It wasn’t until I made my Chicken Cordon Bleu Sliders the other day that I remembered how much I really do love the flavors of Chicken Cordon Bleu. And one of the things I love about Chicken Cordon Bleu is the sauce that’s traditionally served with it. It’s known as a Supreme Sauce, and it’s rich chickeny creamy deliciousness. I promised I’d post a recipe for you to go with those sliders, so here’s the Easiest Supreme Sauce.

Easiest Supreme Sauce

I think it’s a little strange, actually, when I first made Chicken Cordon Bleu for my site, way back in 2011 (Wow that was a long time ago! It’s hard to believe I’ve been blogging that long!) that I didn’t make any sauce at all for it. At any rate, that recipe is overdue for a rewrite and some new pics as well as some Supreme Sauce. It really is the best Chicken Cordon Bleu I’ve ever had, it just doesn’t look it. When I made my Chicken Cordon Blue Deconstructed Casserole, I didn’t use Supreme Sauce, either. Supreme Sauce would have just been too rich. But Supreme Sauce was the perfect thing for my Chicken Cordon Bleu Sliders I made the other day.

About Easiest Supreme Sauce:

Let me tell you about Supreme Sauce – it really IS Supreme and you might have had it in many dishes, even though you didn’t realize it. Supreme Sauce is basically lots of butter and a little flour heated and whisked together to form a roux. Then stock is added and the whole thing is simmered away and reduced until it forms, a rich sauce like gravy.

This Easiest Supreme Sauce really is as easy as gravy, it’s just not your every old gravy. First, there’s all that butter and then at the end, it’s finished off with a good drizzle of creme fraiche or cream and maybe a squeeze of lemon. Personally, I like to add a touch of Sherry to my Supreme Sauces instead of the lemon and in the States, we tend to use Sour Cream or even Cream Cheese in dishes made with Supreme Sauce. You’ll want to stick with the Creme Fraiche or actual Cream when making this stand-alone Supreme Sauce so it doesn’t curdle as it cooks.

You’re likely to see Supreme sauce served in dishes with mushrooms, like dishes where you saute a chicken breast or a pork chop, then add onions and mushrooms to cook away in the pan and then sprinkle them with flour and add stock. My Creamy Mushroom Pork Chops are made with what is basically a Supreme Sauce. Most recipes don’t say things like “then make the Supreme Sauce” and you’ve probably been making Supreme Sauce all along IN recipes if you’ve cooked much at all, even though you might not have known it. Unless maybe you’re a French chef or classically trained, or just a food geek like me!

Easiest Supreme Sauce

Making Easiest Supreme Sauce:

The biggest things to know about making the Easiest Supreme Sauce is to use a good chicken stock if you have one. Preferably a homemade one. That’s always going to give you the best flavor. I have made Easiest Supreme Sauce with store-bought boxed stock and in a pinch with chicken base. The difference is the good stock will give you a lovely, beautiful nuanced flavor and the other is going to give you something more along the lines of a saltier, diner type of a flavor. Hey, I’ll take it either way, because both are a lick your plate clean kind of deliciousness.

You’re going to have to be patient because even the Easiest Supreme Sauce is going to have to have the flour and butter cooked for two or three minutes so that raw flour taste won’t come through in the sauce, then after the stock is added, it’s going to have to be simmered away, stirring now and then at first and more at the end for at least 10 minutes or so. Then you’ll add the cream and cook, stirring like mad for about two more minutes.

Someone once asked me, “How do you know the butter and flour have cooked enough?” and there are two ways to tell. First, the mixture will start to look a bit drier and after you’ve made a few rouxs you just “know” by sight, but another way is to take just a tiny bit and taste it. It will taste bad if the flour is raw and while it won’t really taste good once that flour is cooked enough, it won’t be bad and believe me, you’ll know the difference. When the stock is added, don’t add it all at once, add it in small additions, stirring like mad and as it thickens, add a bit more until your sauce is creamy. That keeps the sauce from getting lumpy. If you do ever end up with lumps in a sauce or gravy, just push it through a strainer. All better!

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Saving Money on Easiest Supreme Sauce:

The biggest way to save money on this recipe or just about any recipe is to make your own Chicken Stock. Making your own is also a great way to make sure you not only have the best-tasting stock but one without a lot of additives. I have a recipe on my site for the Best Chicken (or Turkey) Stock if you want to give it a go and don’t have a regular recipe of your own.

Watch the price on your cream, too. Cream is pretty inexpensive at Aldi (about half the price of the cream at my grocery) and at Costco. The smaller container at Aldi suits me better. Cream, with its high-fat content, keeps for weeks, unopened and it’s a good item to pick up during holiday sales when it’s usually on special.

Easiest Supreme Sauce

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I’ll be sharing Easiest Supreme Sauce at Fiesta Friday #245, hosted this week by  Liz @ spadesspatulasandspoons.com and Deb @ Pantry Portfolio