If you love a great steak, you need this cowboy butter in your life. This compound butter comes together in 5 minutes with simple pantry spices and makes every bite of steak (or shrimp, or vegetables!) taste incredible.
Last week I shared my go-to keto steak marinade, and it’s already getting lots of love from you guys.
But here’s the thing – that marinade plus this cowboy butter is a full restaurant-worthy steak dinner happening right in your own kitchen, any night of the week. You’re welcome.
Cowboy butter is a compound butter, which is just a fancy way of saying “butter with really good stuff mixed into it.”
Garlic, dijon, smoked paprika, a little heat from red pepper flakes. It all gets mashed together into one glorious, creamy situation that melts over hot steak like a dream.
We like to roll ours into a log, refrigerate it until firm, and then slice off little pats to lay right on top of a freshly grilled steak. The butter melts down into all the crevices and the result is almost embarrassingly delicious. But it also works melted and warm as a dipping sauce, which means it’s equally at home next to a pile of shrimp or drizzled over roasted vegetables.
3 Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe:
- It takes 5 minutes. Soften your butter, grate in some garlic, stir in the spices, done. Simple and quick.
- It makes everything taste better. Steak, shrimp, roasted broccoli, cauliflower rice – this butter is the finishing touch that will make your family say “wait, can I have more of that?”
- It stores for a full week. Make a batch on Sunday and use it all week long. Love being able to prep ahead a bit.
Ingredients, Swaps, & Tips:
Butter: I use salted butter here, but unsalted will work fine. Please don’t use margarine – it’s just not the same.
Garlic: Grating the garlic on a microplane grater instead of mincing it means it basically disappears into the butter and you get garlic flavor in every single bite without any harsh chunks. If you don’t have a microplane, mince the garlic first, then sprinkle with a bit of coarse salt and use the broadside of your knife to press it into a paste.
Spice: The ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes gives just a little kick without really making this too spicy. If you’re feeding kids or heat-sensitive folks, you can cut it in half or skip it entirely. Want more of a kick? Pile it in.
Herbs: I’m keeping it simple with dried herbs, but swap in fresh if that’s what you have! Use about a tablespoon of fresh herbs instead of a teaspoon of dried.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How To Shape Compound Butter:
Mix the ingredients together until smooth and combined.
Spoon the mixture into the center of a piece of plastic wrap.
Begin rolling the butter into a log using the wrap, rolling the ends as you go.
Once you have a nice, tight log, pop it in the fridget to slice and serve later.
Serving Suggestions:
This butter was basically made for steak, but once you have a batch in the fridge you’ll find yourself reaching for it constantly. Here are a few of our favorite ways to use it…
- As a steak sauce. The classic move. Melt the butter and dip your steak right in.
- Over steak. Slice a pat and lay it over a hot steak right out of the pan or off the grill.
- As a dipping sauce for shrimp. Melt it down and serve warm alongside grilled or sautéed shrimp. Absolute perfection.
- Tossed with roasted vegetables. Broccoli, asparagus, green beans (toss your hot veggies with a spoonful right out of the oven).
- Drizzled over cauliflower rice. A little pat of this melted into cauliflower rice takes it from “fine” to something you’re actually excited to eat.
- On grilled chicken. Steak gets all the glory, but cowboy butter on grilled chicken is seriously underrated.
Helpful Tip!
Storage & Freezing:
Butter log method: Roll into a log in plastic wrap, twist the ends to seal, and refrigerate until firm (about 2 hours). Slice off pats as needed (this is the move for steak nights). Keeps for up to 1 week.
Dipping sauce method: Store covered in the fridge for up to 1 week. Microwave 15-30 seconds until melted and serve warm alongside shrimp, vegetables, or anything else you want to make more delicious.
Freezer: Compound butter freezes great! Wrap the log tightly and freeze for up to 3 months. Slice off what you need straight from frozen.
More Sauces, Seasonings, & Dips:
Cowboy Butter
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Ingredients
- ½ cup butter room temperature
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon dried chives
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes more if desired
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon cracked pepper
Instructions
- Add the butter to a small bowl and use a microplate grater to grate the garlic over the butter.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the butter and use a fork to stir well to combine.
- To use as a softened butter, serve immediately. To slice and serve, scoop the butter onto a piece of plastic wrap and roll up to form a log, shaping the butter in the wrap and sealing the ends as you go. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. Slice and use as desired. To use this as a dip, microwave the butter for 15-30 seconds, until melted, and eat warm as a dip or for drizzling over roasted veggies.
- Store in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and calculated automatically – it’s an estimate, not a guarantee. Values can vary depending on the brands and ingredients you use, so if you’re tracking closely, I’d recommend calculating with your own preferred tool. Net carbs are total carbs minus fiber and any sugar alcohols.
Liane says
Love this stuff. As for garlic I buy it in a tube in the produce department. It has a tiny bit of stuff I generally avoid but I don’t eat it by the tube. I don’t like the stuff in jars. I used to buy whole peeled cloves in a bag and put them in a jar and top with olive oil and use a garlic press to squeeze them and the oil really made it easier. I cannot use a garlic press in my RV since it’s hard to clean and uses a ton of my very limited water so I buy the tubes.
Karly Campbell says
The tubes are very handy! 🙂