A simple lemon garlic sauce that takes plain pasta or chicken from basic to something delicious you’ll look forward to eating.
Best-Ever Lemon Garlic Sauce
For nights when I need to give whatever I’m making a quick upgrade, this lemon-garlic sauce is the recipe I reach for. It can transform plain chicken and cooked pasta into epic meals like my lemon chicken and asparagus pasta. I know you’ll love how it can quickly elevate your weeknight meal.
Ingredients
This sauce is made with butter, cream or half-and-half, and broth (either chicken or vegetable). The flavor comes from the sauteéd shallots (or onion), garlic cloves, thyme (or Italian seasoning), and, of course, fresh lemon.
How to Make Lemon Garlic Sauce
- Make the sauce
A large pan with sides works best. You’ll first sauté the shallot and garlic, then add the lemon zest, broth and warmed dairy, thyme, and lemon juice. Do this last to prevent separation. - Simmer
Bring it to a simmer, reduce the heat, and cook the sauce for 10 minutes. At this point, decide whether you need a thicker sauce; if so, make and add the slurry and simmer it for another 2 minutes. - Serve
Toss some cooked pasta into the sauce or seared chicken breasts for a delicious weeknight meal.
Sauce Cooking Tips and Tricks
The one ingredient that affects the outcome of this lemon garlic sauce is the dairy base used to make it. Whole milk yields a thinner sauce, whereas half-and-half is creamier, and cooking cream or heavy cream yields a richer and creamier sauce. Many people omit the slurry when using cream because they find the sauce thick enough.
Stirring the sauce while it simmers will help you check on the consistency and whether you need to thicken it with a slurry, especially if you used milk. It really depends on how thick you want the sauce.
Warm the dairy ingredient and add it slowly to prevent curdling. This natural separation often occurs due to the acidity of lemon juice. However, the thinner the dairy, the more it will separate.
Technically, you can just add more broth, but the sauce isn’t very flavorful. My recommendation is to make this white sauce without cream recipe.
Creamy Lemon Garlic Sauce for Pasta or Chicken
Watch how it’s made:
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 small shallot, or ½ onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme, or Italian seasoning
- ½ cup broth, chicken or vegetable
- 1 medium lemon, juiced & zested
- 1 cup half-and-half or cream, warmed
Instructions
Prep:
- Chop the shallot or onion and mince or grate the garlic. Warm up the dairy, just enough so it's not cold, to help prevent separation.
Make the sauce:
- Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, melt the butter. Add the chopped shallot (or finely chopped onion) and lemon zest and sauté for 2 minutes, until it's translucent and golden. Add the garlic and sauté it for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the chicken broth and stir to combine.
- Add the warmed cream to the pan and stir until the mixture comes to a simmer. Add the thyme (or Italian seasoning) and stir. Reduce the heat to low, add the lemon juice and stir, cover the pan with a lid, and simmer the sauce for 10 minutes.
- Check on the sauce. For a thicker sauce, make a slurry with 1 tablespoon cornstarch + 3 tablespoons of water in a small dish. Add it to the sauce, stir, and simmer for 2 more minutes. If you used cream and like the sauce as is, you're good to go.
Serve:
- Toss this lemon garlic sauce with cooked pasta or over your favorite protein.
Notes
- Swap the shallot for ¼ of cup finely chopped onion (about ½ small onion).
- If you want to use garlic powder, use 2 teaspoons instead of the whole garlic cloves.
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Maria says
Soooo good. I made this to go over pan-seared tilapia and asparagus, and we loved it.
Swathi says
I agree with you this lemon garlic sauce is so versatile my simple pasta dinner got elevated by this.
Nicole says
Ooh, this is so good! I made it with grilled chicken and linguini. YUMMO!
Liz says
I’m always looking for new ways to jazz up simple grilled salmon. Your sauce came to the rescue—-it was easy to make and paired delicious with our salmon!
kate says
Lovely sauce – super easy changed it up a bit with what I had on hand. Used heavy cream, finely chopped fresh lemon thyme, finely chopped green onions, chiffonade of basil the last few minutes of simmering. Topped off some GF Jovial egg tagliatelle pasta with stir fried fresh veggies with toasted slivered almonds & tequila infused salt.
Next time I will simmer some finely diced jalapenos in the sauce.