Does Anyone Have a Good Recipe for a Flavorful Cream-based Sauce?

Look up Tuna Casserole in the Betty Crocker cookbook. Their is a homemade sauce in that recipe that is very yummy and you can substitute the Tuna and use Chicken.
From my recipe book it is:
1 cup copped celery- 1/4 cup chopped onion- 3 tbsp butter- 1/4 cup flour- 1 C Chicken Broth and 1 C milk- tsp dry mustard (optional).

In a saucepan cook celery and onions in the 3 bs butter until tender. stir in the flour and dry mustard. Addmilk and broth all at once, cook and stir til slightly thickened and bubbly. If you want added chicken flavor I use the chicken bouillon powder .

Good Luck and I hope this helps.

Elaine

R.,
My mom always makes a homemade "gravy" that you can add things to to get the flavor you want.

2 T. butter or margarine
2 T. flour
1 c. milk

That's the basic structure. I like to make the gravy after I've pan fried something in the pan like chicken or pork chops. Plus I always add salt, pepper, and garlic pepper. You might also try adding some chicken bouillon to get the cream of chicken flavor you are looking for.

Hope that helps!
D.

This is a great recipe I have and you might also use the sauce to convert for your pre-existing recipes.

Cream Cheese Chicken
6-8 breasts of chicken
1 8 oz. package cream cheese
bacon (buy as many pieces as you have chicken breasts)
1 quart whipping cream (I use Land of Lakes Fat Free half and half)
1 large container of fresh mushrooms (I buy them already sliced for easier preparation)
1 T butter
Pepper to taste
Salt
1 T minced garlic
Toothpicks (wooden)

1 box of Uncle Ben's Wild Rice (mushroom or original recipe)

Slightly cook the bacon- maybe 3-4 minutes in the microwave- you want it to been raw enough that it doesn't break.

In a saucepan, melt the butter, mix in the garlic and sautee the mushrooms. Remove from heat. After the mushrooms have cooled a bit, pour in the cream so it doesn't curdle.

Pound out the chicken breast. Salt and pepper the inside of the breast. Put about 1 oz. of cream cheese in a strip across the width of the chicken breast. Roll up the chicken breast, and wrap the bacon around the place where the two ends of the chicken meet and put two toothpicks in the other side to hold together the rolled stuffed chicken piece.

In a 9 x 13 glass casserole dish, line up the rolled chicken breasts with the ends on the top so the cream cheese is slightly peeking out. Pour the cream and mushroom sauce over the chicken breasts. Cover with foil and put in the oven for about 45 minutes. About halfway through the cooking, I will scoop some of the sauce over the chicken to keep it moist but it isn't really necessary. Look at the chicken after 45 minutes and see if additional cooking is needed (based upon your oven's performance).

While the chicken is cooking, cook the wild rice using the directions on the box.

Serve the chicken on a bed of rice and a scoop of the sauce. It has a wonderful flavor.

I usually serve with a nice green salad too.

Good luck.

One of the best cookbooks ever published is The Joy of Cooking. My mom had a copy when I was growing up, and I was given a copy as a wedding present 30 years ago. My copy is pretty tattered and stained. I've gifted my daughters and my niece with copies as well.

This cookbook is more like a cooking textbook. It tells you how to set a table and other practical information as well as recipes. It tells you what different cuts of meat are, how to best cook them, and what to ask for at the service meat counter. It has a terrific substitution chart as reference if you need some ingredient such as buttermilk but you don't have it. Instead of a trip to the store, you can use regular milk and add vinegar to it instead. If you don't have baker's chocolate, it tells you how to substitute cocoa powder. So much information!

I love that it gives the basics, like how to make a basic cream sauce, and then it tells you how to turn that into a cheese sauce or gravy or other sauce by adding certain ingredients.

Get the book for the specifics (or locate a recipe on line), but basically, you melt some butter or margarine in a skillet, add some flour or corn starch while stirring constantly to keep it from getting too lumpy. When you have a pasty concoction, you gradually add milk or cream while continuing to stir constantly. That's you basic roux or cream sauce. To add flavor, you're going to use salt and pepper, maybe some powdered mustard, a touch of nutmeg. You can add turmeric for color. If you add grated cheese (sharp cheese is good for flavor while mild creamy cheese is good for body), you've got cheese sauce. You can add poultry giblets or scraps of meat and some broth for a basic gravy.

It's all building on the basics!

You can try Buitoni in the refrigerated fresh pasta section. You can use their alfredo sauce in casseroles that call for a white sauce or canned soup.

Go to www.allrecipes.com They have ideas and recipes for what ever you are cooking from real people just like us. I like being able to convert a recipe for just your family or a crowd by just entering the number of people you want to serve.