This homemade cowboy butter transforms a stick of butter with fresh herbs, zesty lemon, garlic, and a hint of chili heat. The result is a flavor-packed compound butter that’s delicious with just about anything.
Serve cowboy butter as a topping for grilled steaks, pork chops, and veggies, or as a dipping sauce for steak bites, salmon bites, and more!
Between Yellowstone, 1883, and country music topping the charts, cowboys are having their year! So, what better time to share one of my favorite compound butter recipes: Cowboy butter. 🤠 Creamy butter packed with zesty herbs, garlic, lemon, and chilies, it doesn’t get better! This cowboy butter recipe makes an irresistible dipping sauce, and it’s also great rolled up in a log to slice and serve over steak.
Why You’ll Love Cowboy Butter
- Serve it with ANYTHING. The herbs and spices in cowboy butter pair especially well with steak (like a London broil, yum!), but don’t let that stop you from adding it to pork steak, veggies, and seafood, like grilled fish and scallops.
- Versatile. Enjoy this butter sliced to add to your favorite dishes, spread on dinner rolls, or melted as a cowboy butter sauce for dipping. I’m finding every excuse to use it lately, and after you’ve tried it, I’m sure you will, too.
- Customizable. This cowboy butter recipe is adaptable, whether you prefer it bold and spicy, zesty, or mild. Have fun playing around with the herbs and spices to get it exactly how you like it.
Recipe Ingredients
Cowboy butter is a compound butter, which is just a fancy name for butter combined with herbs and seasonings. I use a similar herb compound butter in my tomahawk steak recipe.
Here’s a short overview of the ingredients in my cowboy butter recipe. You’ll find the printable recipe card along with a photo step-by-step at the bottom of the post.
- Butter – No surprise here! I recommend unsalted butter, so you can season it to taste. The butter should be softened to room temperature before you start.
- Herbs – Fresh parsley and chives. You can use dried herbs, but in this case you’ll need approximately 3x the amount of dried herbs to fresh.
- Lemon – I highly recommend fresh lemon zest and juice. If you don’t have fresh lemon, you could use bottled lemon juice and simply skip the zest. The flavor just won’t be as vibrant.
- Garlic – Freshly minced, or substitute ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder per clove.
- Red Pepper Flakes – Plus paprika, for a spicy kick. If you’re sensitive to chili, you can skip the red pepper flakes and use mild paprika instead.
- Salt and Pepper – I use freshly cracked pepper and table salt to enhance the flavors.
How to Soften Butter Quickly
Did you forget to take your butter out ahead of time? No worries! These are some of the tried and true ways I’ve softened butter quickly in a pinch:
- Use a warm bowl. My method of choice! Fill a heat-proof glass or ceramic bowl with hot water, then leave it for 5 minutes. Afterward, dump out the water and cover the butter with the empty, warm bowl. It’ll soften up quickly in the residual heat.
- Cut it into cubes. Take your butter out and cut it into 1” cubes, then cover it with plastic wrap and leave it on the counter for 10-15 minutes. You could also grate the butter, as it softens faster in smaller pieces.
- Use the microwave. Place the fridge-cold butter in a microwave-safe dish and zap it in the microwave for 5-10 seconds at a time, until it’s just soft to the touch. Make sure not to melt it!
Katerina’s Tips and Variations
- Make it in advance. I like to prepare the cowboy compound butter a day before I plan to use it, or at the very least a few hours in advance. The flavors get better with time. Otherwise, it’s fine to melt and serve right away as a dipping sauce.
- Scale it up. As written, this recipe calls for one stick of butter, but you can absolutely scale it up. See the section further down for tips on how to store your compound butter.
- Different flavors. Try out different herbs and mix-ins like thyme, coarse mustard, and cayenne for more kick. You could also test out bolder flavors like horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce.
Ways to Use Cowboy Butter
Cowboy butter is delicious as a spread on dinner rolls, or I’ll use it as a Southwestern-style basting for pan-seared tomahawk steaks, pork chops, seafood, and more. It’s even delicious on veggies, like sautéed broccolini or oven-roasted vegetables.
Sometimes, I’ll pop it into the microwave for a few seconds to melt it for an easy, flavor-packed dipping sauce to pair with garlic breadsticks, grissini, or crispy potato wedges. It’s also great to add to foil packets on the grill, like this grilled shrimp boil or steak and potatoes in foil. The sky’s the limit!
Proper Storage
- Refrigerate. Tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or parchment paper, this cowboy butter lasts about 1 week in the fridge.
- Freeze. Alternatively, you can freeze this compound butter for up to 2 months. I recommend placing the wrapped butter into freezer bags beforehand. Thaw the butter in the fridge before you use it.
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Soften the butter. Before you start, make sure your butter is at room temperature. Leave it on the counter until softened.
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Prepare the lemon and herbs. Finely chop the parsley and chives. Finely grate the lemon zest. Peel and mince the garlic.
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Combine the ingredients. Add butter, parsley, chives, lemon zest, lemon juice, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, and paprika powder to a bowl, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir using a spatula until well combined. You can also fluff the butter with a handheld mixer.
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Wrap the butter. Transfer the butter onto a piece of parchment paper. Roll the parchment paper up and twist the ends like a piece of candy. If you do not have parchment paper, you can use plastic wrap.
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Chill. Refrigerate the cowboy butter for 4 hours or until firm. Slice and serve as desired.
- Change up the flavors. You can try different flavor profiles and make this compound butter with thyme, coarse mustard, and cayenne.
- Serving it. You can serve cowboy butter as it is or melt it and use it as a dipping sauce.
- Butter options. I suggest using unsalted butter, as it is better to season it to your liking.
Serving: 1tablespoon | Calories: 104kcal | Carbohydrates: 0.4g | Protein: 0.2g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 4mg | Potassium: 15mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 0.1g | Vitamin A: 512IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 0.1mg
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Cowboy Butter
Take the butter out of the fridge about 20-30 minutes before you start. Then, follow these easy steps:
- Prep the ingredients. First, you’ll chop the chives and parsley, grate the lemon and then juice it, and mince the garlic.
- Combine. Add all of those ingredients to a bowl with your softened butter, red pepper flakes, and paprika. Season the butter to taste with salt and pepper, and give everything a good mix. You can do this by hand using a spatula, or with an electric mixer.
- Wrap the butter. Transfer the finished cowboy butter to the center of a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Roll it up and twist the ends, like a piece of candy.
- Chill. Place your wrapped butter into the fridge to chill for 4 hours, or until it’s firm. This step also lets the flavors mingle, so don’t skip it! When you’re ready, slice the cowboy butter and use it however you’d like.
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