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Why You’ll Love My Recipe

This quick and easy garlic butter sauce recipe is perfect for using on seafood, pasta, or vegetables. You could even spread it on some bread.

Serve this sauce on pasta, coat lobster with it, or use it for Garlic Butter Shrimp or Garlic Butter Salmon. Spread it on some toast for a tasty garlic bread, or drizzle it over your favourite roasted vegetable dish.

A glass jar of homemade vinaigrette with herbs and diced garlic sits on a wooden board, surrounded by fresh parsley, garlic cloves, and sliced lemons. A small whisk is inside the jar, and kitchen items are blurred in the background.

Karlynn’s Recipe Notes

Skill Level: This is a very easy recipe.
Total Time: You can make this in under 10 minutes.
Variations: This sauce is the perfect base for a more complex mixture of herbs. Try adding some fresh or dried rosemary, some dill, or even tarragon. Add some dried chili flakes or a few drops of your favourite hot sauce to give the sauce a spicy kick. Adjust the acidity by using more or less lemon juice and white wine.
Tools Needed: For this recipe, you will need a large pan, a cutting board, a knife, and a utensil to stir with. You may also want to keep a whisk handy to mix the sauce if the ingredients settle.

A wooden spatula stirs melted butter with herbs in a stainless steel skillet. Fresh parsley sits nearby on a white countertop, with kitchen items and glasses of ice water in the background.

What You’ll Need For Ingredients

Garlic: Fresh minced garlic is the ultimate choice here, but you could also use minced garlic from a jar if you’ve got some around. Depending how smooth you’d like the sauce to be, you can adjust the size of the garlic pieces. Just be sure to stir consistently to keep any garlic from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Butter: This recipe calls for salted butter, but if you don’t have any you can use unsalted butter. Just add a pinch of salt to the sauce as you’re cooking. You should be able to obtain similar results with a plant-based alternative as well.

Acid: Lemon juice or white wine are the best options for this. Wine will give you a gentler acidity and more complex flavour notes, but lemon juice is perfectly fine.

A stick of butter, garlic cloves, parsley, and halved lemon on a white marble surface with a cutting board, small bowl of lemon juice, and a white towel with red stripes.

How to Make Garlic Butter Sauce

This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.

A stainless steel pan with melted butter and minced garlic in the center, surrounded by fresh parsley, lemon halves, garlic cloves, and chopped herbs on a white marble surface.

Overhead view of a skillet with melted butter on a marble surface, surrounded by fresh parsley, lemon halves, garlic cloves, and a wooden spatula resting on the pan. A kitchen towel is in the upper corner.

Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Turn heat down.
Stir in minced garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant.
Add lemon juice or wine to taste. Stir in parsley.
Remove from heat and serve over pasta or shrimp.

A hand uses a small whisk to mix oil and seasoning in a white bowl on a kitchen counter, with garlic, parsley, lemons, and a glass of water in the background.

Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Garlic Butter Sauce

Don’t Burn the Garlic: This whole process is done at medium and low heat, so it should be easy to avoid burning or overcooking the garlic. Make sure to stir the sauce gently and consistently as it’s cooking, so that you don’t end up with garlic sinking to the bottom and sticking to the pan. You also don’t need to cook this for very long. Just a few minutes, enough to heat and soften the garlic.

Wine vs. Lemon Juice: Whichever acidic ingredient you choose, be sure to account for the extra liquid in your cooking time. The exact amount used is up to you and can be added according to your personal taste, but you may need to simmer the sauce a minute or two longer if you use a significant amount of wine. Taste as you go. Start with a tiny bit and adjust as needed.

A glass jar filled with homemade salad dressing sits on a wooden board. Chopped herbs and garlic are visible at the bottom, with oil and vinegar layered on top. Parsley, garlic, a lemon half, and kitchen utensils are in the background.

Storage Instructions

Fridge: You can store the leftover sauce in a sealed container in the fridge. It will solidify as it cools, but you can get it back to liquid form by taking it out of the fridge and laving it at room temperature for a few minutes or by scooping some into a pan and melting it again.

Freezer: For ease of later use, it would be a good idea to freeze this in small portions. Try a silicone mold or ice cube tray with a cover. Then you can pop cubes of sauce into a container to microwave or throw them directly into a hot pan.

More Delicious Sauce Recipes

Are you looking for more sauce and dip recipes to experiment with?

Try this decadent Smoked Salmon Dip with crackers.

For dessert or a sweet snack, make some Cream Cheese Fruit Dip.

Serve Baba Ganoush and Tzatziki Sauce with pita bread or fresh veggies for dipping.

There you go, everyone. An easy and tasty recipe for garlic butter sauce that you can use on a variety of dishes. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Happy Cooking!

Karlynn