You’ve got to try this versatile cowboy butter. It’s good as a spread or sauce on everything from steak and potatoes, veggies, or bread!
This Cowboy Butter recipe can be melted to use as a dipping sauce, kept cold and sliced, or served at room temperature for spreading on bread. It’s bursting with flavor from spices and fresh herbs. Good thing there’s so many ways to use this because I want it on everything!
Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
Video: How To Make Cowboy Butter
What is Cowboy Butter?
Cowboy Butter may have been invented by a Southern-style restaurant in New York City, but it’s not entirely clear. It’s a spicy, citrusy, herby butter mixture, basically a fancy compound butter, that is amazing on steak, chicken, beans, and cornbread. You know, foods cowboys might have eaten. There’s a suspicion that’s how the name came about.
When you taste it, you can totally imagine sitting by a campfire after a long day our riding, and smothering every mouthful in this crazy-flavorful butter. It has a strong flavor but is actually really well-balanced. The lemon balances the heat, and the herbs and garlic offer more complexity.
Ingredients And Substitutions
For me, cowboy butter is about the hearty, chunky, rustic ingredients. Whenever possible, I’ve chosen things with color or texture in addition to amazing taste. I am including substitution options for you though to make it easier.
Butter
To make a compound butter, you need to start with butter, of course! I like to use unsalted, but if you only have salted butter, make sure to reduce the salt in the recipe.
Flavors
Fresh garlic and red onion are next, both minced finely. You could a different kind of onion, or shallots, but I like the color of the red in this. Garlic powder and onion powder could also be substituted, but in my opinion the fresh ingredients add better flavor and texture.
Any kind of Dijon or coarse grain mustard can be used instead of the coarse Dijon mustard called for in the recipe. Again, I think coarse mustard is better than smooth mustard here because you want that texture and bits of mustard seed. We’re also going to use some horseradish for a kick.
Herbs
For the herbs, we need fresh parsley, chives, and thyme. Dried parsley flakes are not ideal, but can be used instead of fresh, as can dried chives for the fresh chives. Use 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves instead of the fresh thyme.
If using dried herbs instead of fresh, make sure butter mixture sits for at least 1 hour before using so that herbs can hydrate.
Citrus
We also want some citrus with lemon juice and zest. Lime zest and juice can be used instead of lemon. Or, instead of lemon zest, omit the pepper in the recipe and use 1 teaspoon lemon pepper instead. (You’ll still want some lemon juice though.)
Spices
Next comes the spice with paprika, red pepper flakes, and cayenne pepper. Hot sauce can be substituted in for the crushed red pepper flakes and/or cayenne, to taste. I like the plain paprika in this but I have seen recipes that call for smoked paprika or hot paprika. I think there’s already enough heat from the cayenne and the red pepper flakes. And as for smokiness, there are already enough powerful flavors going on. I found making it with smoked paprika pushed it too far over into flavor overload but you may feel differently!
Cold Cowboy Butter Or Melted Sauce?
All those chunky ingredients make cowboy butter delicious and pretty, but also harder to slice neatly than other kinds of compound butters.
If you want to chill it and then slice it to melt over steaks as they rest after cooking, more than likely, you’ll get crumbles more than slices. But let me tell you, crumbles of this butter taste just as good as pretty slices, and maybe chunky crumbles are more cowboy anyhow!
Of course, you can also use this as a cowboy butter sauce for dipping or drizzling over your foods. This butter is amazing in any form.
Tips For Cowboy Butter
Because the cowboy butter mixture contains strong flavors, it’s best to mix it up and then let it rest all together for a bit. When you first mix it up and taste it, you’ll notice that each taste is different depending on whether you got a red pepper flake or a bit of garlic. But once it sits for a bit, the flavors all start to combine and get more even throughout.
I wrap mine in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least an hour. The longer you can leave it, the better. The flavors really meld and blend.
If you decide to melt the cowboy butter, you can’t really get it to set back up afterwards. The texture of melted butter never goes back to the texture of solid butter. So if you’re going to melt it, know that you’ll be eating all of it melted. If you want to have some leftovers for slicing or crumbling, set that aside before you melt any.
How To Use Cowboy Butter
Without prior melting you can put some onto steaks or chicken as they rest and it will melt from the heat. You can also toss it with cooked shrimp. It’s great mixed up with egg noodles or hot rice, smeared onto hot baked potatoes, or on grilled corn on the cob and other vegetables too.
If the cowboy butter is at room temperature, you can spread it on cornbread, or really any kind of bread or toast. It’s amazing topped with cheese for a totally new twist on garlic cheese bread.
When melted, it’s a wonderful dip for steak tips and also for cold crunchy veggies on a veggie tray. And it’s amazing to use instead of clarified butter for dipping shrimp, crab, and lobster.
Storing Cowboy Butter
Once you mix up your cowboy butter, it can stay in a sealed container or wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for up to a week. Or, you can wrap it in plastic and put that into a freezer bag or airtight container and freeze it for up to 2 months.
More Compound Butter Recipes
- Steak Butter Recipe
- Compound Butter for Turkey
- Best Garlic Butter Recipe
- Truffle Butter
- Spiced Pumpkin Butter Spread
Podcast Episode: Making Cowboy Butter
Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this butter, along with some other great tips, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
PrintCowboy Butter Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Sauce
- Method: Mix
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
Cowboy Butter can be melted to use as a dip, kept cold and sliced to melt onto a cooked steak, or served at room temperature for spreading on cornbread. Substitutions for ingredients are given in the below note.*
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp. minced red onion
- 1 Tbsp. coarse Dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
- 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
- 2 tsp. lemon zest
- 2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tsp. horseradish
- 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp. paprika
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. coarse black pepper
- 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Measure all ingredients into a medium bowl. Use a fork to mash it all together.
- Scrape sides of bowl with a spatula to get everything in. Mix again.
- For best result, seal in an airtight container and refrigerate for at last an hour so that the flavors can blend and meld before using.
Notes
Instead of minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or granulated garlic can be used. Any kind of fresh onion can be substituted for the red onion, or use 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder.
Any kind of Dijon or coarse grain mustard can be used instead of the coarse Dijon called for.
If using dried herbs instead of fresh, make sure mixture sits for at least 1 hour before using so that herbs can hydrate. Dried parsley flakes are not ideal, but can be used instead of fresh, as can dried chives for the fresh chives. Use 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves instead of the fresh thyme.
Lime zest and lime juice can be used instead of lemon.
Hot sauce can be substituted in for the crushed red pepper flakes and/or cayenne, to taste.
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