Easy Garlic Herb Butter Recipe

Easy Garlic Herb Butter Recipe

By Anadi Misra · Updated Jun 22, 2026 · originally published Jun 27, 2026

Garlic herb butter is the most versatile compound butter you can make. As we’ll soon see, it works on steak, warm crusty bread, roasted vegetables, grilled fish, and even tossed through pasta. This post covers the base recipe plus several variations so you can adapt it to whatever herbs you have on hand.

Why Room Temperature Butter Is Everything

The single thing that makes or breaks compound butter is starting with truly room-temperature butter. You need to ensure that it’s soft enough that a finger presses in easily. When the butter is properly softened, the minced garlic and chopped herbs blend in smoothly and distribute evenly throughout.

Use cold butter and you will end up fighting it: the herbs clump together in pockets, the garlic does not incorporate, and the finished texture is lumpy rather than silky. Pull your butter out at least an hour before you start.

Tools Needed for Garlic Herb Butter

• Mixing bowl
• Spatula
• Salt crock
• Pepper mill
• Plastic wrap
• Ramekin
• Cutting board
• Chef’s knife

Ingredients for Garlic Herb Butter

Let’s break down what goes into our delicious compound butter recipe! Remember, to save the recipe for later and to scale the ingredients based on how much butter you’re working with, you can refer to the FULL PRINTABLE recipe card below.

• Butter: Softened butter at room temperature. This will help mixing the ingredients better.
• Chives: Fresh chives finely chopped.
• Garlic: Freshly minced garlic cloves. Garlic cloves will provide a much more subtle flavor compared to the intensity of garlic powder, so I recommend you use garlic cloves instead of the dried spice.
• Lime juice: You can use freshly squeezed lime juice or from a bottle.
• Salt and pepper: Key seasoning that you always add to taste!

How to Make Compound Butter

Add all of the ingredients except salt to a large bowl. Start mixing the ingredients together using a spatula.

Grab a whisk and mix well. Shake off any butter stuck between the spokes of the whisk as needed, keep mixing until the ingredients are well combined. Taste and season for salt as needed.

Transfer the butter onto a sheet of plastic wrap, shape it into a rough log, and roll it up tightly, twisting the ends to seal. Use the ends to roll the log back and forth over your countertop to smooth out the sides of the log and then pat the ends of the log flat.

Tag your makes with #cookingwithanadi