Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese
Making dinner some nights needs to be easy. I have a few go-to weeknight meals that are so easy to make I don’t necessarily have recipes for them. This easy alfredo sauce with cream cheese is the base for many fast weeknight meals. Some instant pot pasta and air fryer grilled chicken mixed with this alfredo sauce can get dinner on the table in literally 15 minutes.
Making alfredo sauce doesn’t have to be difficult. Many might think making alfredo sauce with cream cheese isn’t authentic, but I can tell you it is delicious!
There are a lot of alfredo based recipes on my blog. Crockpot chicken spaghetti can literally feed a crowd. My favorite is actually the instant pot spaghetti with white sauce. Having the base sauce to so many different ways to use it is the secret to a quick weeknight meal.
Homemade Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese Ingredients
The great thing about the ingredients for the homemade alfredo sauce recipe is that they have a good shelf life in the fridge. Here are the ingredients you will need to make this quick and easy alfredo sauce recipe.
- Cream Cheese
- Butter
- Garlic
- Cream
- Parmesan Cheese
- Salt and Pepper
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese
Making this alfredo sauce isn’t necessarily a labor of love, but you do want to make sure you are attentive to this amount of dairy over a medium heat. Here is how to make the easiest alfredo sauce recipe
Start by melting butter in the saucepan. Add the minced garlic as you melt butter and saute.
Add the heavy cream and cream cheese to the butter and garlic. Gently whisk the cream and cream cheese together until the cream cheese is melted.
Add the shredded parmesan cheese, salt, and black pepper. Continue stirring until melted.
Serve the alfredo sauce with pasta, over vegetables, or as a dipping sauce for breadsticks.
This recipe for alfredo sauce is so easy to make and is made quickly, making it perfect for a weeknight meal of fettuccine alfredo when you serve it over noodles. We love it with tortellini, Instant Pot pasta, and even a cheesy sauce over broccoli. It is the perfect white sauce to dip breadsticks in, too. And, of course, this makes the best chicken alfredo recipe.
Hint: Buying pre-shredded cheese will speed up the process but may not melt as smoothly.
Substitutions for the best alfredo sauce recipe
If you need to substitute an ingredient in a pinch, here are my recommendations for substitutions.
- Milk– instead of half and half cream, grab the milk. Whole or 2% milk is the best substitute. Evaporated milk could also be used.
- Romano or Asiago Cheese – while grated parmesan cheese is the purest option, you can use the parmesan and romano combination. Also, asiago is a fine substitute.
- Garlic Powder – Don’t have garlic for the mince cloves? No problem, just grab some garlic powder.
This recipe is already gluten-free which makes it a great recipe for gluten-free diet people. It is also low-carb and ready for anyone on a keto diet.
Variations to this Easy Alfredo Sauce
This base alfredo sauce recipe with cream cheese is creamy and velvety with lots of garlic flavor. But if you want to change up the recipe, there are several ways you can jazz it up.
- Cajun – add chili pepper flakes while cooking to imbue heat into the dish, or banana peppers
- Thicker – Looking for a thicker alfredo sauce? Add a tablespoon of flour to the butter at the very start of the recipe. You can also add a tablespoon of cornstarch to the cream and stir to dissolve before heating up for a gluten-free thickener.
- Cheesier– add mozzarella cheese to make it even cheesier for a white macaroni and cheese recipe.
See this spicy version of this recipe.
Can you freeze alfredo sauce and other storage answers
Leftovers of this alfredo sauce can be kept in an airtight container for 5 days in the refrigerator.
These ingredients don’t stand up well to freezing as just plain sauce. I do not recommend freezing. However, I have frozen this recipe, but I have used it in a casserole or other recipe. These types of alfredo sauce base recipes do freeze just fine.
Recipes that Use Alfredo Sauce
If you love all things with white sauces, then you will want to try a few of these recipes that use a version of the homemade alfredo sauce recipe.
Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2-3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup cream
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- ½ cup Parmesan Cheese shredded
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- Add butter to a saucepan and melt. Then add the minced garlic to the pan. Saute for a minute or two.
- Next, slowly add cream and cream cheese and heat until just bubbling.
- Add the parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Continue stirring until melted.
- Keep warm until ready to serve and combine with pasta or vegetables.
Nutrition
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Very easy and delicious. Mine got a little to thick. I cut recipe in half, but think my 4 Oz. Cream cheese was more like 5 and that was probably the problem. Will make again.