Creamy Garlic Alfredo Sauce Recipe with Milk- 15 minutes
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Learn how to make this easy alfredo sauce recipe in 15 minutes. There’s no reason to buy alfredo sauce in the bottle anymore! Our homemade white sauce recipe for creamy garlic alfredo sauce is amazing and the flavors are fantastic! You can’t duplicate this fresh flavor. The sautéed garlic with cheese and milk is fantastic.
Alfredo Sauce Recipe with Milk for Fettuccine Alfredo
Our alfredo sauce recipe uses milk as the base instead of heavy whipping cream, which makes it easier because most people have milk in the fridge. Other recipes use heavy cream for their alfredo sauce, but it’s not a common fridge staple. So that’s why we created this super easy recipe with just milk, a little flour, lots of garlic and parmesan. You’ll love this on pasta, pizza or even just dip some bread in it. YUM! Kids absolutely love this sauce for fettuccini alfredo. It truly is the best alfredo sauce ever!
Video: Homemade Alfredo Sauce Recipe
How to Make Homemade Creamy Garlic Alfredo Sauce
It’s creamy and super easy to make this homemade creamy garlic sauce. Like we mentioned above, we created this recipe using milk with flour to thicken the sauce. Grated parmesan cheese also thickens the sauce as well. If you want to use heavy cream, you can totally do that! Just eliminate the flour part and add the heavy cream to replace the milk. This homemade white sauce is perfect for fettuccine alfredo or with your favorite pasta. Watch our step-by-step photos below to guide you through the process. All recipe details are in the recipe box below.
How to Store This Sauce?
Allow the sauce to cool and pour into mason jars or airtight containers. Store the creamy sauce in the the refrigerator for up to 1 week. If you want to store it longer, you can follow this basic canning guide. When you’re ready to serve the sauce again, it might be a little thick. Just whisk in some milk into the sauce until it reaches the consistency that you want. Add a little milk at a time because if you add too much at once, the sauce might end up too runny.
Creamy Garlic Alfredo Sauce in 15 Minutes
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (57 g) butter (1/2 stick)
- 4 cloves fresh garlic , minced (or 2 teaspoons garlic powder)
- 1/4 cup (30 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (480 ml) milk
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) dried herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, etc.)
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) dried mustard powder
- 1 cup (100 g) grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt , or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Heat a sauce pan on medium-high heat. Melt butter, then add garlic and cook translucent and fragrant (about 1 minute).
- Whisk in flour and continue whisking to remove large clumps.
- Slowly whisk in the milk. Whisking often to make sure flour lumps are smooth, bring sauce to a low boil. Then reduce heat to low.
- Add dried herbs, mustard powder, parmesan, salt and pepper. Continue whisking until sauce is smooth and begins to thicken.
- Serve the sauce with your favorite pasta. If you’re saving the sauce for later, allow the sauce to completely cool.
- Pour the sauce into mason jars or a container. Keep in fridge and use within 5 days.
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
Dishes to make with homemade creamy garlic alfredo sauce
After making a lovely batch of this alfredo sauce recipe there’s so many dishes that are great for it. Our classic fettuccine alfredo, chicken fettuccine alfredo and our low carb zucchini noodle alfredo is fantastic. You can add the sauce as a white pizza sauce, pour it over other pasta and potatoes. The delicious possibilities are endless.
Is the Alfredo Sauce too thick after storing in fridge?
If the sauce is thick, just whisk a little bit of milk into the sauce. Also, when you do this, you’re diluting the flavors down. Add about an extra 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder or even garlic salt. Either way, you should season it a bit more and even adding a handful of parmesan cheese helps.
Fresh Minced Garlic vs Garlic Powder
Is there a difference in using fresh vs garlic powder for this alfredo sauce recipe? Yes there certainly is. The fresh garlic has a brighter and stronger garlic flavor. But using garlic powder still gives a flavorful sauce and it’s just slightly different. One thing for sure is that if you use garlic powder, your alfredo sauce will be creamier.
Recipes or dishes that use alfredo sauce
Now that you’ve made a batch from scratch and have it stored in an airtight container, let’s talk about all the ways you can use this creamy garlic sauce from scratch!
