Creamy butter, minced garlic, tangy lemon, Dijon mustard, fresh herbs, and just a pinch of red pepper flakes make the best Cowboy Butter Dipping Sauce. You'll love serving this alongside steak, veggies, chicken and so much more.
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My Cowboy Butter Recipe has been so popular over the years. While some say you can't improve on perfection, this combination of melted butter with fresh herbs, Dijon mustard and other seasonings is a great way to take your meal to the next level of awesome!
If you want to make a good steak really great, you need to serve it with this amazingly flavorful garlicky sauce! It's fabulous on bread slices, seafood, veggies, chicken and more.
❤️ Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Made with simple ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry and fridge!
- Adds huge flavor to any protein dish like pork tenderloin, chicken bites, seafood, your favorite steak, and so much more.
🧂 Ingredients
- salted butter - since this is the main ingredient, be sure to use a good-quality butter
- juice and zest of a lemon
- Dijon mustard
- cayenne pepper (optional)
- paprika
- fresh parsley
- fresh chives
- fresh thyme
- fresh garlic or roasted garlic
- red pepper flakes
- sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
This is meant to be a brief overview of the Cowboy Butter Dipping Sauce recipe. For step-by-step instructions and a full printable recipe card with ingredients, please scroll down to the teal box below or Jump to Recipe.
🔪Instructions
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter.
- Mix in the lemon juice and lemon zest with the melted butter, minced garlic, mustard, and paprika. Add the cayenne if using.
- Whisk the melted butter mixture together until well combined.
- Add the fresh herbs and stir.
- Transfer to a small bowl and serve immediately.
Equipment
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- Cutting Board and Santoku Knife
- Measuring Spoons
- Microplane
- Mixing Bowl
- Whisk
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⭐ Tips
- Use quality butter so you have the best-tasting butter sauce.
- Mince each garlic clove finely. The garlic is not cooked so big pieces can be very overpowering.
- To thicken the sauce, add a bit more mustard; to thin the sauce, add a bit of extra butter.
💭 Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some questions (and answers!) readers often ask about this Cowboy Butter Sauce recipe.
Cowboy Butter is a compound butter made with garlic, lemon and herbs combined with softened butter. It's the perfect addition to grilled meats, veggies and even garlic bread.
This delicious dipping sauce is a variation of that compound butter.
This butter sauce is a combination of fresh herbs and butter with Dijon mustard and paprika. It also includes salt and pepper, long with lots of fresh garlic.
This sauce will last 2-3 days if stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
⏲️ Storage
To Make Ahead: Prepare the butter sauce as directed and then refrigerate until ready to use.
To Reheat: Place butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring often with a whisk until the butter is melted through.
To Store: Leftover cowboy butter dipping sauce should be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator. (These are my favorite airtight containers.)
To Freeze: Place the cooled sauce in a freezer-safe container. Be sure to label. Store in the freezer for 1 month.
Love a good steak dinner?
This delicious cowboy butter also makes a great dipping sauce for steak bites!
📖 Variations
The first time you try any new recipe we recommend that you make it just as it is written on the recipe card since that is how the recipe has been tested. However, the next time you make our garlic dipping sauce, you might want to try one of these ideas:
- If you do not have a fresh lemon on hand, you can use a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce instead.
- To control the amount of salt in your homemade cowboy butter sauce, use unsalted butter.
- Add one finely diced small shallot to the butter mixture.
- While you can use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic, I don't recommend it for this cowboy butter sauce recipe.
- For a more mellow sauce, omit the cayenne pepper and add a tablespoon of sour cream.
🍴 Serving Suggestions
There are so many ways to use this garlic butter sauce to add big bold flavor to your meals. It's especially delicious with steak, for example:
- Sirloin Steak Tips
- Grilled Ribeye Steak
- Steak Bites
- Petite Sirloin Steak Recipe
- Petite Sirloin Roast
However, you can really use this versatile sauce to enhance so many great dishes like dunking Zucchini Hush Puppies into the garlic sauce.
Make Garlic Chicken Wings with this sauce instead of regular Cowboy Butter.
Dip these Garlic Cheese Bombs into the sauce for an even more pronounced garlic flavor or use it as a spread on top of French bread or Cheesy Cornbread.
Make a batch of this Air Fryer Baked Potato Recipe and then drizzle the Cowboy Butter Sauce over the split potatoes, or try it over Roasted Cauliflower.
Use leftover sauce to make garlic butter shrimp.
If you're a seafood lover, the flavor of this buttery dipping sauce is perfect with crawfish, lobster, or any seafood boil.
😋 Similar Recipes
Next time, try one of these tasty recipes:
- Simple Dill Compound Butter
- Tomato Basil Compound Butter
- Garlic Chive Butter
- Garlic Basil Compound Butter
- Dill Butter Recipe
Related: Benihana Butter
If you love the bold flavors in this dipping sauce, you'll also enjoy our cowboy corn casserole.
📋 Cowboy Butter Dipping Sauce
Not ready to make this garlic butter dipping sauce yet? Don’t forget to pin the recipe for later!
When you do make it, please be sure to tag me on Instagram @jugglingactmama or #jugglingactmama – I’d love to see your pictures! And finally, if you get a chance, please comment and leave me a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below!
Cowboy Butter Dipping Sauce
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Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons butter melted
- Juice and zest of half a lemon
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- Pinch of cayenne pepper optional
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 2 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon freshly chopped chives
- 2 teaspoons fresh minced thyme
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter.6 tablespoons butter
- Mix in the lemon juice and lemon zest with the melted butter, minced garlic, mustard, and paprika. Add the cayenne if using.Juice and zest of half a lemon, 4 cloves garlic, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, Pinch of cayenne pepper, ¼ teaspoon paprika
- Whisk the melted butter mixture together until well combined.
- Add the salt and pepper to taste, and mix in the fresh herbs.2 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon freshly chopped chives, 2 teaspoons fresh minced thyme, ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Transfer to a small bowl and serve immediately.
For best results, be sure to check our Tips and FAQs above with important tips and questions that can help your delicious recipe come out perfectly.
Penny says
Where has this been all my life????? For my husband's birthday we had a big surf and turf spread. I made this and my in laws were RAVING over it. Total win! Thank you for this amazing butter sauce recipe!!
Aaron says
I really wanted to try this but I didn't have a fresh lemon so I used Worcestershire sauce and it was delicious. Definitely making this dipping sauce again!
danielle says
This dipping sauce is so incredible, thank you for the recipe!!