big deal and hard to make but the reality is that it is quick, easy and inexpensive.
In high school in the early 1960’s I was taught to make white sauce with equal amounts of butter (oleo) and flour
Heated in a sauce pan, and milk added to make the thickness you wanted for your white sauce. I still do this. Great for soups, too! I also make a version of this for my scolloped potatoes, with layers of thinly sliced potatoes, and onions, and sometimes cheese or mushroom soup ( if I use the soup I just sprinkle the flour and a bit of salt in the layers of potatoes and onions. Mac and cheese uses the white sauce with added cheese, it is so good, and I always stir in an egg or two with my Mac and cheese, side salad and supper/lunch is ready!
Yes you can use butter. For those of you who don’t know 2-3 Tbsp. of grease from say the sausage or the hamburger can replace the butter and save money.
That’s how I do it too!
I think every young woman needs this recipe and be ready to use it. Like Jill says, it’s so versatile! It’s the base and beginning of a lot of good meals!
I have always used cornstarch instead of flour (probably because that is how my mother did it). Is there a difference in flavor when using flour ???
Not really Ginny you can use either.
– and it is even gutenfree, win-win
glutenfree, please 😉
Texture a bit different. I prefer flour or a combination of each….How my mom did 😆
Also can use sugar in white sauce & add to beaten eggs & vanilla and serve over dried toast. I and my kids like cream toast for breakfast as a treat.
Lot of these recipes are familiar from my childhood. I think in 60s people started using creamed soups as short cuts. Make your own sauce & bypass all the weird ingredients that show up in canned soups.
For years, my MIL made creamed spinach and creamed carrots and would NEVER give me her recipe. Finally, she did show my daughter how to make them and my daughter taught me. Everything was made with fresh ingredients – garden spinach and fresh carrots. The other day I was looking for a quick vegetable for dinner and pulled out a can of sliced carrots, whipped up the white sauce and Voila! had creamed carrots. Just the white sauce, carrots, and some parsley. My husband was so surprised and said I’d need to make them more often because they reminded him of his mom. This was the perfect compliment because her dishes were wonderful. My daughter told me that she uses frozen, chopped spinach for her creamed spinach dish and I will try that next. Too bad, all these years and I just didn’t know how to make these. My MIL made it seem so secret. But thanks to you Jill, I can make my husband his favorite veggies. Thanks so much.
my mother did this with onions.
she would cook small cooking onions in water then pour the white sauce over them.
Us kids didn’t really like onions but we would enjoy these.
It was an interesting dish. the onions were whole so we could peel them for thin slices or cut them into bite size pieces.
white sauce has so many uses.
I add cheese and have a nice cheese sauce for poached fish.
some things should never change and white sauce is one of them.
That reminded me too grandma that my mom did this with peas. The sky really is the limit.
We make creamed hamburg. My sister-in-law showed me an easy way to do it that it doesn’t lump up. Fry the onion, green peppers (optional), seasonings, and when almost done, scatter the flour over the hamburg and mix it in and let it cook into the meat. It will be a coating on the hamburg. Then I pour just a little bit of water over the mixture first, then slowing add the milk and stir so it doesn’t lump. We use it over boiled or fried potatoes or over noodles. A favorite at our house.
We have a colorful vegetable with the meal and/or a salad.
Yes your sister in law’s method works really good too for making sausage gravy for biscuits.
The thing about cream of whatever soup is they are usually glutton and lactose free – so anyone have a good white sauce that is lactose and glutton free using basic ingredients?
I don’t buy soy or almond milk. My hubby, (the one with the intolerances) would not drink it.
I tend to just use gravy I make with only cornstarch not flour, but sometimes you just need a white sauce!
One of my favorites White Sauce with Peas and new potatoes. Yum!
Dora, I agree with you! When I was growing up, creamed potatoes and peas was always my request on my birthday, which is in October. So it’s good whether using new potatoes or not!! 🙂
Jill, I love Cream of Chicken soup. Could a person use this as a base for a homemade version of the soup I buy in a can???
