Name: Best Homemade Alfredo Sauce in 15 Minutes
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Ingredients: 2 tbsp butter; 2 garlic cloves (diced); 2 tbsp flour; 16 ounces heavy whipping cream; 3/4 cup parmesan cheese; 2 tsp parsley flakes; 1 tsp oregano; 1 1/4 cup pasta water; salt and pepper to taste

Kick the can. Or sauce jar. It isn’t needed here anymore! Not with the best homemade alfredo sauce in 15 minutes recipe under your belt. Try this one and be the judge. I have a hard time believing you won’t love it. Even my picky kids ask for this weekly!

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Why Should I Try Your Recipe?

2 white round plate and 1 white bowl with alfredo pasta inside on brown dinner table

Let me count the ways:

it’s easy
it doesn’t take as long as you think to prepare
it doesn’t have a ton of ingredients
you can pronounce each ingredient and actually know what it is
no preservatives or additives
no food coloring/dyes
it’s a crowd pleaser
savory, delicious, and filling for the whole family

It’s in the Name:

“The Best Homemade Alfredo Sauce in 15 Minutes”

Jump to Recipe

In the time it takes for you to sauté your chicken or shrimp and boil some noodles, you can make this alfredo sauce, I assure you.

Trust me, I am a huge fan of fast and easy and the more simple a recipe, the better. I practically judge if I’m going to even entertain a recipe or not based on the ingredient list!

You’ll be pleased to find this ingredient list isn’t very long and the process is simple.

garlic cloves and pats of butter on a cutting board with a knife, tub of parmesan cheese, pint of heavy whipping cream, and box of linguine noodles surrounding it

Real and Wholesome Ingredients

In this blog, I try to share good, wholesome recipes with you. Of course this one is no different!

Carbs, anyone?

Yes, please! This recipe is full of carbs. We like them in our family. We are able to eat them.

If your diet does not allow for lots of carbs, you may not choose to make this homemade alfredo sauce. It does contain flour and is best served over pasta noodles; however, do keep reading for some lower carb options.

Although in 2023, we feel the need to use “real food” as a way to entice readers to try out a recipe is sad, it is the world of convenience and out of a box we live in.

Despite the times we are living in, this is exactly my mission– to make you think about what you’re putting in your cart. Also, to read the ingredient list, looking for things that we really shouldn’t be consuming because they aren’t real food! At the least, it’s my mission to help you minimize the amount of boxed, bagged, processed food you have to buy at the store to feed your family.

You can be proud to serve this dish to your family because you know exactly what is in it and the ingredients are real food.

Kid-Approved

I’m a firm believer that I have the pickiest kids on the planet.

Probably not really but they are pretty picky about most things. If they had their way, they’d eat all the boxed junk food. Which is precisely why we don’t forbid it.

As a mom, I want to teach my children what real food is, what it isn’t, and how to make healthy choices.

Moderation is important in this house.

In short, both of my children absolutely love this 15 minute homemade alfredo sauce!

a pan of chicken Alfredo with linguine noodles

The Best Homemade Alfredo Sauce in 15 Minutes

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter

2 garlic cloves, diced

2 tbsp flour

16 ounces heavy whipping cream

3/4 cup parmesan cheese

2 tsp parsley

1 tsp oregano

1 cup pasta water

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In a sauce pot, melt butter and add diced garlic. Let garlic cook about 4 mins, stirring often. Garlic will brown some.

Add flour to the sauce pot. Stir into butter and garlic and keep stirring for about 2 minutes. The mixture may turn light brown. The longer you cook your roux, the darker it will become.

Whisk in heavy whipping cream, not too fast, not too slow. Then let come to a boil. Once it boils, add parmesan cheese and reduce heat to medium-low. Stir well.

Next, stir in herbs and salt and pepper.

Save 1 1/4 cup of your pasta noodle water.

Start with adding 1/2 cup of pasta water to your sauce to loosen it up some. Stir occasionally for 3 minutes. Pour in another 1/2 cup of pasta water and stir. There will be 1/4 cup of pasta water left if you should need it.

At last, your sauce is ready and I bet the chicken you want to add in is ready too!

pot with melted butter and diced garlic cloves inside

Pro Tip from a non-Italian

Once upon a time, when I was teaching many moons ago, my friend-coworker-neighbor who is very much Italian told me to mix my al dente pasta noodles in with the sauce after you drain the noodles.

This keeps the noodles from cooking too much in the pot of water even after it is turned off.

In fact, the sauce is evenly distributed throughout the pasta and it just tastes better. I know because I’ve performed experiments to prove her right.

I’m definitely not Italian but using her tip makes me feel like it!

sauce pot of alfredo sauce and noodles with a wooden spoon in the pot

Options to make the Best Homemade Alfredo Sauce even better

Serve over vegetables and noodles to make a pasta primavera.
Sauté chicken breasts in olive oil and salt and pepper. Cut up chicken and serve in the alfredo sauce.
Lightly cook shrimp in butter and salt and pepper before serving on top of sauced noodles.
Toast some sourdough sandwich bread with butter and garlic salt to eat with this one.

pan of alfredo sauce, noodles, and diced chicken breasts

Lower Carb Options

Serve this homemade alfredo sauce over steamed vegetables.
Use whole grain or egg noodles or another type of low carb pasta.
Pour over just the meat: chicken or shrimp.
Reduce the tablespoons of flour in the recipe but know the sauce will be thinner.