This roundup is all about my favorite thing to take steak, seafood, vegetables — basically anything you grill — to the next level: flavored butter recipes! Whether you’re making herb butter, cowboy butter or smoked butter, know that homemade butter is your best friend in boosting flavor. I’m stoked to share all my techniques in my favorite recipes for butter!
Table of Contents
- Why You’ll Love Butter Recipes
- Butter Recipe Basics
- This sauce is FYR!
- How to Make Clarified Butter
- The Best Herb Butter Recipes
- The Best Smoked Butter Recipes
- The Best Cowboy Butter Recipes
- Chili Butters & Other Spicy Butters
- Other Buttery Ideas
- What to Serve with the Best Butter Recipes
- Leftovers and Reheating
- FAQs
- Flavor X Fire & FOOD X Fire
Why You’ll Love Butter Recipes
If you’ve ever taken a bite of your dinner and thought it needed a little oomph to make it so freakin’ delicious, you’ve come to the right place. Flavored butter recipes — also often known as compound butter recipes — are an easy way to inject a kick into grilled meats and veggies. Because you mix butter with fresh herbs, spices, roasted garlic and more, the possibilities are endless. Once you make your own compound butter, you won’t want to stop!
Butter Recipe Basics
- Start with clarified butter. Clarified butter is definitely better in high-heat cooking and grilling recipes. This is because the savory butter also has a higher smoke point. You could use regular unsalted butter for our compound butters too, but just keep in mind that the milk solids and water in regular butter can burn during smoking. That can leave you with some odd flavors, which no one wants! Don’t stress, though. I’ve got a tip on the best way to make your own clarified butter below. You can also find clarified butter at your local grocery store if you’d rather go that route.
- Be ready with fresh ingredients. Depending on your recipe, you’ll want basic ingredients like garlic, a combination of herbs like parsley or cilantro, lemon zest, lime zest or even orange zest. We’ll mix those ingredients in a small bowl with our butter.
- Give it a twist with pantry ingredients. My FYR Hot Sauces, honey, black pepper and kosher salt are all a great way to make a better butter.
- If you’re making smoked butter, do NOT use a briquette. Since we’re infusing our butter with flavor from a smoking-hot coal, you want high-quality charcoal here. Please only use real wood or natural lump charcoal. Do not use briquettes or any charcoal that has been treated with chemicals. I always reach for Cowboy Charcoal because it burns super hot and super clean. That’s exactly what we need in these recipes.
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How to Make Clarified Butter
First, grab your unsalted butter — you’ll want about four sticks. Melt the sticks of butter slowly over direct heat (low setting) in a small saucepan. The goal is to let the butter melt gradually and completely without boiling it. As it melts, you’ll notice the milk solids start to separate from the butter “oil.” Next, pour the liquified butter into a clear glass container and let cool for two minutes. As it cools, the milk solids will sink to the bottom of the jar. Then, pour the top portion of the butter into a new jar. That is the golden, pure yellow portion of the butter, aka the clarified butter. Try to keep any of the white, milk solids from getting poured into the new jar. That’s all there is to it! Now, you have your very own clarified butter.
The Best Herb Butter Recipes
Garlic herb butter is classic here, but there are as many herbed butter recipes are there are plants in an herb garden! Let me know your favorite in the comments below!
Venison Rack with Herb Butter
Herb Butter American Lamb Steaks
Stuffed Lobster Tail with Garlic Butter
Grilled Steak and Shrimp with BLK Garlic Butter
Garlic Butter Shrimp
Grilled Garlic Butter Picanha
Parmesan Garlic Butter Mussels
Reverse Seared Ribeyes with Black Garlic Butter
Chipotle Garlic Butter Shrimp
Grilled Steak & Shrimp with Garlic Herb Butter
View Recipe
Grilled Lobster With Garlic Butter
View RecipeThe Best Smoked Butter Recipes
I’ve been on a kick of infusing butters, chimichurri and salsa verde with extra smoke flavor from a white-hot coal off the grill. It’s a simple technique, but make sure you follow the directions to get the best results. That hot honey butter is one of my favorite ways to dress up a steak right now!
Smoked Butter
Smoked Steak Butter
Hot Honey Butter
The Best Cowboy Butter Recipes
Cowboy butter is really just a catch-all term for a spicy herb and garlic butter. It’s a pretty versatile butter because it’s a delicious topping that can be served melted or as classic cold butter.
Cowboy Butter Burgers
Cowboy Butter Steak Tacos
Cowboy Butter Sliders
Coffee Crusted Venison Rack with Cowboy Butter
Chili Butters & Other Spicy Butters
For those of you that like something with a kick. Remember, you can also turn the heat up or down, and adding chilis, hot sauces and cajun seasoning can be just the thing a butter needs!
Chili Butter Steak and Shrimp
Coffee Crusted Ribeyes with Honey Chili Butter
Smoked Lobster Tails with Spicy Garlic Butter
View Recipe
Grilled Lobster Tails with Honey Cajun Butter
Dirty Lobster Tails with Hatch Chile Butter Sauce
Grilled Lobster with Hot Honey Butter
Sriracha Butter Lobster Tails
Surf and Turf Burger with Sriracha Chive Compound Butter
Steakhouse Ribeyes with Horseradish Butter
Steak Frites with Garlic Chili Butter
Other Buttery Ideas
Cilantro Lime Butter Scallops
Smoked Tequila Butter Shrimp
What to Serve with the Best Butter Recipes
As I like to say, the better question is what NOT to serve with these butter recipes. They take steaks, seafood, burgers and other meats to the next level. I also think it’s a great dipping sauce for cornbread, dinner rolls, or a slice of fresh bread.
Another favorite sauce of mine is chimichurri. If you want another sauce to add to your meals that’s fresh and herby, then make sure to check out my Best Chimichurri Recipes!
Leftovers and Reheating
Once you’ve crafted your delicious butter mixture, proper storage is key to maintaining its rich flavor and quality. After you’ve prepared it, let the butter cool to room temperature (no longer than a couple of hours) before placing it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. You can also freeze the butter in ice cube trays for up to 6 months.
FAQs
For best results in these butter recipes, go for unsalted butter, since you can season to your favorite flavor more so than with salted butter. There’s a lot of good quality butter in grocery stores! Sample a few store-bought butter brands and see what you like best. I’d love to hear what you find out in your butter taste-testing journey.
Brown butter works great in lots of other settings, but I try not to do it here. That’s because I don’t want the bold flavor to overpower the other ingredients in our beautiful butter.
Definitely! Just keep an eye on the recipe, because you don’t want to create conflicting flavors. For Tex-Mex style dishes, I like to stick with cilantro and parsley. Those two herbs are super versatile, since cilantro is great with Thai and Indian flavors too. Parsley really goes with pretty much anything. For Italian-inspired dishes, rosemary, fresh thyme and oregano are great options too. There are so many different ways to make the perfect spread, I could go on and on!
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