4 Ingredient Garlic Butter Sauce (10 Minutes!)

Just 4 ingredients and about 10 minutes total are all it takes to get this incredibly flavorful garlic butter sauce ready to top all your favorites! I like to toss it with al dente linguine for an easy weeknight dinner but it also tastes great with your favorite roasted fish, sauteed shrimp, or seared steak!

You Will Love This

• Who doesn’t love garlic and butter? Cooked together for just a few minutes with freshly minced garlic and chopped parsley, this is the easiest homemade garlic butter sauce recipe ever! Keep it handy for those busy weeknights when you need something a little special to pair with your seafood, pasta, or sirloin!
• If you loved this quick and easy garlic butter sauce recipe, be sure to check out my 15-minute garlic Parmesan sauce, 30-minute garlic bread pizza, and my one-pot garlic Parmesan pasta.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Butter – Butter is the main ingredient here. Olive oil will work in a pinch but will not give you quite the same flavor. I prefer to use unsalted butter so that I can adjust the sodium level myself.
• Fresh Parsley – Fresh herbs are going to add delicious fresh flavor. Dried parsley will work as well but will change the flavor a bit. Add about half the amount if you use dried parsley as its flavor is more concentrated. Chives or fresh thyme would also be delicious in this recipe.
• Garlic – I prefer fresh garlic, finely minced, but you can substitute with 3/4 of a teaspoon of garlic powder if you prefer. Jarred minced garlic will work as well although it doesn’t have quite the same flavor as freshly minced garlic.
• Kosher Salt – Kosher salt is my preferred salt of choice. When using table salt it’s easy to oversalt a dish, however, the larger grains of Kosher salt makes it easier to distribute without adding too much.

Instructions

Add ingredients to a small saucepan over medium-low heat.

Stir together and cook until the butter melts. Cook for about a minute or so until the garlic becomes fragrant.

Toss with your favorite pasta, or seafood, or use it as a delicious bread dipping sauce!

Tips

• This recipe cooks in just minutes and it’s important to cook over medium-low heat so that the garlic doesn’t burn. Once you add the garlic, just stir it for about a minute or so until it becomes fragrant. Any longer and you’ll risk the garlic burning and ruining the sauce.
• Add some lemon juice for an extra zing and a pinch of black pepper! A squeeze of fresh lemon juice (or even a bit of zest!) will give this butter garlic sauce another dimension that pairs well with things like roasted salmon or chicken. You can also add a half teaspoon or so of Dijon mustard or your favorite spices to add some more depth to the flavors as well.
• If you want a creamy garlic butter instead of a sauce, skip the stove and just combine room-temperature butter with the garlic, parsley, and a pinch of salt. This will give you the perfect garlic butter recipe to spread on your favorite freshly baked bread.

How to Use Garlic Butter

Use this garlic butter for everything! Get creative with this because garlic and butter go with almost anything. One of my favorite ways to use this garlic herb butter is to toss it with linguine or use it as a garlic butter dipping sauce for pizza crust but you can also use it with:

• crab legs
• lobster tails
• kabobs
• steak
• beef burgers
• chicken
• vegetables
• fish
• shrimp

What is garlic butter sauce?

Garlic butter sauce is a mixture of melted butter, fresh garlic, fresh parsley, and Kosher salt, cooked to release the flavors and make a smooth sauce.

Can you buy garlic butter sauce?

Yes, but it will never taste as good as homemade! Homemade is almost always better and way fresher. Plus, it’s so easy to make that it’s less time-consuming to throw together than it is to go out and buy it.

How to make garlic butter sauce for pasta?

Making garlic butter sauce for pasta is incredibly easy. Simply mince garlic, melt butter, and combine ingredients in a saucepan over medium-low heat until combined and fragrant.

Make-Ahead, Storage, Freezing, and Reheating

• Make-Ahead: Garlic butter sauce is a simple meal elevator to keep on hand and will stay fresh in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
• Storage: Store in a jar or airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
• Freezing: Feel free to double or triple the recipe and freeze for up to 3 months. Allow the garlic butter sauce to cool and transfer it to a large freezer-safe Ziploc bag. Seal the Ziploc bag and place it flat in the freezer so that it freezes in an even layer. To use, simply cut or break off as much as you need, and place the rest back in the freezer.
• Reheating: Reheat garlic butter by setting it out at room temperature if you want to use it as a spread, or put the desired amount in a small saucepan and reheat over medium-low heat on the stovetop until the sauce is melted and warmed through. You can also reheat it in the microwave although I don’t recommend this method as it will warm the butter too quickly and likely cause it to explode all over the in the microwave.

Easy Pasta Recipes