Creamy chanterelle sauce is a rich and delicious sauce made from fresh chanterelle mushrooms. This flavorful, creamy sauce with earthy chanterelles is a perfect accompaniment for dishes like pasta, gnocchi, chicken, or steak. It’s a must-try during the short chanterelle season!
Ingredients
Below you will find information about the ingredients and how to prepare the recipe. For the measurements and detailed instructions scroll down to the printable recipe card.
Here’s what you need to make this easy dish:
- Chanterelle mushrooms – although this is a chanterelle mushroom sauce recipe, it would also work well with easier-to-get and available all-year-round button mushrooms or cremini mushrooms (check out this creamy mushroom sauce recipe).
- Heavy cream – you can use heavy cream or heavy whipping cream (30-36% fat content).
- Broth – you can use either vegetable broth or chicken broth (I prefer chicken broth).
- Onion and garlic – add lots of flavor to the sauce. I prefer using smaller onions or shallots – they cook and soften quickly.
- Parsley – adds freshness to the sauce and also a pop of color! can be swapped for dill (fresh or frozen), you could also add fresh or dried thyme (add fresh thyme with the garlic and dried thyme with onions).
- Flour – thickens the sauce.
- Worcestershire sauce – it adds a lot of delicious umami flavor to the sauce. The chanterelle sauce made with Worcestershire sauce tastes much better than a white wine-based sauce (at least in my opinion, I checked!). If you don’t have Worcestershire sauce, you can skip it altogether and add more lemon juice or add a splash of white wine (just after adding the garlic).
- Lemon juice – a small amount adds some acidity to the sauce.
Serving suggestions
Chanterelle sauce is my favorite recipe to make with chanterelle mushrooms. This sauce is so versatile, it will go well with many dishes. You can serve it with:
- ricotta gnocchi
- potato gnocchi
- Polish kopytka – potato dumplings similar to gnocchi or leniwe dumplings (Polish potato-cheese dumplings)
- Kartoffelnknödel (German potato dumplings)
- potato pancakes: Polish potato pancakes (placki ziemniaczane) or German potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer)
- pasta (like spaghetti or tagliatelle) – vegetarian option
- pasta + pan-fried chicken breast / pork chops / steak
Should I wash chanterelles for the chanterelle sauce?
In my opinion, yes. I usually rinse the mushrooms quickly with water until clean and not covered with dirt. Some say that the chanterelles should not be washed with water, but cleaned gently with a damp towel, sponge, or brush, so that they do not soak up water. I wash my chanterelles, because first of all, it takes less time, and secondly, it doesn’t make that much difference in taste here (the flavor will NOT wash away).
Chanterelles can easily soak up water, but they also naturally contain a lot of water. I made two batches of this sauce and tried them side-by-side: with the mushrooms cleaned with a brush and with mushrooms washed with water. Chanterelles cleaned with a brush were a little easier to brown on a pan, but there was no significant difference in taste between the two batches.
Browning usually brings a lot of flavor to the dish, but here we have heavy cream, butter, broth, mushrooms, and Worcestershire sauce. They add so much flavor to the sauce, making the flavor from browning the mushrooms not very noticeable.
Cleaning the mushrooms thoroughly is very important, you don’t want the dirt to end up in your meal. Cleaning each mushroom separately is so time-consuming, in comparison to just washing them in water.
The browning of the mushrooms will also depend on their quantity. A small amount of mushrooms cooked in a large frying pan over high heat will be much easier to brown. In this recipe, chanterelles will immediately release water because there are simply a lot of them.
To dry the chanterelles, you can use a salad spinner or you can wash the chanterelles, leave them in the fridge overnight to dry and cook them the next day.
How to make it step-by-step
STEP 1: Heat the butter (or oil) in a large frying pan, add the chopped onion, and cook over low-medium heat for about 5 minutes until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Move the onions and garlic to the side of the pan and increase the heat to high.
STEP 2: Add the chanterelles.
STEP 3: Cook over high heat for 2 minutes.
STEP 4: Add flour and cook for 30 seconds.
STEP 5: Add the cream and broth.
STEP 6: Add Worcestershire sauce and cook for another 2 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper, stir in chopped parsley.
Enjoy!
More chanterelle recipes
- chanterelle pasta
- chanterelle potato pancakes (the instructions can be found in the potato pancakes recipe notes section)
- buckwheat risotto with chicken and chanterelle mushroom
- chanterelle soup
Here you’ll find all my chanterelle mushroom recipes.
Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!
Creamy Chanterelle Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons clarified butter or frying oil, or a mix of oil and regular butter
- 1 small/medium onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 pound (450g) chanterelle mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream 30-36%
- 1/2 cup (120ml) chicken broth or vegetable broth
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
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Instructions
- Rinse and dry the chanterelles. Cut large mushrooms into two or three parts, leave smaller mushroom whole.
- Cut the onion into small cubes, chop the garlic very finely.
