How to Make Sour Cream Sauce

This 4-ingredient sour cream sauce is creamy, deliciously tangy and takes just minutes to cook. It is extremely versatile and can be served with a wide range of dishes including fish, chicken, pasta as well as vegetarian meals and sides. The post explains how to make and use sour cream sauce.

Sour cream sauce comes in essentially 2 variants: it can be either a dipping sauce served chilled, or savoury, cooked sauce served hot. This post includes instructions for making the latter.

Sour (or soured) cream sauce (called ‘sos śmietanowy’ in Polish) is creamy, velvety smooth and has a pleasant, tangy flavour. It is made simply by cooking together stock, flour and sour cream. It has a thick but pourable consistency, which can be easily adjusted if required (see suggestions below).

Sour cream is famous for curdling when heated which is why it tends not to be a very popular sauce ingredient. However, when used correctly, sour cream makes a fantastic addition to a sauce, infusing it with a delicious, tangy flavour while contributing a very modest amount of fat.

There are several ways of making a creamy sauce using sour cream. For example, you can follow the steps for making a basic white sauce (replacing the milk with stock) and simply add sour cream at the end. Alternatively, you can combine the flour with the sour cream then pour into the sauce. However, there is a simpler, more reliable way of making this sauce.

Follow my easy method to ensure your sour cream sauce is perfectly smooth and creamy every time!

Equipment you’ll need

• Whisk: essential in ensuring the sauce is perfectly smooth. Do not use a spoon instead!
• Bowl: combining the sauce ingredients in a bowl rather than saucepan guarantees the mixture will be perfectly smooth.
• Saucepan: for cooking the sauce.

Sour cream sauce ingredients and substitutions

• Sour cream: approximately 15-18% fat content. You can add a little more sour cream than the recommended amount (another tablespoon or so), but bear in mind that adding too much might make your sauce taste a little bitter or too sour. You can also add a little more sour cream once the sauce is cooked (it will not curdle!).
• Flour: thickens the sauce and stops the sour cream from curdling.
• Stock: make sure it’s cooled before combining it with the flour (to avoid lumps in the mixture). You can use (cold) water instead, but you’ll have to add salt into the sauce. I personally prefer to use stock (such as homemade chicken/vegetable broth or shop bought) for more flavour, but the choice is yours.
• Butter: enhances the flavour and produces a glossy finish.
• Seasoning: add black or white pepper to taste (you shouldn’t need to add very much salt).

How to make sour cream sauce: step-by-step

1. Combine flour and stock: To a medium sized bowl add the flour, 3-4 tablespoons of the stock and whisk until perfectly smooth. Whisk in the remaining stock.

2. Add sour cream: Whisk in the sour cream making sure there are no lumps in the mixture.

TIP: It’s very important to ensure the mixture is perfectly smooth before cooking it.

3. Cook sauce: Transfer the mixture into your saucepan and cook over a medium heat, whisking all the time. When the sauce starts to thicken lower the heat and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Simmer for about 2 minutes whisking all the time.

4. Add butter: Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the butter. Adjust the seasoning as required and serve.

How to adjust the consistency

You can adjust the consistency of this easy sour cream sauce depending on how you want to use it.

To make a thicker sauce add approx. ½ tablespoon of flour to the original mixture. Alternatively, once you have cooked the sauce, stir this amount of flour with 1 tablespoon of cold water until smooth, pour this mixture into the sauce as it’s cooking then simmer for 2 minutes whisking all the time.

For a runnier consistency you can either use 2 (rather than 2 and ½) tablespoons of flour in the original mixture or add about 1 tablespoon of stock/water into the sauce once it is cooked.

• TIP: If you aren’t sure if the consistency of this sauce will suit your dish I recommend making the sauce using the recommended amounts, then once cooked, setting it aside for 30 minutes (it will thicken slightly). After that time you can adjust the consistency if needed.

Serving suggestions

This sour cream sauce is extremely versatile and can be used with the following:

• Vegetables: Pour it over boiled/sauteed vegetables, such as asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower or mushrooms (see also mushroom sauce with sour cream).
• Fish and meat: Serve it with pan-fried or oven cooked chicken, pork chops or salmon (see also sour cream chicken pasta).
• Soups and stews: Add it to soups/stews for more flavour and thicker consistency, including Polish soups, which are often served with sour cream.
• Pasta: Combine it with cooked mashed beets or spinach and serve with pasta (see beet pasta and spinach mac and cheese for instructions). Alternatively, add grated cheese, such as cheddar, parmesan or gruyere, once the sauce is cooked and serve with pasta or roasted vegetables.

How to flavour it

• Fresh herbs: freshly chopped dill, chives or parsley can be added when planning to serve it with chicken, fish or pork.
• Dried herbs and spices: these have a more intense flavour than fresh herbs so add much less. Use thyme and/or sage, herbes de Provence or Italian herbs, onion and garlic granules, paprika for colour and flavour (as in chicken paprikash), and hot paprika for heat.
• Other ingredients: lemon zest (good with fish dishes) or a tablespoon of horseradish sauce (for chicken and pork).

Can I reheat sauce with sour cream

Yes, you can! It might be a little lumpy to start with but whisking it vigorously as it heats will correct that. Crucially, the sauce will not curdle!

Top tips

• Use sour cream with approx. 15-18% fat content.
• It is essential to ensure the sauce ingredients are thoroughly combined and the sour cream mixture is perfectly smooth before you cook it.
• You can combine the sauce ingredients right in your saucepan, but I find that using a bowl to do this instead guarantees the mixture will be perfectly smooth.
• Once cooled refrigerate the sauce, covered, for up to 4 days.
• Reheat on the stovetop. The mixture might be lumpy to start with, but this will disappear if you whisk it vigorously as it heats.
• Your sour cream sauce will thicken as it cools so you may want to add a little water to loosen the consistency but be careful not to add to much or the sauce will be too runny. ½ -1 tablespoon should be sufficient.
• I do not recommend freezing this sauce as it may curdle after defrosting.

Other sauces with sour cream to try next

• Polish Goulash
• Turkey Steaks in Dill Sauce
• Simple Wild Mushroom Sauce
• Healthy Turkey Stroganoff
• Healthy Meatballs in Mushroom Sauce

See also these other easy side dishes!

Recipe

Keep in touch!

If you make this easy sour cream sauce recipe I’d love to know what you thought. How did you serve it? Let me know in the comments below, thanks:)

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