- Use it on any type of pasta or classic fettuccine noodles. Check out all our different recipes below.
- Dip it in bread if you want. Make it a little thicker, add a little more cheese and you have an alfredo sauce dip.
- Drizzle this homemade white sauce over cooked, steamed, stir fried or roasted vegetables.
- Use it as a sauce on different meats, grilled meats, seafood, shrimp and salmon.
Check out all our variations of Fettuccine Alfredo Recipes:
- Vegetarian fettuccine alfredo
- Chicken fettuccine alfredo
- Zucchini noodle recipe with creamy garlic alfredo
Here’s more great pasta sauce recipes to make for your family. If you made this recipe, please share it with us on social media. We’d love to see all your pictures! And please leave a comment below to share how much you enjoy this recipe. Thank you friends!
52 Comments on “Creamy Garlic Alfredo Sauce Recipe with Milk- 15 minutes”
I ran out of cream so I used 2% milk After simmering, I added some cooking sherry, a squeeze of lemon and a dash of nutmeg! Excellent!
Thanks Lori! Love the addition of cooking sherry and nutmeg. Thanks for sharing!
pretty good, not as flavorful as i would have imagined but the over all is really good!!!!
great recipe! Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback Deb!
Love this recipe and I’m a canner
However unclear if I’m able to can this or even which method with the link provided.
Most say that you should not can milk or milk products. Would love a clear answer. Yes can it this way, pressure can or water bath it, with the time and elevation requirements. Please thank you
I made this sauce last night for dinner. It was delicious. My family told me that I could make it again.
This recipe is very good. I’ve used more classical recipes that use heavy cream, but it turns out way too thick. This recipe can be thinned out to your preferred consistency by adding more milk (albeit little by little). The same thing goes with the cheese, garlic, etc. You can use a little less cheese (to keep it thin) and season it with salt (again, little by little) to bring out the taste.
My family liked this better than the sauces with cream, so I found a keeper. The one drawback, which can be fixed, is that the sauce was absorbed by the pasta a little more than I like. The next time I’ll just make a little more.
Thank you Steve. We’re so happy you enjoyed this simple recipe. Milk really does work for this sauce and we’re thrilled you felt the same.
sauce was so good – I used extra garlic and served over my homemade donkey ala king
Love this recipe. I used whole milk and less herbs. It was easy to make and so much better than store bought. My husband raved about it.
That’s awesome that your husband loved it. Thanks Laura!
This turned out great. I don’t do grains, so instead of regular flour I used arrowroot starch, which is flavorless, and I ate this with spaghetti squash. Delish!!
Oooh, arrowroot starch? That’s new to us and have to try that. Thanks for sharing Lily!
I’m grateful for this recipe because I started cooking with chicken alfredo on my mind and when I started to make the sauce I normally make l realized I was all out of heavy cream!
This recipe isn’t bad by any means, it’s exactly what it should be if you’re in a situation like me, but it is not nearly as good as it normally is when made with heavy cream.
It tasted so similar to white gravy (which makes sense because the base is essentially what white gravy is) but I couldn’t get that taste out of my mind when eating this. I think it’s the flour.
I do appreciate the recipe though, I needed it tonight.
simple & tasty. great over tortellini
Love tortellini. Thanks for sharing Dina!
Loved it! Very simple and came together in just a few minutes. I added shallot with the butter and garlic. Full of flavor, I’ll definitely be making this again!
Love the addition of shallots! Thanks Tatiana.
I subbed in glutinous rice flour (gluten free) and OMG yassss. So good. I know, I know, “authentic” Alfredo doesn’t have flour at all and thus is naturally gluten-free, but my stomach can’t handle that much heavy cream either.
I’ve missed Alfredo sauce sooooo much!
Hi Jessica! So glad you can enjoy alfredo sauce again and thanks so much for sharing your adaptation for the gluten free version. This will be so helpful for our other readers.
I add a half jar sundried tomatoes packed in oil sauteed for a couple minutes to sauce and simmer that til done. Then add a chicken breast bone in baked for an hour til done just sprinkled with kosher salt pulled from bone added to fettuccine and pour creamy garlic with sundried tomatoes over the fettuccine. Then refrigerated one day . Heat in microwave and served with garlic bread. Way better second day.
