wp_kses() will do the sanitization of html output but keep the html.
While using wp_kses you need to tell it what tags to allow.
Alternatively you can use wp_kses_post() which allows html tags you can add to a post. This one may not be strict enough for most cases so I’d suggest using the first option.
$var = "Here is my html string";
echo wp_kses( $var, array( // array of allowed tags
'a' => array(
'href' => array(),
'title' => array()
),
'br' => array(),
'em' => array(),
'strong' => array(),
) );
Check the wordpress codex for more info.
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_kses/
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_kses_post/