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Side · Chicken

Chicken Velouté

A silky sauce of good chicken stock thickened with a pale roux and skimmed as it simmers. Spoon it over chicken, fish or vegetables, or use it to start a pot pie.

⏱ 35 min (5 min prep, 30 min cooking) 🍽 Serves 8 · ¼ cup (makes 2 cups) make aheadfreezer friendly
📅 Add to my plan

ContainsMilk, Wheat. Check the labels on what you buy; brands differ.

Ingredients

Make 8 servings
  • 3 tbsp Butter, unsalted
  • 3 tbsp All-purpose flour
  • 3 cup Chicken broth, homemade stock is best, cold
  • 2 oz White mushrooms, trimmings or sliced caps (optional)
  • ¼ tsp Table salt, more if the stock is unsalted
  • 1 pinch Ground nutmeg (to taste)
  • 1 pinch Ground black pepper, or white pepper (to taste)

Make it yourself

Make the butter yourself → Make the chicken stock yourself →

In the planner, Make it on the shopping list swaps the store item for these ingredients and puts the work on your prep day.

Nutrition

Nutrition coming: the USDA numbers for these ingredients are being added.

📜 Where it comes from

Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935), the Savoy (1890–1898) and Carlton (1899–1919) hotels, London.

A Guide to Modern Cookery (London: William Heinemann, 1907; the English edition of Le Guide culinaire, Paris, 1903), Nos. 25 and 26, p. 20: “Ordinary Velouté Sauce; Velouté de Volaille”.

“Now boil and move to a corner of the fire to despumate slowly for one and a half hours… I am not partial to garnishing Velouté Sauce with carrots, an onion with a clove stuck into it, and a faggot, as many do. The stock should be sufficiently fragrant of itself.”

The original text, quoted as printed; it is in the public domain.

Velouté means “velvety.” Escoffier’s plain velouté used white veal stock; his chicken velouté is the same sauce made with chicken stock. “Despumate,” his word, means to skim off the scum as it rises.

What we changed: We make 2 cups instead of four quarts and simmer 25 minutes instead of two hours, which works for a home batch. Mushroom trimmings are his own optional touch.

Escoffier did this work in London before Michelin gave out its first stars (1926), so no star ratings apply.

Internet Archive scan (Cornell University Library)Project Gutenberg textLe Guide culinaire, 1903 (Internet Archive)Auguste EscoffierVelouté sauceMore from the great kitchens →

Steps

You’ll need: heavy 2-quart saucepan, whisk, ladle, fine strainer.

  1. Melt the butter in the saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk in the flour, and cook 3 to 4 minutes, whisking, until it turns the color of straw: a pale roux. Let it cool a few minutes.
  2. Whisk in the cold stock a little at a time, then bring to a boil, whisking so it doesn’t catch on the bottom.
  3. Add the mushrooms if using. Turn the heat down so the sauce bubbles on one side of the pan only, and simmer 25 minutes, skimming off the skin and foam that gather on the quiet side.
  4. When it has reduced to about 2 cups and coats a spoon, strain it. Season with salt, nutmeg and pepper. Stir now and then as it cools so a skin doesn’t form.
Make aheadMake up to 3 days ahead; refrigerate with plastic wrap on the surface. Rewarm gently, whisking in a little stock if it’s thick.
❄️ FreezerFreeze up to 3 months for best quality. Thaw in the fridge and whisk well as it rewarms.
↺ LeftoversRefrigerate within 2 hours and use within 3 to 4 days; it makes a quick chicken pot pie or creamed chicken on toast.
Gluten-free swapThicken with 2 tablespoons cornstarch stirred into ¼ cup cold stock instead of the roux; simmer 2 minutes.
Meatless swapUse vegetable stock for a vegetable velouté.

Good to know

Cooking Fats Compared Salted vs. unsalted butter All-purpose vs. bread flour (and friends) Stock vs. broth Table salt vs. kosher salt vs. sea salt

Our own adaptation of a public-domain recipe, in our own words. Nutrition is estimated from USDA FoodData Central and changes with brands and portions.