French

Serving

Blanquette de Veau

Name: Blanquette de Veau
Total time: 150 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 2.5 lbs veal shoulder (cut into 2-inch cubes); 1 lb pearl onions; 1 lb white button mushrooms (quartered); 2 carrots (chopped); 1 leek (white part only; chopped); 1 bouquet garni; 1/2 cup heavy cream; 2 egg yolks; 2 tbsp butter; 2 tbsp flour; lemon juice

Veal simmered gently to tenderness in an ivory cream sauce with mushrooms and pearl onions — French home cooking at its most elegant.

150 minutes

Serves 6

Main

53 min prep

83 min cook

Contains common allergens

Egg Dairy Wheat

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Instructions

6 steps

1
Place the veal in a large pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Blanch for 2 minutes, then drain and rinse the meat to ensure a pristine white sauce.
2
Return the clean meat to the pot. Add the carrots, leek, and bouquet garni. Cover with fresh water or light chicken stock. Bring to a simmer, skim any foam, cover, and cook gently for 1.5 to 2 hours until tender.
3
While the meat cooks, sauté the pearl onions and mushrooms separately in a little butter until tender but not browned. Set aside.
4
Once the meat is cooked, strain the broth into a clean saucepan (you need about 2.5 cups). Discard the aromatics but keep the meat warm.
5
In a separate saucepan, melt butter and whisk in flour to make a blond roux. Gradually whisk in the hot reserved veal broth. Simmer for 10 minutes until lightly thickened.
6
In a small bowl, whisk the heavy cream and egg yolks. Temper the mixture with a ladle of hot sauce, then whisk it back into the pot off the heat. Do not let it boil! Add a squeeze of lemon juice, then combine the meat, onions, mushrooms, and sauce.

Blanquette de Veau — plated and served — Serving moment. How Blanquette de Veau looks plated and ready to eat — a representative photo, not a step in the recipe.

Listahan Family Score™

59/100

Works for many families

Allergen-friendly 70

Kid-friendly 35

Weeknight-easy 54

Budget-friendly 82

Great leftovers 87

Pantry-friendly 31

Score reflects how well this recipe fits a typical busy household. In the app, your Family Score is personalized to your household's allergens, kids, and pantry.

Nutrition

per serving

520

Calories

51 g

Protein

16 g

Carbs

27 g

Fat

Estimated per serving. Actual values depend on the brands and portions you use.

Listahan cooking guide

Chef notes & practical guide

Technique notes, ingredient swaps, serve-alongside ideas, storage guidance, and equipment for this recipe.

Cultural context

Blanquette de Veau is one of the most venerated of all classic French dishes, a white stew of veal that has appeared in French cookbooks since at least the eighteenth century. Its name derives from 'blanc' (white) — the meat is never browned, the sauce is pale and ivory, and even the vegetables are chosen for their ability to stay white through the cooking process. It is the defining dish of what the French call 'cuisine bourgeoise': the refined, comfortable home cooking of the French middle class that valued gentle technique, impeccable sauces, and quality ingredients over rustic simplicity.

Listahan note

This version uses veal shoulder for accessibility and gentleness of flavor, and finishes the sauce with cream and egg yolks in the classic liaison technique that makes the sauce luxuriously smooth.

Technique cues

Do not brown the veal — this is essential to the whole concept of a blanquette; start the meat in cold water, bring gently to a simmer, and skim any grey foam that rises in the first 10 minutes for a clean, white broth.
The classic finish is a liaison of egg yolks and cream: whisk them together, temper the mixture by slowly adding hot broth to it, then stir back into the sauce off the heat — never let it boil again or the egg yolks will scramble and the sauce will break.
Season the finished sauce aggressively with lemon juice as well as salt; the acidity brightens the richness of the cream and brings the whole dish into focus.

