Mexican White Sauce – A popular sauce served at Mexican restaurants can now be made at home! It’s creamy, tangy, spicy, and so full of flavor. It comes together quickly and easy to make in minutes making it the perfect accompaniment for all your Mexican dishes! It’s a recipe you’ll keep coming back to because you’ll want to use it on everything!
This white Mexican sauce recipe is utterly addicting. It’s the sauce you’d find at your favorite Mexican restaurants that they typically serve with tortilla chips and salsa. It’s definitely not a dip, it’s a condiment, but you bet I’m going to find any and everything I can do dip in it because it’s that good!
It’s creamy, tangy, thick, and rich with the perfect amount of seasoning and spice. Some people like their sauce garlicky so you can add fresh garlic to yours if you like.
Now that you can make this white Mexican sauce recipe at home, you’ll be finding all the ways to use it on everything. I like to pour it over nachos, smother it over enchiladas, and drizzle it on tacos, or burrito bowls!
One spoonful of this Mexican white sauce and you’ll see why everyone goes crazy for it.
What is Mexican White Sauce?
Also known as salsa blanca, this condiment is a combination of sour cream, cream cheese, and chicken broth thickened with a butter and flour roux, spiced up with green chiles and sriracha, then lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. It’s really easy to make using simple ingredients.
There are a few variations out there, but trust me, this one’s the best!
Ingredients Needed
- Butter: I use unsalted butter because the chicken broth already has a bit of salt in it and I can then control the amount of any extra added salt. This will be used as the fat to make the roux.
- All-purpose flour: Once added to the melted butter it makes a thick paste. Flour is what thickens the sauce.
- Chicken broth: Use any store-bought or homemade chicken broth you have on hand. This adds great flavor as well as helps to thin it out as the roux and the cream cheese are quite thick.
- Sour cream: A creamy, tangy addition that keeps the cream cheese mixture rich, but adds lightness to heavy cream cheese.
- Cream cheese: Use cream cheese from a block, it contains less water than the spreadable kind. Bring it to room temperature so it melts into the mixture quicker.
- Green chiles: Drain them before adding them to the sauce. They not only add heat and flavor but the chunks are a nice texture to bite into.
- Hot sauce: You can use whatever your favorite hot sauce is. I like to use Sriracha sauce.
- Salt & pepper: To taste.
How to Make Mexican White Sauce
Step 1: Add butter to a small saucepan and melt it over medium heat. Then, add the flour and whisk for a couple of minutes until it forms a pale paste and starts to smell a bit nutty. This is the base for the roux.
Step 2: Slowly whisk in the chicken broth and continue whisking until smooth and lump-free. Keep adding the rest of the chicken broth and bring it to a boil.
Step 3: Next, stir in the sour cream, cream cheese, green chiles, hot sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine and bring it to a gentle boil.
Step 4: Once you see it starts boiling, immediately remove it from the heat. Allow it to cool before serving. You can even let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours for the flavors to blend even more. Then, enjoy it with your favorite Chicken Chimichangas and so much more!
Ways to Use Mexican White Sauce
Here are just a few recipes I’ve made that go great with this sauce, whether it’s a lot or just a little. Either way, it’s fabulous!
- 20-Minute Easy Chicken Fajitas
- Carne Guisada Tacos
- Cheesy Ground Beef Quesadillas
- Taco Salad Bowls
- Baked Beef Chimichangas
- Chicken Tacos (Crockpot or Instant Pot)
White Sauce Ingredient Variations
- If Sriracha sauce is not your thing you can use red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper instead.
- Sometimes I’ll swap the green chiles for pickled jalapenos. You can even add a little of the brine for extra spice.
- Add a little extra seasoning if you’d like. Cumin, oregano, and fresh minced garlic are all great options.
- Finishing it off with a bit of citrus lime juice to brighten it up and cut through the heavy cream is a nice way to top it off.
- I don’t love Miracle Whip just because of the funny processed ingredients in it, but if you prefer the flavor you can certainly replace the cream cheese with Miracle Whip.
- I have never made a gluten-free version, but if you’d like to try it, I recommend swapping the flour with cornstarch for the roux. Either that or using a 1:1 all-purpose gluten-free flour. Bob’s Red Mill makes a good one.
FAQs
How to store leftover Mexican white sauce?
The great thing about this sauce is the longer it sits, the better it gets! You can store it for up to 3 days in the fridge.
I keep mine in a mason jar with a tight-fitting lid so I can just pour it out directly from the jar and reseal the rest.
Can I make it in advance?
Absolutely! Make it up to 48 hours ahead of time.
