Save This Recipe
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
You’re going to love this garlicky, herb-packed cowboy butter for steaks, shrimp, vegetables, and warm bread. It is a loaded-up compound butter made with softened butter, fresh garlic, parsley, chives, thyme, lemon juice, Dijon, smoked paprika, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Rich, tangy, smoky, and herby, it makes plain food taste less plain. Chill it into a sliceable log or melt it into a dipping sauce.
Why You’ll Love It
- Big flavor, little fuss — stir everything together in one bowl, roll it up, and chill.
- Made for more than steak — delicious on chicken, shrimp, salmon, roasted vegetables, potatoes, pasta, and warm bread.
- Balanced and bold — lemon and Dijon cut through the richness, while smoked paprika adds deep, savory flavor.
- Useful all week — keeps in the refrigerator for up to 1 week for easy flavor boosts.
Ingredient Notes
Start with unsalted butter. There is salt in the recipe already, plus Worcestershire sauce, and it is much easier to add salt than end up with an overly salty dinner. Let the butter soften on the counter until a spatula can press through it easily. Don’t melt it. Melted butter turns the herbs into a greasy puddle and the whole thing becomes more sauce than butter. Still tastes fine, but it will not roll into a tidy log.
Fresh garlic matters here. The jarred kind will work in a true emergency, but fresh cloves give you that bright little bite cowboy butter needs. Same goes for the herbs. Fresh parsley, chives, and thyme are best, though dried herbs can stand in if that’s what you have; use half the amount if you go that route.
Use freshly squeezed lemon juice if you can. The bottled stuff is not a crime, but fresh lemon has a cleaner taste. Dijon mustard should be smooth Dijon—not whole grain. And smoked paprika is worth buying if you don’t own it. Regular paprika is okay, but smoked paprika has that little something extra. Like a good denim jacket. Not necessary, perhaps, but it improves the situation.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
- 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
- 4 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh chives, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, preferably freshly squeezed
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Put the softened butter in a medium mixing bowl. Add the garlic, parsley, chives, thyme, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, smoked paprika, Worcestershire sauce, kosher salt, and black pepper. It will look like an awful lot of green stuff at first. Don’t panic. That’s the point.
Use a spatula or sturdy spoon to mash and stir everything together until the herbs and seasonings are evenly mixed through the butter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times. A spatula gets into the corners better.
Lay a sheet of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Scoop the cowboy butter right into the center. You can make one long log or a shorter, fatter one.
Bring the plastic wrap up around the butter and roll it into a log, pressing and shaping as you go. Twist both ends of the plastic wrap to seal it. If the butter has gotten too soft and wants to slump around like it has had a long day, pop the bowl into the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes, then try again.
Refrigerate the wrapped butter for at least 1 hour, until it is firm enough to slice. This is the hardest part, because once you smell the garlic and herbs, you will want to melt some immediately onto a piece of bread. Frankly, I understand.
When you are ready to serve it, unwrap the log and slice off rounds as needed. Put a slice on hot steak, chicken, shrimp, salmon, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, or warm bread and let it melt. Or melt a portion gently in a small pan and use it as a dipping sauce. Do not microwave the entire log unless you are planning to use it all at once.
Variations
If heat is desired, add crushed red pepper flakes, a pinch of cayenne, or a few dashes of hot sauce.
You can play around with herbs, too. A little rosemary can be nice with lamb or pork, though go easy because rosemary can take over a room quickly. Italian seasoning or ranch seasoning can work in place of some of the herbs if you’re in a hurry, but I’d keep the lemon juice. It balances all that butter and prevents the flavor from getting too heavy.
One version with extra lemon juice was not great. Too loose, too tangy, and it never really set up properly. It can still be used over shrimp, but the original amounts are right where they need to be.
Storage & Reheating
Keep cowboy butter tightly wrapped in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Put the plastic-wrapped log inside a zip-top bag too, partly to keep it fresh and partly to protect it from refrigerator odors.
For longer storage, wrap the log in aluminum foil or place it in an airtight container and freeze it for up to 3 months. You can slice it into rounds before freezing if you want easy individual portions.
Thaw frozen cowboy butter in the refrigerator before using. If you only need a little, you can slice off a piece while it is still fairly firm and let that one portion soften or melt over hot food.
Final Notes
There is something comforting about having a small homemade thing ready in the fridge. Not in a picture-perfect, label-everything-with-a-chalk-marker way, but in a practical way. A little slice of this on a steak can turn dinner into dinner-dinner, you know?
Butter melting on corn or steak with warm bread on the side is enough. It still is, most days.
Cowboy Butter
Ingredients Â
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened (2 sticks)
- 3 cloves fresh garlic minced
- 4 tablespoons fresh parsley finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh chives finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice preferably freshly squeezed
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
InstructionsÂ
- Put the softened butter in a medium mixing bowl and add the garlic, parsley, chives, thyme, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, smoked paprika, Worcestershire sauce, kosher salt, and black pepper.
- Use a spatula or sturdy spoon to mash and stir everything together until the herbs and seasonings are evenly mixed through the butter, scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple of times.
- Lay a sheet of plastic wrap on a flat surface and scoop the cowboy butter into the center, making one long log or a shorter, fatter one.
- Bring the plastic wrap up around the butter and roll it into a log, pressing and shaping as you go, then twist both ends of the plastic wrap to seal it.
- If the butter has gotten too soft and wants to slump, refrigerate the bowl for 10 to 15 minutes, then shape it again.
- Refrigerate the wrapped butter for at least 1 hour, until it is firm enough to slice.
- Unwrap the log and slice off rounds as needed, then place a slice on hot steak, chicken, shrimp, salmon, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, or warm bread and let it melt.
- If desired, melt a portion gently in a small pan and use it as a dipping sauce, but do not microwave the entire log unless you plan to use it all at once.