Go Back Email Link
–+ servings
A bowl with beurre blanc sauce on a plate with a spoon
Print Recipe
5 from 2 votes

Beurre blanc (French butter) sauce for fish, chicken, and vegetables

Serve this butter sauce with fish, chicken, or vegetables. If you're worried about breaking the sauce, use cream to help stabilize it. Add the cream to the reduced wine-vinegar base and reduce the cream until the mixture coats the back of the spoon. Then add the cold butter.
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time20 minutes
Course: Cooking Helper
Cuisine: French
Keyword: 10 ingredients or less, comfort, family-friendly, gluten-free, vegetarian
Servings: 8 people
Calories: 238kcal
Author: Anna Rider
Cost: $4

Equipment

  • Knife
  • Chopping Board
  • Saucepan
  • whisk

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup white wine
  • ¼ cup white wine vinegar
  • ½ small Shallot
  • ¼ cup heavy whipping cream optional
  • 1 cup butter about 2 sticks, cold
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Gather the ingredients.
    Ingredients for the beurre blanc recipe
  • Chop the butter into tablespoon-sized pieces. Place the cut butter in the freezer while you prepare the other ingredients.
  • Finely chop the shallots.
  • Place the wine, vinegar, and chopped shallots into a sauce pan. Heat on high.
  • Reduce the wine-vinegar base until there is about 1 tablespoon of liquid left, about 5 minutes. If using cream, add the cream and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.
  • Turn the heat down to low. Remove the pan from the stove. Add 2 pieces of butter into the wine-vinegar liquid. Whisk the butter into the sauce.
  • Return the sauce to the stove. Continue whisking. Once the 2 cubes of butter have melted, add 2 more pieces of cold butter and whisk to mix.
  • Continue to heat the sauce and whisk in cold butter until all the butter is mixed into the sauce. Keep the sauce around 110-130 ºF / 43-54 ºC to avoid overheating the sauce while keeping a good melting pace.
  • The sauce is ready when all the butter has been mixed in. It should be creamy and pale yellow. Avoid overheating the sauce. I like to remove the saucepan from heat once the last 2 pieces of butter are half melted. The residual heat will continue cooking the sauce.
  • Enjoy the beurre blanc sauce!
    A collage of 9 images showing how to make beurre blanc sauce

Nutrition

Calories: 238kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 71mg | Sodium: 207mg | Potassium: 26mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 818IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 1mg