Lyonnaise Sauce

By
Danilo Alfaro
Danlio Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable to home cooks.
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Updated on 04/18/22
Lyonnaise sauce
Duncan Davis / Getty Images
Prep: 5 mins
Cook: 25 mins
Total: 30 mins
Servings: 6 servings
Yield: 2 cups

The Lyonnaise Sauce is a finished sauce made with onions and white wine vinegar simmered in a basic demi-glace. The Sauce Lyonnaise pairs well with roasted meats, grilled pork, poultry dishes, and even grilled sausages. You could simply enjoy it over mashed potatoes as well.

Classically, you would strain the sauce before serving, but for a more rustic look, leave the onions when you serve it. Lyon is the home of French onion soup and Lyonnaise potatoes as well as French culinary legends such as Paul Bocuse and Eugénie Brazier. Onions are beloved and used in many dishes in this culinary capital of France.

Sauce Lyonnaise is a secondary sauce based on Sauce Espagnole (brown sauce) as the mother sauce. It originated approximately in the late 1500s. There are various people credited for developing it, some unlikely to have created it themselves, but rather their cooks were known for preparing it for their table.

Ingredients

  • 1 pint demi-glace

  • 1/4 cup chopped onions

  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

  • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar

Steps to Make It

  1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter and cook the onions over medium-high heat until they turn a light golden brown. You are sautéing rather than sweating the onions.

  2. Add the vinegar and heat the mixture until the liquid boils.

  3. Lower the heat a bit and continue simmering until the liquid has reduced by half.

  4. Add the demi-glace, then lower heat to a simmer and reduce for about 10 minutes.

  5. Strain through a mesh strainer (optional) and serve right away.

Tip

  • You can find prepared demi-glace to purchase, which would certainly be a shortcut. One brand touts that it spends 30 hours reducing the stock. If you don't have time for that, buying rather than making is an easy choice.
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
61 Calories
4g Fat
3g Carbs
2g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6
Amount per serving
Calories 61
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 4g 5%
Saturated Fat 3g 13%
Cholesterol 11mg 4%
Sodium 215mg 9%
Total Carbohydrate 3g 1%
Dietary Fiber 0g 1%
Total Sugars 1g
Protein 2g
Vitamin C 1mg 4%
Calcium 14mg 1%
Iron 1mg 3%
Potassium 215mg 5%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)