10-Min Mexican White Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter unsalted
- 3 Tablespoons flour all-purpose variety
- 2 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup cream cheese
- 4 oz green chilies drained
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce I use sriracha
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Using a small sauce pan, melt 1/4 cup butter on medium heat. Add 3 Tablespoons of flour, stir and cook for about 1-2 minute.
- Slowly whisk in a small amount of chicken broth, whisk until there are no lumps then whisk in the rest of the chicken broth. Bring it to a boil.Into the same pan add 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup cream cheese, 4 oz. green chillies, 1 teaspoon hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste.
- After it starts boiling turn off the heat and use in Chicken Chimichanga Recipe. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
If you make Mexican White Cream Sauce Recipe, please tag my name @munchkintimeblog and hashtag #munchkintimeblog on Instagram, I would LOVE to see your creation!
Thank YOU for YOUR Comment, Share & Recipe Review!
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Love this recipe! Thank you!! It’s my 12 yo son’s fav dish, I also make for friends for meal train and it’s talked about!
I have put leftover white sauce in the freezer In a glass container then get it out when I need a quick dinner-I use rotisserie chicken to throw it all together.
Also, cooks up great in air fryer for 5-8 min (until golden) for summer days when you don’t want to run the oven-or to make a few at a time because they are best fresh cooked!
Thank you, Cherie! I am so happy you and your son love this recipe! Also, thank you for sharing all of these great dinner ideas. 😀
I’ve made this several times now, and love it! Though I’m wondering what the best flour alternative would be to make this gluten free?
Thank you Sean! The best flour alternative I can think of is corn starch.
This was awesome!Thank you so much for sharing.
You are welcome, Wendy!
Can this sauce be frozen
Hi Chris! I haven’t try that yet, not sure how it will fold its taste and texture. If you try freezing it I would love to know if you liked it?
I made this sauce for chimichangas along with a pineapple salsa and my family went insane! Definitely a new favorite! Thank you!
Adaptaptable to dairy free and excellent sauce!
I substituted plain almondmilk yogurt for sour cream and almondmilk cream cheese with perfect results.
Thank you Karen! So glad you like it!
I can’t wait to make it. Any suggestions for flour substitute as I have one that can’t eat gluten. Do you think it will work if I do less flour or a different kind or leave it out? Thanks
Hi Tracy! You can use corn starch mixed with cold water instead of flour, hope this helps. I haven’t tried it yet, but I would use 2 teaspoons of corn starch with 2 teaspoon of cold water, mix and add it to the sauce and see if you want to add more to thicken the sauce. Hope this is helpful!
I love this sauce! Cream cheese makes it delicious. My husband is not the biggest fan of cream cheese and can always tell when I “sneak” it in. Any suggestions for masking the taste or substitutes?
Hi, i tried it and it’s very tasty 😋 Was wondering for how long can I keep it in the fridge ?
Thanks for your answer 🙂
Thank you, Sanja! It should stay fresh up to 3-5 days in airtight container.
Have you ever used greek yogurt to sub the sour cream? Just trying to make it a bit lighter.
Hi Ashley! I haven’t tried it with greek yogurt, if you do try it, please let me know if you like it!?
I made it with greek yogurt instead of sour cream and it turned out great! Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you, Ashley! 🙂
I haven’t tried the white sauce yet, but I plan to. My family loves chicken and beef chimichangas. I add onions and peppers in the beef with every thing else the same. I love cilantro! However, the stems have much flavor in them so they are chopped up with the leaves. Never thrown away. Thanks for your great recipes!
I made this with vegan sour cream, vegan butter, and vegan cream cheese, because my hubby is very allergic to dairy. It was fantastic! It was so creamy and smooth. I will use this a lot. I held back a lot on the hot sauce, and it was still great!
Cream cheese is really hard on my stomach. I substituted with ranch and still a super tasty sauce! I use this recipe all the time. Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing your recipe review, Haylee! I appreciate it! And ranch inside the sauce sounds delicious!
Great recipe, also wondering if this sauce can be frozen.
Hi Kathy! Thank you for your recipe review, I haven’t froze this sauce before, not sure how it will look after being frozen. If you try it please let me know how you liked it! Thank you!
This sauce is Amazing!!! My family loved the chimichangas. I’m making the enchiladas today!
This sauce is amazing and rivals my local favorite Mexican restaurant’s queso dip. Can any extras of this be frozen?
Great recipe, also wondering if this sauce can be frozen.
The sauce is wonderful !! It makes the chimichangas so good. My husband likes it better than the Mexican resturants.
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Sauce was simple to make and great in the chimichangas. I am curious if you can freeze the leftover or about other recipes to use it in.