Homemade Garlic Butter Sauce

5 from 10 votes

Homemade Garlic Butter Sauce

This 8-minute homemade garlic butter sauce combines freshly minced garlic, melted butter, lemon juice, and chopped parsley. It's the perfect dipping sauce for steamed shrimp and lobster tails, or pour it on top of some baked salmon or grilled steaks.

Servings:

Ingredients

4 garlic cloves
4 tablespoon butter unsalted
½ whole lemon
2 tablespoon parsley freshly chopped, Italian parsley or curly parsley
salt to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Peel and finely mince the garlic. Wash and chop the parsley leaves. Cut the lemon in half.
Add the butter to a small saucepan. Once it's melted, add the minced garlic and stir. Fry the garlic in butter for about 1 minute or until the garlic starts to change colors.
Using a lemon squeezer, squeeze the lemon half into the garlic butter. Immediately add the chopped parsley. Mix the garlic butter, chopped parsley, and lemon juice for about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat.

Video

Notes

Substitute salted butter for unsalted butter. Omit the pinch of salt until you taste the sauce.
Use lime instead of lemon.
Substitute olive oil for butter or a combination of both.
Curly parsley and Italian parsley can be used interchangeably.
Substitute other fresh herbs for the parsley, like cilantro, thyme, oregano, sage, or rosemary.
Add more butter if you want the sauce to be less chunky and more buttery.
Storage: This sauce is best served right away but can also be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Variations:
1. Add red pepper flakes to this homemade garlic butter sauce to add some spice. Fry the red pepper flakes at the same time as when you fry the butter.
2. Use a garlic press or mortar and pestle to crush the garlic rather than mince the garlic. Crushing the garlic into a paste allows the garlic to disperse more evenly in the butter.
3. Substitute olive oil for butter. This means this would be garlic olive oil rather than garlic butter sauce, but both taste great.
4. Experiment with fresh herbs like cilantro, thyme, oregano, and sage. I recommend trying the herbs independently first.
5. Use lime instead of lemon. I prefer lime for baked fish, like this roasted steelhead trout with garlic lime butter.

Nutrition