When I tell you this sauce forestière recipe is absolutely divine, I’m not exaggerating. This mushroom sauce can be poured over any piece of chicken or steak, or over a plate a vegetables, and it will completely transform them into an elevated, mouthwatering dish.
What is Forestière Sauce?
When I first learned about forestière sauce, I wondered what the difference between a dish made of chicken with forestière sauce and chicken chasseur was.
Forestière sounds like forest, and I was told it was made with mushrooms. Chicken chasseur, also made with mushrooms, translates to hunter’s chicken. So were they similar?
Not really. Sauce forestière is purely a sauce, and can be paired with more than chicken. It can be poured over steak, fish, vegetables, or pasta.
It’s also made with a good amount of cream, unlike the recipe for chicken chasseur. So, even if you made chicken with sauce forestière, it wouldn’t look anything like chicken chasseur.
As a lover of mushrooms, I can’t rave enough about how incredible this mushroom sauce recipe is.
Making Sauce Forestière
This is a pretty easy mushroom sauce recipe to follow, but there are a couple of things to note.
To really make this sauce shine, it’s important to not only use raw mushrooms but dry mushroom powder as well. I love using ground porcini powder, which you can find on sites like Amazon. It will really give this sauce the “oomph” it requires.
Another important note is that while you can sub in heavy cream or half and half instead of the crème fraîche, you’re not going to get quite the same flavor profile. It’s also not going to be as stable as using crème fraîche, which does well when it comes to keeping a sauce from splitting.
The crème fraîche has some tanginess, and while we subdue that flavor by letting the sauce simmer for a bit, it’s still subtly present, and it’s richness is just something else in a sauce like this.
Otherwise, a lot of the other ingredients are standard ingredients, such as shallot, garlic, obviously mushrooms, some white wine, butter, flour, chicken broth, salt, and pepper.
I like to also add a little bit of grated parmesan and thyme leaves at the end, but that’s just my special touch!
What to Serve with Sauce Forestière
This sauce also doesn’t take long to come together, so it’s really great for garnishing a variety of dishes.
You could grill an entrecote/steak, but instead of doing a red wine sauce that’s typically done, you could pour this mushroom sauce over it.
Take a piece of chicken (dark or white meat), sear in a pan and bake (or put directly in an air fryer if you have one), then pouring this sauce over it.
Like I also mentioned, both pasta and vegetables also do really well with this sauce. I love cooking tagliatelle noodles and pour this sauce over it.
Really, anything that pairs well with mushrooms and cream will be lovely!
Sauce Forestière Recipe
Yield: 6
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
A creamy mushroom sauce made with crème fraîche and mushroom powder for a flavor profile that will make any entrée absolutely divine!
Ingredients
- 8 oz. sliced baby bella or cremini mushrooms
- olive oil, to drizzle in pan
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 1 large clove of garlic, finely diced
- 1/4 cup dry white wine, such as sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tsp porcini powder
- 8 oz. crème fraîche
- freshly ground salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese (optional)
- 1 sprig of thyme leaves (optional)
Instructions
- Add a drizzle of olive oil to a medium skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the sliced mushrooms and sauté for a few minutes until tender. Temporarily transfer the cooked mushrooms to a bowl.
- To the skillet, add the shallot and garlic. Sauté for a minute until the shallot is translucent and the garlic is fragrant. Pour the white wine into the pan, and use your spoon to help scrape up the mushroom/brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cook until the wine is completely reduced.
- Push the shallot and garlic off to one side of the skillet, then add the butter to the empty side of the skillet. Once it's almost melted, add the flour to the butter. Stir these two together to create a roux. This will look like a liquid-y, bubbly mixture.
- When the roux is bubbly, slowly stream in the chicken broth into this roux, stirring it as you do to blend. It will look lumpy at first, but just keep stirring.
- Once the chicken broth has been added, stir everything in the skillet together to combine. Add the porcini powder and again to stir to blend in. Now, add the crème and stir until it's all smoothed out into one smooth sauce.
- Add the mushrooms back into the skillet, along with some freshly ground salt and pepper. Lower the heat and let the sauce simmer for a few minutes until it reduces a bit and becomes a little thicker. It will also taste less tangy as it cooks, so taste-test as time goes on until you get that level of tanginess you prefer. The more time it cooks, the more subtle it will become.
- Finish off the sauce with the parmesan and thyme leaves, then serve over your entrée of choice.
Notes
If you want to make this sauce a bit lighter, you can use half and half, but you'll want to increase the roux ratio to 1 tbsp unsalted butter and 2 tbsp flour to help with the thickening aspect of the sauce.