Kitchen flow

Parallel prep: While the veal simmers, prepare the mushrooms, pearl onions, and the liaison mixture so everything is ready the moment the broth is reduced.
Make-ahead: Cook the veal and reduce the broth up to 2 days ahead; finish the sauce with the liaison only when reheating gently before serving.
Leftover move: Stir leftover blanquette into cooked rice or spoon over a bed of steamed new potatoes for a complete reheated meal.
Cleanup rhythm: One large pot for the braise and a small saucepan for the liaison; wipe down the work surface between steps to keep the kitchen as serene as the dish.

Ingredient brief

Role, handling, and swap guidance for each key ingredient.

veal shoulder

main protein

Purpose: Veal shoulder has the collagen needed to stay tender through simmering and release gelatin into the broth without the strong flavor of beef, keeping the blanquette delicate.

Handling: Cut into 2-inch cubes and place directly in cold water; bring slowly to a simmer rather than dropping into boiling liquid.

Adaptation: Bone-in chicken thighs or a mild pork shoulder produce a good blanquette with a slightly different but delicious result; cooking time decreases.

heavy cream

sauce richness

Purpose: Cream enriches the reduced veal broth into a sauce of extraordinary silkiness when combined with the egg yolk liaison.

Handling: Use at room temperature and add slowly to the reduced broth off the heat to prevent curdling.

Adaptation: Creme fraiche adds a subtle tang that some people prefer over plain heavy cream; stir in off-heat the same way.

egg yolks

liaison thickener

Purpose: Egg yolks cooked gently with cream thicken the sauce through heat without starch, giving the blanquette its characteristic velvety body.

Handling: Whisk with the cream, then temper by slowly adding a ladleful of hot sauce before stirring the mixture back into the pot — never add cold yolks directly to boiling liquid.

Adaptation: If avoiding egg yolks, thicken the sauce instead with a beurre manie (equal parts softened butter and flour) added in small pieces at the end.

button mushrooms

white vegetable garnish

Purpose: White mushrooms are chosen specifically because they stay pale and add a gentle earthiness without breaking the visual theme of the dish.

Handling: Saute in butter and lemon juice to keep them from browning; add to the stew in the final 15 minutes.

Adaptation: White pearl onions are an equally classic garnish; use both or either depending on preference.

bouquet garni (thyme, bay leaf, parsley stems)

aromatic backbone of the broth

Purpose: A bouquet garni simmers in the broth throughout cooking, providing a subtle herbal note that perfumes the sauce without being identifiable in the finished dish.

Handling: Tie herbs in a piece of cheesecloth or leek leaf for easy removal.

Adaptation: A small amount of dried thyme and a bay leaf without bundling works fine; just remember to fish out the bay leaf at the end.

Technique notes

The blanquette sauce must coat the back of a spoon before you add the liaison — if the broth is too thin, reduce it first or the egg yolks cannot thicken it to the right consistency.
Lemon juice is the secret weapon: add it gradually at the end, tasting as you go, until the sauce comes alive — a blanquette without enough acidity tastes flat and heavy no matter how good the cream is.
Serve in deep, wide bowls over rice; the sauce needs something to pool against or the presentation loses the visual impact of all that ivory velvet.

Ingredient swaps

Dairy-free direction: Replace cream with full-fat coconut cream (it stays pale and has enough fat for a liaison to work) and use olive oil in place of butter; the flavor shifts subtly but remains elegant.
Egg-free direction: Skip the liaison and thicken the sauce with a tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in cold water; stir into the simmering broth and cook for 2 minutes.

Serve alongside

Steamed white rice
Buttered egg noodles
Steamed green asparagus
White Burgundy or white Bordeaux
Sparkling water with lemon

Serving suggestions only — check pairings for your household's allergens.

Storage & reheating

Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days; the sauce will thicken considerably when cold but loosens perfectly when reheated gently with a splash of stock.
This dish does not freeze well because the cream and egg yolk liaison breaks on thawing — make only what you will eat within 3 days.

Equipment

Large, heavy-bottomed pot for simmering and reducing
Ladle for tempering the egg yolk liaison
Fine-mesh strainer for skimming and straining the broth

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