Easy Creamy Garlic Parmesan Sauce
This easy, creamy garlic parmesan sauce is the perfect sauce for everything from pasta to chicken breasts and vegetables. Love creamy sauce recipes? Try our Homemade Alfredo Sauce.
Garlic Parmesan Sauce: A Versatile Kitchen Staple
I believe the key to being a good cook is knowing how to throw together a quick, delicious sauce. This is also so handy when you need to have dinner ready in minutes. This creamy Parmesan sauce is as perfect served with pasta (add some chicken for a protein boost) for a quick weeknight dinner as it is served with pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes for something a little fancier.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Butter. I use salted butter but unsalted butter can be used.
- Fresh garlic cloves. I prefer using fresh garlic but garlic powder can be substituted.
- Heavy cream/Whipping cream.
- Parmesan cheese. Use a vegetarian alternative, if preferred.
- Lemon juice. Freshly squeezed.
- Salt and black pepper.
- Optional: Other spices/seasonings like red pepper flakes, fresh parsley, oregano, basil or Italian seasoning can also be added.
How To Make Garlic Parmesan Sauce
- Cook the garlic: Melt the butter in a saucepanpan set over medium heat. Stir the minced garlic into the melted butter and allow to cook gently for a minute until fragrant.
- Make the sauce: Pour the cream into the pan then bring to a gentle simmer. Whisk in the lemon juice and grated Parmesan cheese then season with salt and pepper and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce easily coats the back of a spoon. Taste then adjust seasoning if necessary and serve.
Can I Make This Ahead?
The sauce can be made and kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days in a sealed container. Reheat gently with ¼ cup water to prevent the sauce from splitting then serve. I wouldn’t recommend freezing this sauce as cream sauces don’t generally freeze well.
Serving Suggestions
This makes a delicious pasta sauce for a quick weeknight dinner or with chicken wings as a dipping sauce (if you love garlic parmesan wings, this sauce is for you!) and it’s also delicious served over vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower.
- Air Fryer Pork Tenderloin
- Chicken thighs in creamy garlic Parmesan sauce
- Easy Baked Salmon
- Toss with pasta of your choice.
- With vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower as a side dish.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 4-6 garlic cloves finely grated/minced
- 1 cup cream
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese grated
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a pan set over medium heat.
- Grate the garlic into the pan with a microplane (or mince finely with a knife) and allow to cook gently for a minute until fragrant.
- Pour the cream into the pan then bring to a gentle simmer.
- Add the lemon juice and Parmesan then season with salt and pepper and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce easily coats the back of a spoon.
- aste then adjust seasoning if necessary and serve.
I made this and poured over spinach and cheese ravioli. Delicious!
Delicious! Thanks for your comment 🙂
It’s a keeper for me. Served with fresh refrigerated angel hair pasta from market and sliced grilled chicken on top
i made this sauce, it was very nice, but it didnt thicken.
what could i have done wrong
Hi Paul. Did you use heavy/whipping cream? As the cream simmers, it reduces to a thicker sauce but really only if using a high fat cream like heavy or whipping cream. Single, pouring, etc. cream might not give good results.
I made this with camrelized iniona, red peppers and mushrooms served with fettuccine. It turned out really well. Thanks for the recipe!
This is so easy and so yummy! Excellent sauce. I used it over ravioli and it was so light and creamy. I’ll be using this recipe from now on. Excellent!
Made this tonight and mixed it with raviolis and this sauce was amazing! This is my first time trying a recipes from here and can’t wait to try another one.
The recipe gives the calories as 143 per serving, but does not tell you what the serving size is.
This serves approximately 4 people which is around 1/4 cup per person.
Quick and easy – super yum. I served it with pasta, broccoli, and chicken – sort of chicken broccoli alfredo, but better. I did use more cheese – closer to a cup.
Such a yummy and easy recipe! Thank you ?
Wow it is amazing how you need to close at least 5 (!) popups that are jumping at you and blocking the view before you can actually read the recipe. Cookies are mandatory, I know, but notifications, newsletter, videos, advertisements, give me a break. Honestly, this is just annoying. How can I know, if I actually want to subscribe to your newsletter or whatever, if I wasn’t even given the chance to look at one single recipe from your blog yet. Really kills the fun.
I’m sorry that was your experience Lilly. Our ads enable us to continue offering recipes to readers at no cost. A lot goes into running a recipe website (ingredients, hosting, mail service, SEO service, Social media management, assistant staff to help with all the dishes, to name but a few) and all those things cost money. We are however looking at developing an ad-free experience for subscribers for a monthly fee. Is this something you would be interested in?
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I didn’t get any pop-ups. Sounds like your personal settings are ruining your fun.
This was fantastic! I was looking for a garlic Parmesan sauce that was quick and I found it! I made it exactly as written and used it over egg noodles and chicken sausage, but will definitely try again with different pasta and chicken. Best news – the kids loved it – all three of them! My son said there is nothing he would change, it was great. Thank you!
Happy to hear that Janelle!
Simple, yet delicious! I served it with some blackened chicken and penne pasta. I could have easily doubled it as we finished most of it between two of us.
Oh my gosh!! These were SO easy and SOOO good! The kids LOVED them!
I made a few modifications to this, and everyone loved it. I first melted the butter, then added the garlic (4 cloves) and cooked that over medium heat. Then I added 1/8 cup flour to make a garlic roux and added 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup 1% milk. Cooked that over medium to medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, and finally added 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and fresh ground pepper and salt to taste, and 1 tsp lemon juice.
Threw this over rotini and one chicken breast, stirred it all together and topped with fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano and capers.