You could use that or we have a Cream of Soup Mix in Dining on a Dime you could use too. If you use the white sauce recipe just add the last 5 ingredients of the following recipe to the white sauce or make up this recipe from Dining on a Dime to keep on hand.
Cream Soup Mix
2 cups dry milk
1 1/4 cups cornstarch or 2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup chicken bouillon powder
2 Tbsp. dried onion flakes
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. thyme (optional)
1 tsp. basil (optional)
Mix all the ingredients and store in airtight container. If the mix is made with cornstarch, add 1/3 cup mix to 1 1/4 cups water; if made with flour, add 1/2 cup mix to 1 1/4 cups water.
This makes concentrated casserole consistency. For soup consistency, double the water.
Jill,
This recipe looks so good. I ordered the cookbook and can’t wait to get it. All the recipes you send us in the blog will be there and I don’t have sheets of paper all over the kitchen, tucked in here and there. I have begun to write notes on the recipes that I make to indicate whether we like it or not and if I change any of the ingredients. This has worked very well because sometimes I have decreased the salt or left something out that we didn’t like and the recipe has still been very good. This cream of soup mix is something that I know I will use frequently. Thanks.
Glad you like it Maggie. I forgot to mention too to any one who uses a lot of the onion soup mix we have that in the book too.
@ Sherri…our family is gluten, lactose and soy free. We do eat butter, and I would use butter to make a white sauce with rice flour. However, you can use bacon grease and rice flour, that will make a nicely flavored white sauce. The proportions are roughly the same..you’ll have to experiment a bit to get the thickness you want.
I do a lot of cooking by the”gosh and by golly” method that is guesswork. I melt about three tablespoons of butter in the microwave, then I mix in as much flour as it takes to make a thick paste. After that I slowly pour in about a cup of milk, stirring well to prevent lumps. Return to the microwave for about 2 minutes. When it comes out I whisk it and if it is lumpy use my stick blender to mix. By using the microwave burning the sauce is prevented and you don’t have to watch it.
Every Friday since we were not allowed meat (this is changed now) Mom would make a white sauce and put fresh carrots and chopped hard boiled eggs and even salmon or tuna sometimes. She served it on white bread toasted. This was many years ago but I still love it. Yummo
With our first microwave, a white sauce recipe was included in making scalloped potatoes. (Much quicker and easier than in the conventional oven…I still use it, 30 years later)
Peel potatoes, slice thinly into casserole dish, (microwave safe)…make your white sauce(listed below) and pour over . Add,onions sliced, or a bit of cheese…your choice.
(10 minutes baking time)
Bake 5 minutes, lightly covered, test with fork, cook another 5 minutes…Test for doneness
Serve hot. (great for summertime cooking, not hot oven heat)
“White sauce”…..
1/4 cup of butter, melted.
Add
1/4 cup flour,
blend well. add
1 cup of milk, mix well
pour over sliced potatoes….
White sauce can be used for making gravy or other thickenings.
Will be making several of these recipes. Thanks
HI, Is this White Sauce cooked in the microwave cooked on High, Medium, or Low both times? Thank you.
Annie white sauce is one of those things that seems to work better doing it in a sauce pan because you need to keep stirring it non stop while it is cooking. It is best cooked over medium to low heat on the burner depending how hot your stove cooks. Now after it is cooked you can store it in the fridge and then microwave the leftovers to warm it up.
Celery is wonderful in white sauce too.
Love your easy recipes.
Thank you so much Lillias for letting us know.
I’ve been scrolling through your site and copying a number of your recipes. I have tried to order your books but the order form does not accept Canada as a country. Do you not ship here? If not, is there some other way of purchasing your cookbooks? I am interested in a few of them.
Thanks
Love your recipes and the comments are very helpful! Thanks.