The Best Butter Recipes
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 RecipesButter Recipe BasicsThis sauce is FYR!How to Make Clarified ButterThe Best Herb Butter RecipesThe Best Smoked Butter RecipesThe Best Cowboy Butter RecipesChili Butters & Other Spicy ButtersOther Buttery IdeasWhat to Serve with the Best Butter RecipesLeftovers and ReheatingFAQsFlavor X Fire & FOOD X Fire 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. 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. Get stoked for life This sauce is FYR! an all-new line created for live fire cooking Born from a deep passion for food and flavor. Whether you’re grilling in the backyard or live fire cooking around the world, we have what you need to transform every meal into an adventure. 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. ​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 Venison Rack with Wild Herb Butter for something unique. Low and slow is the perfect game for a smoker, so that’s exactly what we did! View Recipe Herb Butter American Lamb Steaks Grab some leg of lamb steaks and grill them over the fire with some herb butter sauce in this recipe! View Recipe Stuffed Lobster Tail with Garlic Butter Lobster tails stuffed with crab and all doused in a savory garlic butter. Yes, please! View Recipe Grilled Steak and Shrimp with BLK Garlic Butter Grilled Steak and Shrimp with BLK Garlic Butter for a spicy surf and turf dinner! View Recipe Garlic Butter Shrimp Garlic butter shrimp is a tangy twist on Hawaiian-style garlic butter shrimp, with great garlic-citrus flavor and a crispy crunch. Herb Butter NY Strip Prime cut NY Strips basted in herb butter sauce for the win! View Recipe Grilled Garlic Butter Picanha This Grilled Garlic Butter Picanha is perfect for a backyard dinner! It's made with golden-brown picanha steaks and spicy garlic butter. View Recipe Parmesan Garlic Butter Mussels Make something unique yet quick over the fire with these Garlic Parmesan Mussels. They are simple seafood steamed over the fire in cast iron perfect for an appetizer or dinner! View Recipe Reverse Seared Ribeye The Reverse Seared Ribeye steak recipe with black garlic butter is one of my all-time favorites for the depth of flavor in every freakin' delicious bite. View Recipe Chipotle Garlic Butter Shrimp Nothing better to warm you up than this Chipotle Garlic Butter Shrimp on a snowy day! A quick cook for a delicious meal! View Recipe Grilled Steak & Shrimp with Garlic Herb Butter View Recipe The 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 As crazy as it sounds, we're dropping hot charcoal into a savory and spicy butter sauce that levels up ANY dish! View Recipe Smoked Steak Butter Smoked Steak Butter will not only elevate your grilled steak, but will make almost anything taste incredible! View Recipe Hot Honey Butter Hot honey butter combines sweet, spicy and smoky flavors, and it's so freakin' delicious on steak, seafood and more. View Recipe 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 Burgers bring the best of beef and butter together for one epic bite! View Recipe Cowboy Butter Steak Tacos Cowboy butter steak tacos are another way to use this spicy garlic herb butter, which is freakin' delicious on everything. View Recipe Cowboy Butter Sliders Cowboy Butter Sliders are the ultimate comfort food. Tender sliced filets are slathered in the zesty spicy butter and paired with caramelized onions and gooey mozzarella cheese. View Recipe Grilled Ribeye with Cowboy Butter Grilled Ribeye with Cowboy Butter View Recipe Coffee Crusted Venison Rack with Cowboy Butter Coffee Crusted Venison Rack for a perfectly cooked venison dinner. View Recipe 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 Chili Butter Steak and Shrimp for a spicy, savory surf and turf experience. View Recipe Coffee Crusted Ribeyes with Honey Chili Butter These Coffee Crusted Ribeyes are coated in a smoky coffee spice rub and topped with a sweet and spicy homemade honey chili butter. View Recipe Smoked Lobster Tails with Garlic Butter Smoked Lobster Tails with Garlic Butter is a versatile seafood recipe—perfect for your next special occasion or casual Friday night dinner! View Recipe Grilled Lobster Tails with Honey Cajun Butter Our grilled lobster tails get a Southern twist with some honey Cajun butter. It's a perfect backyard cook if you're craving sweet and spicy! View Recipe Dirty Lobster Tails with Hatch Chile Butter Sauce Delicious dirty lobster tails cooked right on top of some hot Cowboy Charcoal. Then, these Lobster Tails are then finished with a Hatch Chile Butter Sauce for extra flavor. View Recipe Grilled Lobster with Hot Honey Butter Grilled Lobster with Hot Honey Butter for a sweet, spicy lobster treat. View Recipe Sriracha Butter Grilled Lobster Tails With heat from sriracha and tang from garlic, we've got a dynamic duo of flavor for sriracha butter grilled lobster tails. View Recipe Surf and Turf Burger with Sriracha Chive Compound Butter Surf and Turf Butter Burger Recipe for a fist full of deliciousness! View Recipe Steakhouse Ribeyes with Horseradish Butter We can all use a really good steak every once in a while. This Steakhouse Ribeye is loaded with garlic salt and paired with king oyster mushrooms, charred asparagus, horseradish butter and BUSH’S® Steakhouse Recipe Grillin’ Beans. View Recipe Steak Frites with Garlic Chili Butter Steak Frites with Garlic Chili Butter for your elevated steak and fries dish. View Recipe Bourbon Butter for Grilled Steaks We hosted an epic summer steak and fries party — and the bourbon butter I made to baste the grilled steaks 1,000 percent stole the show. View Recipe Other Buttery Ideas Cilantro Lime Butter Scallops These Cilantro Lime Butter Scallops are perfectly seared then topped off with a zesty citrus butter over top. A great seafood dinner! View Recipe Smoked Tequila Butter Shrimp Another seafood recipe swimming in butter? Heck yes! Today we have a Smoked Tequila Butter Shrimp Recipe cooked over fire. View Recipe 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 ​What kind of butter should I use? 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. Should I brown my butter? 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. Can I swap the herbs or other ingredients? 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! Get The Cookbooks! Flavor X Fire & FOOD X Fire By Derek Wolf All the major tastes—salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and umami—are explored in depth, along with an investigation of other components you should consider when it comes to flavor, such as aroma, heat, and texture. Categorized as:Beef Recipes, Dinner Recipes, Fish & Seafood Recipes, Grill Recipes, Homemade Sauce Recipes, Lamb Recipes, Lunch Recipes, Recipes, Recipes By Course, Recipes By Ingredient, Recipes by Method Derek Wolf Derek is the driving force behind Over the Fire Cooking. He started cooking with live fire in 2016 and decided to start a social media page so his friends and family could follow the journey. Fast forward to today and Over the Fire Cooking has spread across multiple platforms with millions now following Derek's fire cooking journey. He's a southern fellow who enjoys everything from classic BBQ to Central and South American inspired dishes. Whatever he's cooking up, it's guaranteed to be so freakin' delicious!