When Our Weeknight Dinner Needs Something, I Make This Quick 3-Ingredient Sauce (Makes Chicken Taste Incredible!)

I am a well-documented lover of sauce. I keep all manner of delicious sauces in my fridge and pantry, as well as making my own sauce at home. I love a creamy sauce for my lunchtime grain bowls and rice salads, but dinner is a different affair. Dinner calls for more sophisticated sauces, like pan sauces, vinaigrettes, and herby concoctions that dress up everything from seared fish to sheet pan meatballs. 

A sauce I turn to again and again to take a simple dinner to new heights is a three-ingredient drizzle I learned when I was a food editor at America’s Test Kitchen called “Infinite Sauce.”

This sauce has only three ingredients — browned butter, soy sauce, and lemon juice. It doesn’t sound like much, but it packs a punch. The nuttiness of the browned butter is enhanced by the umami of the soy sauce and the lemon juice cuts through both to add a welcome touch of tartness. The sauce itself is so well-balanced and delicious that I struggle not to drink it. Drizzled over dinner, though, it’s knock-you-over good. 

1. Brown the butter. In a small skillet, brown 8 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.
2. Add the soy sauce. Turn off the heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. The sauce will foam up, so make sure you use a big enough skillet (I like a 10-inch stainless steel skillet) to account for that.
3. Transfer to a bowl and stir in lemon juice. Transfer the sauce to a small bowl, making sure to scrape the browned butter solids from the skillet, and stir in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Drizzle all over your dinner. This sauce is best right when you’ve made it, but you can store any leftover sauce in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

• Use unsalted butter and low-sodium soy sauce. While you could use the saltier versions of both of these ingredients, they turn the sauce into a bit of a salt bomb (trust me I’ve tried it.) Since I usually add this to dishes that have already been seasoned themselves, it’s easier to control the overall salt level of everything by opting for a less salty sauce. You can always add a pinch of kosher salt to the finished sauce if you like.
• Add it to everything. I feel like there’s nothing this sauce can’t improve, but in my opinion it really shines on simple stuff like fish, chicken thighs, and roasted vegetables. 
• Customize it. This sauce is pretty close to perfect as-is, but I’m not going to pretend I haven’t added to it. Try some crushed red pepper for spice, miso for an extra bump of umami, or a little honey for sweetness. 

This article originally published on The Kitchn. See it there: When My Dinner Needs Something, I Make This Quick 3-Ingredient Sauce (Makes Chicken Taste Magical!)