How to Make a Cheese and Mustard Sauce

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

Honey mustard gravy being poured from a gravy boat.

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Is it a gravy or is it a sauce?
Whatever you decide to call it, I think you'll love it
What ingredients do I need?
How do you make it?
How do I freeze honey mustard sauce?
Make in advance
Make a honey mustard dipping sauce?
Pin for later
Honey mustard sauce recipe
Honey mustard sauce with ricotta cheese

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 🙂 ).

A gravy boat filled with honey mustard gravy.

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.

Overhead shop of honey mustard gravy in a gravy boat, along side a plate of food.

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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.

Pin for later

Why not pin this recipe for honey mustard sauce to your pinterest board so you can make it later. Just click the image below.

Honey mustard sauce recipe

Honey mustard gravy being poured from a gravy boat.

Whisk

▢ 2 oz (60g) butter
▢ 1 cup full-fat milk substitute with semi-skimmed if preferred
▢ 2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
▢ 1 tablespoon honey
▢ 8 oz (250g) ricotta cheese
▢ 1 tablespoon flour for thickening
▢ salt to taste
▢ black pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a gentle heat until it is completely melted. Do not allow to brown.
Remove from the heat and stir in the flour until all the lumps have been removed.
Return to the heat and add the milk. Stir continuously until the sauce thickens (about 4 minutes) ^{*Note 1}
Add the mustard, honey and ricotta cheese and stir until the cheese has dissolved into the sauce. ^{*Note 2}
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. ^{*Note 3}

At this stage the sauce should have a smooth consistency that drops slowly from the spoon – about the consistency of pouring custard.
Check the final consistency of the sauce
- If the sauce has thickened too much add an additional splash of milk.
- If the sauce is 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.
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.

Nutrition is based on 4 servings and is per serving.

I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.

Let us know how it went!

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In my previous life, I was an IT Consultant. Now that I've swapped an office for a kitchen I have a lot more time to spend on things that interest me such as trying out new recipes. Most of my cooking is based around quick and easy meals, and you'll probably find a little South African influence creeping in due to the many years I spent there.

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How to Make a Cheese and Mustard Sauce

Source: https://www.foodleclub.com/honey-mustard-sauce-ricotta-cheese/

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