- Heat the butter (or oil) in a large frying pan, add the onion, and cook over low-medium heat for about 5 minutes until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Move the onions and garlic to the side of the pan and increase the heat to high.
- Add the chanterelles and cook over high heat for 2 minutes. Add flour and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add the cream, broth, Worcestershire sauce, and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Take the pan off the heat. Season with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Stir in chopped parsley.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- How to clean and dry the chanterelles: Rinse the mushroom thoroughly under water, then dry using a salad spinner or patting the mushroom gently with paper towels. You can also wash the chanterelles, leave them in the fridge overnight to dry out, and cook them the next day.
- If you don’t have Worcestershire sauce, you can skip it altogether and add more lemon juice or add a splash of white wine (just after adding the garlic).
- Calories = 1 serving (1/2 of the recipe). This is only an estimate!
- The most important tip for cooking chanterelle sauce is to not cook the mushrooms for too long. Chanterelle mushrooms cook very quickly and you want them to still have a little bit of crunch.
21 Comments
Ariel
8 January 2024 at 06:24Started out by dry sauteeing and salting the chanterelles to boil down the water from washing them. I tripled the garlic because I’m a garlic fiend, added a tablespoon fresh chopped thyme, subbed lite canned coconut milk for heavy cream and white miso paste for Worcestershire. Topped with parmesan before serving. Delicious! I had about 1.5 lbs chanterelles so I also added abput 1/4-1/2 c extra coconut milk. Thanks for the inspiration.
Aleksandra
8 January 2024 at 13:40thank you for sharing, great idea!
Diana Lee
19 September 2021 at 19:32Would this sauce go well with salmon?
Aleksandra
19 September 2021 at 19:33Yes, it will!
Alston
31 August 2021 at 19:40Superb…in the South of Austria with a bucket of these freshly picked beauties and stumbled on your recipe. Turned out amazing….served with a nice thick filet of beef, potato puree and buttered spinach. Did a little remix of shallots instead of onion, lemon olive oil to sauté the garlic and shallots, thyme, and a splash dry riesling. Added a few lumps of butter at the end to avoid splitting. Used a water/cornstarch mix to thicken the sauce instead of flour. Restaurant quality, plates cleaned. Danke! 😉
Aleksandra
31 August 2021 at 20:04Thank you so much for such a detailed wonderful review! Bitte schön!
Anna Kuzminsky
3 November 2021 at 16:24Never wash or rinse chantarelles! Putting them in a salad spinner?? Chantarelles are very fragile and water will remove all the flavor. Brush dirt off with a soft toothbrush and handle the chantarelles with care!
Aleksandra
3 November 2021 at 17:39I actually made two batches of this recipe, one with chanterelles washed in water and the second with chanterelles cleaned with a brush and tried them side by side. There was literally no difference in flavor. The water may remove some of the flavor, but in this recipe, where you have cream and other ingredients – it does not matter. If you’re eating chanterelles on their own (eg sauteed chanterelles), it’s better to clean them with a brush. Cleaning chanterelles with a brush is far more time-consuming than washing them in water so I prefer to wash them for this recipe. I have already written all of that in the post.
DMunny
15 July 2021 at 20:51Great recipe. I used olive oil in place of butter for the first step and let it simmer a touch longer at the end to thicken once I added the flour. After I added the proper amount of salt, it was fantastic. Served over pasta but see how this would go well over steak also. Will definitely be making it again.
Aleksandra
16 July 2021 at 06:48I’m glad you liked it, thank you for your comment!
Anina Bach
5 February 2021 at 02:34Delicious and decadent recipe! Reminds me of my Oma’s. Only recommendations would be to add some fresh lemon juice at the end to brighten it up!
Aleksandra
5 February 2021 at 05:49lemon juice would be lovely here!
Anna
8 November 2020 at 00:513 stars for recipes as written. I really wanted to like this, out of simplicity’s sake but with a couple adjustments, it’s awesome. I felt that the dish lacked something, but the addition of some thyme and sage, the depth was changed dramatically and really took it from “meh” to “wow.” Don’t skip the Worcestershire but be SURE to add the herbs, and plenty of salt and pepper.
Caryn
15 October 2020 at 00:48Does this recipe freeze well? Or best eaten fresh? Thanks!!
Aleksandra
15 October 2020 at 05:43I don’t think it can be frozen – the cream will split!
Asha
16 August 2020 at 18:40I loved the Worcestershire sauce with it, really worked! Lovely, simple recipe – thank you 🙂
Aleksandra
16 August 2020 at 19:08I’m happy to hear that, thanks for letting me know 🙂
Martha
13 August 2020 at 04:05I wanted to like this but the Worcestershire just seemed like it didn’t belong in this dish
Aleksandra
13 August 2020 at 05:19I’m sorry to hear that! You can easily omit the Worcestershire sauce if you don’t like it.
Dragana
7 August 2020 at 02:01Made this twice in the last 24 hrs with freshly picked chanterelles. Delicious!!
Aleksandra
7 August 2020 at 06:34I’m happy to hear that!