Roux Recipe for Soup & Sauce Bases

Posted On May 31, 2019 By Brandy Gales

Flour in a bowl.

Have you always wondered how to add a smooth, thick texture to your soups and sauces? Roux, pronounced RU, is a cooked mixture of equal parts flour and butter. It is the thickening agent I use all the time to add extra richness to thicken my sauces, soups, and turn meat drippings into gravy.

Side story: I was allowing my Roux mixture to cool one day for a pot roast base. I mindlessly left it on the counter. After leaving the room for a moment, my young daughter came into the kitchen and mistook the Roux mixture for the whipped cream I usually make. She began feeding it to herself and her little brother. I came back into the kitchen to find her screaming that I had lied to her, and that this was the worst whipped cream she’d ever tasted. “Yuck, bad momma!”

Anyways…here is my simple Roux recipe!

Roux

Prep time: about 1 minute

Cook time: 2–10 minutes

melting butter

What you need

  • ½ cup of butter (1 full stick)
  • ½ cup flour (Do not use self rising flour. It is harder to whisk and creates lumps.)
  • ¼ teaspoon Salt and pepper

What you will do

  1. In a medium sauce pan melt 1 cube (1/2 cup) of butter on medium heat.
  2. Once butter is melted then add the flour.
  3. Let the flour absorb into the butter as you whisk it in 1tbsp at a time.
  4. Once you have added all of your flour and whisked together, reduce heat to low.
  5. The mixture will be cooking and bubbling for 2-10 minutes on low heat to cook away the raw flour taste and texture.
  6. I usually add pepper and salt right at the end before I take it off of the heat. The mixture should be added immediately in soups.
  7. Just add this mixture to the liquid of any base, be it beef or chicken broth, and whisk constantly to ensure thorough emulsification.
a stick of butter on a dish

Roux Color Guide

  • The flour mixture will turn a light golden color for lighter sauces or soups. This takes 2-3 minutes.
  • The flour mixture will turn a golden brown, peanut butter-like consistency for darker sauces and soups This takes 5-10 minutes.
  • The mixture should never be DARK brown. If so, the flour has now become burned and bitter.