Cowboy Butter Dipping Sauce

This Cowboy Butter Sauce Recipe is like a zesty garlic herb butter, but even better! It's loaded up with fresh herbs, spices, shallots, lemon juice, and zest, and it goes perfectly on nearly any protein you can think of, like a juicy ribeye or shrimp!

Want to jazz up some steaks or chicken? This cowboy butter recipe is truly irresistible, and it's made with super simple ingredients. It's really easy to put together and is one of our favorite ways to enhance meals.

Keep this recipe in mind for your next steak dinner! It pairs perfectly with this bold and beefy bavette steak, this air fryer ribeye or this cast iron ribeye, these air fryer short ribs, or these air fryer steak tips.

It also goes perfectly alongside these baked crab legs, this butter poached lobster tails, or with this Chilean sea bass!

Jump to:

❤️Why you'll love this
🧈Ingredients
✨Substitutions & variations
🔪Prep work
📖Instructions
✨Tips & tricks
💭Frequently Asked Questions
🧈More Butter Recipes to Try
📖 Recipe
💬 Community

❤️Why you'll love this

Simple ingredients. Just pull out a few spices from the cabinet, and grab a few other kitchen staples from the fridge or your local grocery store. This recipe is super simple.
Quick & easy. This recipe takes less than 20 minutes to make, and it's a very impactful buttery dipping sauce!
No special equipment is needed. All you need is a small bowl, a sharp knife, and a whisk. Nothing special needed to
Packed with flavor. Tangy, zingy, herbaceous, lemony, with a kick of heat, and lots of buttery goodness. What could go wrong?!
Suitable for multiple diet types. This recipe is naturally gluten-free, and low in carbs. You can also make it vegan with a few simple swaps.

🧈Ingredients

Here are the ingredients we used for this recipe. You can find more information for substitutions below.

Salted butter. Adds the best flavor to this recipe. You can use room temperature or softened butter, or you can melt it for a smoother consistency in the sauce. You may also enjoy making your own homemade butter with our helpful guide!
Cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes & smoked paprika. For a little bit of heat and smokiness.
Worcestershire sauce. Optional but highly recommended for depth of flavor.
Fresh herbs. We chose fresh parsley, cilantro, green onions & thyme. You can use some dried ingredients instead, and feel free to swap in your favorite herbs in place of the ones we used.

Visit the recipe card for the full quantities and nutritional information.

✨Substitutions & variations

Here are a few suggestions on additional flavors to try, or simple variations to this recipe.

Chives. Use chives in place of green onions if you like.
Dried seasonings. Although we love using fresh herbs. Feel free to use dried if you prefer.
Add more seasonings. You can add a dash of your favorite hot sauce, or swap in your favorite spices like chili powder or chipotle.
Add different herbs. Feel free to add in herbs like dill, basil, rosemary, and more.
Dairy free. You can use dairy free butter in place of regular butter for a dairy free option.
Vegan. Use dairy-free butter, and use a vegan Worcestershire sauce.
Thicker sauce. Don't melt the butter, but instead, let it soften at room temperature for about an hour so that it becomes pliable. Add the ingredients and mix together with a spoon or rubber spatula.
Compound butter. Follow all of the steps to make a thicker sauce above, then, roll the mixture in plastic wrap to create a tube-like shape, and refrigerate for a few hours until hardened. Add slices on top of proteins when serving.

🔪Prep work

Clean herbs, and mince those as well.
Mince garlic, and shallots.
Measure out all remaining ingredients.

📖Instructions

Melt butter and add to a mixing bowl. (Image 1)

Add the chopped parsley, thyme, green onions, and cilantro. (Image 2)

melted butter in a ceramic white mixing bowl surrounded by seasonings.

melted butter with parsley, cilantro, chives, and thyme in a bowl.

Add in the lemon zest, juice, and Worcestershire sauce (Image 3) followed by the salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, cayenne, dijon, garlic, and shallots. (Image 4)

melted butter with chopped herbs, salt, pepper, lemon juice and zest in a mixing bowl.

smoked paprika, cayenne, and red pepper flakes added to melted butter with herbs, garlic and shallots.

Whisk together, adjust seasonings, and enjoy! This sauce gets better over time, as the flavors meld together.

whisking together melted butter with herbs, lemon, spices, shallots, and garlic.

Place butter on top of meat, like the perfect steak. You can also serve with these air fryer fingerling potatoes or any vegetables.

spoonful of cowboy butter dipping sauce being drizzled onto medium rare sliced steak.

✨Tips & tricks

Use salted butter. This is one of the times that we advocate for using salted butter in a recipe. It will help every bite be a little seasoned without having to add much more.
Season to taste. Taste the butter as you go, and add more seasonings according to your preferences.
Finely mince the garlic, shallots, and herbs. This will ensure there's a little bit of everything in each bite.

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💭Frequently Asked Questions

How to store the leftovers?

Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 1 week. This butter can also be frozen for up to 6 months.

🧈More Butter Recipes to Try

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