In just 10-minutes you can make our quick alfredo sauce to top all of your favorite dishes like pasta or chicken.
Made with lots of fresh parmesan, garlic, and butter, this easy heavy whipping cream alfredo will have you wondering why you ever topped your fettuccini, chicken, or seafood with the store-bought stuff. It's a Whole Lotta Yum!
Quick Alfredo Sauce
If you always save your alfredo sauce cravings for eating out at Olive Garden, or you just reach for a jar in the grocery store to keep things simple, you'll be so happy to know that this simple alfredo sauce is a piece of cake to make!
In just 10 minutes you'll have a quick and easy homemade alfredo sauce that'll make you question why it took you so long to start making it yourself! 😉
Why Alfredo Sauce with Heavy Cream?
We're making our quick and easy Alfredo sauce recipe with heavy whipping cream. Why you might ask? The heavy cream adds a rich, creamy, and velvety texture that can't quite be done with other dairy options like milk, cream cheese, half and half, or almond milk.
And when we're eating homemade alfredo or chicken alfredo, we all want the good stuff that's even better tasting than Olive Garden!
Why You'll Love Quick Alfredo!
- Our quick Alfredo sauce is super fast as it needs just 10 minutes of your time!
- Made with heavy cream and real parmesan, our simple alfredo is full of rich, cheesy flavor.
- Since this is an alfredo sauce without flour, it's perfect if you're eating gluten-free, low-carb, and keto.
- Requiring just 4 ingredients (6 if you count the salt and pepper), our quick Alfredo is a simple sauce yet tastes gourmet!
Wondering how to use homemade alfredo? Try alfredo with zoodles and our popular Instant Pot alfredo recipe.
Ingredient Notes for Alfredo Sauce with Heavy Whipping Cream
An authentic (American) Alfredo sauce recipe actually just contains 3 ingredients-- heavy whipping cream, butter, and parmesan cheese!
However, we are going to add a little additional flavor with fresh minced garlic, fine sea salt, and ground black pepper.
And, because there are so few ingredients in this quick Alfredo sauce with heavy cream, you want to make sure to use high-quality ingredients.
- Heavy whipping cream
- Butter - we used salted butter but you can also use unsalted butter and just add more salt to taste.
- Garlic - for best results we highly recommend fresh cloves, jar garlic, or garlic paste rather than using garlic powder
- Shredded Parmesan cheese - for the best flavor, shred the parmesan cheese from a block instead of using pre-shredded Parmesan cheese.
- Fine sea salt and pepper to taste
How to Make Alfredo Sauce from Scratch
Step 1: Heat a medium-size saucepan on medium-low heat. Once the pan is warm, melt the butter.
Step 2: Once the butter has melted, add in the heavy whipping cream, garlic, and salt and pepper. Stir to combine all of the ingredients together.
Step 3: Add the shredded parmesan cheese in batches until it's melted, stirring constantly.
Step 4: Heat the alfredo sauce to a simmer (do not let it boil) and remove from heat. The sauce will continue to thicken upon standing. So easy! Enjoy!
Serves 4 if you're making fettuccini alfredo and adding it to 8 oz of cooked pasta.
Recipe Tips for Quick Alfredo
- For best results, add the shredded parmesan in small batches rather than all at once and allow it to fully incorporate before you add ore. Adding the parmesan too quickly could cause your homemade Alfredo sauce to become grainy in texture.
- It is super important that you do not let your sauce come to a boil. At a boiling temperature, the butter could separate from the rest of the sauce or the milk could burn--both of which would cause your sauce to separate.
- If your sauce thickens too much you can thin it with a little milk, heavy cream, or chicken broth.
Common Questions
You can make your quick and easy Alfredo sauce up to 3 days before you want to use it. Allow the sauce to cool before refrigerating in an air tight container.
The MAIN difference between carbonara and alfredo sauce is in addition to bacon (or pancetta). Carbonara also includes egg, whereas Alfredo does not, and a carbonara uses romano cheese instead of parmesan.
Authentic Carbonara as they eat in Italy doesn't use heavy whipping cream, it's simply made with romano cheese, egg, and butter.
If you want to lighten the Alfredo sauce to reduce fat and calories, we highly recommend substituting evaporated milk for whipping cream.
However, if you only have milk on hand, it can work. Simply bring all of the ingredients to a simmer. Remove ¼ cup of the warm sauce and mix well with 1-2 tablespoon of all-purpose flour to make a roux.
Blend the roux in with the remaining sauce until it reaches the desired thickness. You can also add a touch of cream cheese to help thicken your alfredo sauce too.
While you technically could make alfredo sauce with milk, you'll be losing a lot of the rich creamy flavor the dish is popular for.
To thicken your alfredo with half 'n' half, use 1 tablespoon of flour.
If your Alfredo sauce turned out grainy, it's usually because of one of the following reasons:
Either the sauce started boiling, which caused the butter to separate OR
The cheese got overcooked and either curdled or became grainy.
To prevent this in the future, make sure to keep your temperature low and take the sauce off the heat once it's just mixed. The cheese will continue to melt and thicken the sauce off the heat too.
More Easy Sauce Recipes
Looking for more sauce recipes?
Come connect with us on Instagram! Be sure to tag us (wholelotta.yum) when you make a recipe. You can also find us on Facebook, and Pinterest.
Heavy Whipping Cream Alfredo
Making quick alfredo sauce at home is super easy and just takes 10 minutes. You'll love this creamy alfredo sauce recipe with heavy whipping cream and you'll seriously never use jarred sauce again!
Ingredients
- 1 cup Heavy whipping cream
- ¾ cup shredded parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup butter, cut into pieces
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 2 minced garlic cloves
Instructions
- Heat a medium-size saucepan on medium-low. Once the pan is warm, melt the ¼ cup of butter pieces.
- Stir in the heavy whipping cream, garlic, salt, and pepper. Combine all of the ingredients together.
- Add the shredded parmesan cheese in batches until it's melted, stirring constantly. You don't want to add it all at once since it could clump. This will just take you a minute or two at most to melt.
- Heat the alfredo sauce to a simmer (do not let it boil) and remove. The sauce will continue to thicken upon standing. So easy! Enjoy!
- Serves 4 if you're making fettuccini alfredo and adding it to 8 oz of cooked pasta.
Notes
It is super important that you do not let your sauce come to a boil. At a boiling temperature, the butter could separate from the rest of the sauce or the milk could burn--both of which would cause your sauce to separate.
The recipe can be doubled if you need more than 4 servings with 8 oz of pasta.
The quick and easy alfredo sauce can be served over gluten-free pasta or zoodles if you're following a low-carb or keto diet.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 4 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 369Total Fat 37gSaturated Fat 24gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 11gCholesterol 109mgSodium 943mgCarbohydrates 2gFiber 0gSugar 2gProtein 8g
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