Honey mustard sauce with ricotta cheese

Tangy, sweet and creamy, this easy homemade honey mustard sauce with ricotta cheese is perfect for pouring over chicken, steak or gammon.

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Is it a gravy or is it a sauce?

I first made this honey mustard sauce when I was looking for something to pour over my chicken cordon bleu, and it turned out so well I decided it needed to be a recipe in its own right!

Honey mustard sauce has a mild creamy cheesy taste from the ricotta, with a slight tang from the mustard. Combine this with a hint of sweetness from the honey and you have a sauce that you will be eating by the spoonful, right out of the pan.

But then I got to thinking – is this actually a sauce or a gravy? Should I call it honey mustard sauce or honey mustard gravy?

A quick search on google came up with the following definitions:

• Gravy – a sauce made by mixing the fat and juices exuded by meat during cooking with stock and other ingredients.
• Sauce – a liquid or semi-liquid substance served with food to add moistness and flavour.

So I decided because there are no meat juices or fat in this recipe it should be called Honey Mustard Sauce (but if you want to call it Honey Mustard Gravy it’s up to you 🙂 ).

Whatever you decide to call it, I think you’ll love it

This has got to be the best honey mustard sauce:

• It has the most amazing taste – it’s sweet and tangy and creamy and cheesy all in one.
• This sauce takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and cook.
• It goes with EVERYTHING – pour it over chicken, pork chops, steak, gammon or even fish.
• You can also turn it into a honey mustard dipping sauce for sesame chicken strips, or even french fries.
• It freezes like a dream – so you can enjoy this sauce whenever you feel like it.

What ingredients do I need?

For the amount of flavour you get out of this sauce, you need surprisingly few ingredients. Most, if not all, will be in your fridge or pantry anyway.

Get the exact measurements and complete instructions for making this amazing honey mustard sauce on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

• Ricotta cheese – for the creamy cheesy flavour. If you don’t have ricotta, you can substitute for any soft cheese, such as Philadephia or even cottage cheese.
• Butter – this forms the base of the sauce, and is melted and mixed with flour for thickening. Don’t substitute the butter with margarine, this will make the sauce too oily.
• Honey – for sweetness
• Wholegrain mustard – for the tang, and also the texture of the mustard seeds. You can substitute this with Dijon or English mustard, but they are a lot stronger than wholegrain mustard, so you will need to adjust the quantity so you don’t overpower the sauce with the mustard flavour (and you won’t get the lovely pops of flavour from the mustard seeds either).
• Milk – I use full-fat milk, but you can use semi-skimmed if you prefer.
• Salt and black pepper – for seasoning

How do you make it?

Making honey mustard sauce is simplicity in itself!

• Melt the butter in a saucepan over a gentle heat until it is completely melted (image 1 above). Do this over a low heat so the butter does not brown.
• Remove from the heat and add the flour. Stir well until all the lumps have been removed.
• Return to the heat and add the milk. Stir continuously as the milk heats and the sauce thickens (about 4 minutes). The sauce should have a smooth consistency that drops slowly from the spoon – about the consistency of pouring custard (image 2 above). The sauce will thicken further when you add the cheese.
• Now stir in the mustard, the honey and the ricotta cheese (image 3 above), and season with salt and black pepper to taste.
• The seasoning is to personal taste. I like to add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a good grinding of black pepper. Taste the sauce before adding the seasoning, and add salt and pepper to your own taste.
• Finally, adjust the consistency.
  • If the sauce has thickened too much add an additional splash of milk.
  • If it is still too runny, mix a teaspoon of flour with a tablespoon of milk and stir in slowly until the desired consistency is reached. Stir the sauce over a low heat for an extra minute two to allow the flour time to cook.

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How do I freeze honey mustard sauce?

To freeze, allow the sauce to cool and pour into ziploc bags. Seal and freeze for up to 3 months.

To use, transfer the frozen sauce to a saucepan and heat gently until defrosted. Then bring to the boil and serve immediately.

Make in advance

You can make this sauce in advance and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

You may find the stored sauce draws a little water. If this happens, just give it a stir before reheating in a saucepan.

Make a honey mustard dipping sauce?

You can easily modify this recipe to make a honey mustard dipping sauce, which is delicious served as a dip with chicken tenders, meatballs, or even french fries.

Just reduce the amount of milk in the sauce so that it has a thicker consistency, and serve at room temperature.

The thicker dip also adds extra oomph when spread like mayonnaise on a chicken or ham sandwich .

If you enjoyed this honey mustard sauce recipe you may also enjoy these other sauces:

• Orange chicken thighs with a tangy sauce – chicken cooked in onions and mandarin oranges, with the cooking juices thickened to create a delicious orange-flavoured gravy.
• Thai sweet chilli sauce – a spicy sauce that you can add to an extra kick to stirfries, or use as a dip for chicken or meatballs
• Homemade mayonnaise – delicious in a potato salad, or add garlic for homemade aioli.
• Chilli tomato sauce – the perfect accompaniment to grilled meat or sausages.

Additional resources

Don’t forget to check out my handy Cookery Conversion Calculator if you want to convert any of your recipe measurements from grams to cups, ounces, tablespoons or millilitres and vice versa. You can also use the calculator for converting oven temperatures between Fahrenheit, Celsius and Gas marks.

If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read all about it in this post on baking at high altitudes.