Super Easy Mussel Recipe with White Wine Sauce
Level up your gatherings with this easy mussel recipe steamed in white wine and flavor-rich chicken bone broth as an amazing appetizer or serve it over spaghetti as an elegant dinner.
I usually don’t miss any opportunities to order some mussels as an appetizer when eating out. Despite how much I love mussels, I had never thought about making it at home. For some reason, in my mind, they were not the easiest to handle and I was afraid I’d ruin a good batch of mussels.
One day, I was wandering round in the seafood section in a Whole Foods Market and saw a big bag of mussels sitting on a bed of ice with an “on sale” tag on it – two pounds for $8.
I decided to pull the trigger and gave it a try because the worst case scenario wouldn’t be too bad, especially if I experimented with one pound at a time.
A little bit of research online prepared me for my cooking experiment. You know what? It’s surprisingly easy. I nailed it on the first try with this steamed mussel recipe with white wine sauce. The recipe you see in this post is from my second try when I was a lot more confident cooking mussels and happy with the result.
The truth is that if I can do it, you certainly can too. Here’s what I learned.
How to Prepare Mussels Before Cooking
#1 Mussels Have Beards.
Did you know that? I didn’t. Some of the commercial mussels are already debearded when you purchase them. But it’s always good to double check. The beard of a mussel is a group of brown strings that look like a brown “tag” hanging out from the side of a mussel.
Mussel beards are not inedible. They are just a bit tough to eat if you don’t remove them. For your eating pleasure, remove the beard by grabbing it with your thumb and the index finger and firmly pulling it out. Use a side-to-side motion if necessary.
#2 Which Mussels to Discard?
Most of the mussels in your grocery stores nowadays are farm-raised and held in big tanks to flush out all the unwanted stuff. So you don’t have to soak them in water. If you are not sure, ask the staff when you buy mussels.
Normally, you only need to rinse and clean the mussel shells. In this step, check the mussels and if you find any fit the descriptions below, discard them.
- Any mussels with cracked shells.
- Any mussel shells are not tightly closed and after you gently tap them on the counter, they still don’t close.
- Any mussels that don’t open after cooking.
How to Cook Mussels on The Stove
I am sure that there are many ways of cooking mussels but for beginners, I think steaming them is a good way to start. You can literally use any broth to steam mussels without seasoning. It’ll still taste good. And the steaming takes only 5 minutes over medium-high heat. The key here is to immediately cover your pot with a lid when you put mussels and broth in.
Once you’ve learned the method, to flavor up your mussels, the sky is the limit.
I cooked mine in white wine and Kettle & Fire Chicken Bone Broth for adding more protein and collagen in my dish. You can cook them in beer, cider, any stock, or even coconut milk. Be creative with it.
In the meantime, hope you enjoy this super easy mussel recipe with white wine sauce. Serve it as an amazing appetizer for your next gathering or serve it over spaghetti with the sauce as an elegant dinner.
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Super Easy Mussel Recipe with White Wine Sauce
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Gluten Free
- Method: Stove
- Cuisine: American
Description
Super easy mussel recipe steamed in white wine and flavor-rich chicken bone broth. Serve it as an amazing appetizer or over spaghetti as an elegant dinner.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds mussels
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- Salt to taste
- 3 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup chicken bone broth
- lemon wedges and parsley for serving
Instructions
- Clean all mussels by rinsing in cold water. Check if your mussels are debearded already.(Farm-raised mussels are usually debearded.) If not, debeard the mussels by removing a group of brown strings coming out of the side of the mussel. If you see any mussels with their shells open, tap them gently against the countertop. Discard the ones that don’t close. Also, discard the mussels with cracked shells.
- Melt the butter in a large wide-bottomed skillet or saucepan (with a lid) over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic and a pinch of salt. Sauté until translucent, about 2 minutes.
- Add sun-dried tomatoes, and red pepper flakes, and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Place all the mussels into the pan and pour white wine and chicken bone broth over the mussels.
- Immediately cover with the lid and let it cook for 5 minutes. Shake the pan once or twice with the lid on during cooking to distribute the mussels.
- After 5 minutes, open the lid and check the mussels. Pretty much all of them should be open by now. Discard the ones that are still closed. If you have too many closed ones, put the lid back on and let it cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.
- Squeeze some lemon juice, garnish with chopped parsley, and serve directly from the pot, Or serve over spaghetti with the mussel sauce.
Notes
- Nutrition facts were calculated without the spaghetti.
- Chicken bone broth can be substituted with regular chicken broth. But the nutrition facts data will be different.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 316
- Sugar: 2.4g
- Sodium: 1530.3mg
- Fat: 12.4g
- Saturated Fat: 4.9g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 19.6g
- Fiber: 1.2g
- Protein: 29.1g
- Cholesterol: 95.7mg
About the Author
Sharon Chen is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, an author and a sous vide fanatic who believes food not only brings healing but also connection. As the creator of StreetSmart Kitchen, she's on a mission to help you find balance, ease, joy, and simplicity in the kitchen as you improve your well-being.
Thanks for the tips on how to cook mussels at home! Very useful.
You are welcome. I am glad to hear that the tips are helpful. 🙂