5-Minute Lemon Butter Sauce
This Lemon Butter sauce is ready in 5-minutes and uses only 4-simple ingredients!
Make this super-easy and slight butter sauce for chicken, pasta, fish or steamed vegetables! Light, tangy flavor with a hint of real lemon juice and no preservatives, additives, colorants or yucky stuff!
Why you’ll love this recipe!
There’s no reason to be intimidated by the thought of making a sauce! This is super easy!
- Quick, easy with 4 simple ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen!
- Perfect for chicken, pasta, fish and vegetables – this is not a sweet dessert lemon sauce, but better suited for more savory foods
- Make a big batch and store in the fridge; reheat what you need when you need it!
- Light and flavorful with all natural ingredients. No powders, mixes or preservatives!
This is a relatively thin lemon butter sauce, but you can always thicken it by adding more of cornstarch. This recipe works best when you use fresh lemon juice and not concentrated lemon juice.
Here’s what you’ll need:
There are so many variations of this recipe–some contain eggs while others are based on a roux. This recipe uses simple ingredients: fresh lemon juice, butter, cornstarch and salt!
Here’s how you make it:
If the thought of making a sauce makes you sweat, have no fear! This lemon butter sauce recipe goes lickity-split fast!
In a medium pan, melt butter on low heat
Whisk in cornstarch until it’s dissolved; turn the heat up a little and continue whisking until mixture begins to combine. Then, remove from heat and allow to cool a few minutes while whisking constantly.
Add fresh lemon juice in 1 teaspoon increments, whisking constantly. Taste for salt; strain through a fine meshed strainer and serve! Now wasn’t that easy?
The flavor is more on the tangy side than sweet, and the consistency is light, but not necessarily thick or creamy. If you prefer a thick lemon sauce, just add more cornstarch.
This recipe takes no time to make-about 10 minutes, but the results are delicious and if you have any leftover, you can easily reheat it!
Expert Tips
The most common challenge with making a sauce is how to prevent it from clumping or being lumpy. The secret is to watch your heat and whisk continually.
- Make sure the melted butter and cornstarch are well combined before doing anything else; After you whisk in the cornstarch, turn the heat up a little and continue whisking. Then remove from heat and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes, whisking constantly. Do not let this come to a boil at any point.
- Add the lemon last and Off Heat. When adding an acid (lemon, vinegar, wine) to dairy or fat (butter), add the acid last -OFF HEAT and in small increments while whisking constantly. Whisk lemon juice into mixture in increments.
- Start with 1/4 cup of fresh juice. The recipe calls for 1/4 – 1/2 cup. Taste it to see if it’s “lemony” enough for you. If not, add a little more fresh lemon in one teaspoon increments, whisking constantly.
- Strain through a fine mesh strainer to remove any fat solids from the butter.
- If you accidentally add too much, correct the tartness and acidity by adding a little sugar, salt or baking soda.
- If you serve it with pasta, add about 1/4 cup of the pasta water to the sauce; this helps the sauce stick to the pasta better.
- Want a thick lemon butter sauce? Add more cornstarch
- Want a sweet lemon butter sauce? Add a teaspoon of sugar (or as much as you like) to the sauce right before you add the lemon juice; combine, taste for sweetness, then add lemon
Troubleshooting
If your sauce clumps, you either:
didn’t combine the cornstarch and butter well enough or,
your heat was too low (cornstarch thickens at high heat) or
the heat was too high (if your sauce comes to a boil, it will separate.)
Storage and reheating
If you have leftover sauce, simply store it in a jar and refrigerate up to 5 days.
To re-heat, pour it into a pan on medium heat and whisk until it reaches a smooth consistency. If its too thick, add a tablespoon of water and whisk.
Variations
One of the best ways to dress up this lemon-butter sauce is to add fresh or dried herbs. Pair the herb of your choice with whatever you’re cooking!
But remember, dried herbs are stronger than fresh, so if you’re using fresh herbs, add them at the end and use 3 times the amount of dried.
For example, if you want a Lemon Butter sauce with dried dill, add 1 tablespoon of dried dill at the beginning of the process; if you’re using FRESH dill, use three-times as much (3 tablespoons) and add it at the END.
- Dill: perfect for fish and poultry
- Rosemary: roasted chicken, pork or beef
- Sage: turkey, pork, beef
I like to serve this light Lemon Butter sauce with chicken, asparagus and steamed or poached fish.
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♥ If you make this recipe, please leave a comment and rating! I love to hear from you!
5-Minute Lemon Butter Sauce
Equipment
- Wire whisk
- Fine mesh strainer
Ingredients
- Please read the entire post, recipe and recipe notes before making this sauce. If you follow the precise directions, it will not clump up on you.
- 2 sticks butter , unsalted
- ¼-½ cup fresh lemon juice ,about 2 large lemons or 4-6 small lemons
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch (add more for a thicker sauce)
- salt to taste
Instructions
Please read the entire post, recipe and recipe notes before making this sauce. If you follow the precise directions, it will not clump up on you.
- Melt butter in medium saucepan on low heat2 sticks butter
- Whisk in cornstarch until there are no lumps; turn the heat up a little, continue whisking 3 more minutes, until the mixture begins to combine; remove from heat2 tablespoons cornstarch
- Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes while continuously whisking
- Add lemon juice in 1 teaspoon increments, whisking constantly; salt to taste; strain through a fine meshed strainer and serve¼-½ cup fresh lemon juice, salt
Great recipe! Can I substitute olive oil, for all or for 1/2 of the butter to keep calories and cholesterol down?
Good question. I am not a certified nutritionist nor registered dietician, so I would not feel comfortable answering this question relative to the nutritional values. I also have never tried this lemon butter sauce with oil, so in that regard, my answer is vague, but honest: “I don’t know.”
No idea what I’m doing wrong but I attempted this twice and it ended up with a disgusting texture both times…
I’m sorry to hear this. Chances are your roux wasn’t fully developed before you added the lemon. The melted butter and cornstarch need to thicken a bit first. When you add the cornstarch, turn the heat up a little and continue whisking. The mixture will thicken. Once the sauce is as thick as you want it, take it OFF HEAT and let it cool a few minutes. Then whisk in the lemon juice.