This recipe is excellent! the blend of spices is perfect. I didn’t put the thyme in just the oregano and basil or the salt in (because I forgot) Used frozen 7 cheese tortallini and will make this again soon!
Easy, quick and delish!
Much better than anything in a jar or packet- thank you -even my pickiest eater loved this.
I’ve had jarred Alfredo sauce but never made it, until today when I made this recipe (made half to use for pizza base) and it was amazing! I will never buy jarred white sauce again so thank you!
Very good – equal to the better Alfredo recipes I’ve made, and a great use for extra milk. Prepared yellow or Dijon can sub for dried mustard (but check ratios, and taste).
I would probably put a little bit less flour or cheese next time, but this is an amazing sauce! I didn’t even need to add any salt due to the parm and salted butter. My mom doesn’t like alfredo, but I think she would like this. I used this with Roasted broccoli, chicken and pasta…yum yum yum! I can’t wait to make this again!
I loved how creamy this Alfredo sauce recipe is. It’s perfect for my Italian dinner.
I just made this as the recipe say and what also added frozen shrimp and fresh asparagus. It turned out fantastic
Great recipe! The only change I made was: 1 cup heavy cream + 1 cup milk.
No one complained about the extra cream. Also cut the salt to 1/2 teaspoon, and it was still plenty salty. Will make again!
Thanks for sharing your changes Doug. Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Delicious! I used half and half and freshly chopped basil. Sauce was used over shrimp & crab filled pasta. YUM!!!
Oooh, the sound of fresh chopped basil is amazing. Thanks of sharing Linda!
Loved this recipe! I didn’t have quite enough parmesan so I used what I had and subbed an Italian cheese mix and it was perfect! I used it for a alfredo Flatbread recipe so I only needed a little. I froze my remaining sauce and can’t wait to use it again! Thanks for the deets!
I am try to make Alfredo Sauce with milk. My question is I can use Milk1% lowfat and rather than use regular flour to thicken the milk the butter and the cheese use rice flour?
Hi Gloria, Yes you can use low fat milk, but we’ve not tested it with rice flour yet. We’re not sure if rice flour will thicken the cheese sauce or make it smooth.
Add cracked black pepper, fresh sea salt, basil and parsley. Go LONG on garlic.
Love it!
I had to add a ton more of garlic and seasonings, but used crab meat to really kick some flavor to it. I ran out of milk and added a little too much shredded Parmesan but added water to balance out.
Pretty bland, wasn’t a huge fan of this recipe. Maybe i should have added more salt or seasonings.
I was looking online for an Alfredo sauce recipe that didn’t contain whole milk and came across this one. Highly recommend! Not only will you not have to make a special trip to the grocery store just for the whole milk, but it’s a healthier alternative to use milk. Very delicious recipe and turned out better then a previous time when I’ve used whole milk in the past.
I needed to make a quick afreda pasta for my kids for lunch when I realized that I ran out of store bought afreda Sauce. I scrambled on the internet for a homemade Alfredo sauce recipe.But to my dismay,the recipe I found required heavy cream and I didn’t have that on hand. After a quick search ,I stumbled across this recipe! It was quick to make and it taste delicious with just salt and black pepper. Thank you for such a quick and delicious recipe.
I had Alfredo sauce before that was favorless. This is a great tasting recipe.
I used shaved pamesan cheese. I added about 1/4 cup milk at the end to loosen sauce because of the cheese used
I made this tonight for dinner. It was very good! Quick and easy.
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Kim and we appreciate the feedback!
I just made this today I added some of my owns seasonings to it also and I love it will definitely be making this again.
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed it & made it your own.
The whole family really loved this Alfredo sauce. It’s now my kid’s favorite pasta recipe. They always want it.
Super delicious sauce! Our family loves it! Thank you so much for sharing.
Works great with just milk! Make a simple roue, Season, add cheese….easy as heck, and tastes damn good. I’m not on a diet, but I didn’t have cream and really don’t need it. The cheese does the trick….how much more creamy can ya get beyond that anyway? Kudos!!
Thanks Don! Yes, the cheese adds so much flavor and body to the sauce!
This is so good! No more going to the restaurant for Fettuccini Alfredo!