Last Updated on 22nd April 2022 by
The very best seafood sauces make you want to have more seafood just to enjoy the sauce that goes with it. If you want to take your seafood to the next level, try making up a simple butter sauce to accompany it.
With just a few ingredients, you can make a garlic butter sauce that’s worth drooling over.
If you’re looking for easy sauce to make the next time you have lobster, crab, fried fish, or fish filet, try this garlic butter sauce for seafood. It doesn’t take much work to make, but it’s definitely something you will want to have again and again.
I mean, it’s made from butter. Who doesn’t love butter? This is likely a sauce you’re going to want to make extra of, because it’s going to be used up quickly.
You can use a garlic butter seafood sauce for dipping bread sticks, seafood and more, and it can be used to drizzle over pasta, steak, and other dishes.
How to Make a Garlic Butter Sauce for Seafood
It only takes a few different ingredients to make this salsa, but it helps if they are quality ingredients. The butter I prefer to go with is unsalted butter, but you can use salted butter or even margarine. It all works the same, but the taste would be a little different.
It really comes down to your preference as well as how healthy you want the butter sauce to be. I don’t think most people are making butter sauce in an effort to be healthy, but it may be worth your consideration.
The herbs and spices I use tend to be very limited for the sauce. You don’t need a lot of flavoring and seasoning for it, and I would usually use chopped parsley, black pepper, salt, and garlic.
When possible, it’s best to use fresh herbs and spices for garlic butter dipping sauce for seafood. The fresh ingredients bring out the best flavor, but you can use dry, prepackaged ingredients as well. Most people are just going to use whatever they have on hand, but I guarantee that the sauce tastes better when made with fresh, quality ingredients.
You don’t have to stick with the herbs and seasonings I recommend. You can make a lemon butter sauce or a sauce that has basil in it instead of parsley. There are a lot of different combinations that you can try when making a seafood butter sauce.
How to Make Garlic Butter Sauce for Seafood Boil
Whether you’re making crab legs, boiled lobster, a seafood platter, or a seafood boil, you can use the same garlic butter sauce. This is a really easy sauce to make- you really only need to melt the butter and mix in your ingredients. I’ll show you how to make it with simple, step-by-step instructions.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of black pepper
- 1 1/2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chop
- 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 2 cloves of minced garlic
Directions:
- Using a medium saucepan, pour your half cup of unsalted butter in and warm on medium heat. Keep cooking until it is fully melted. Control your heat so that it doesn’t burn and become stubbornly stuck to the pan.
- Then, add in the rest of the ingredients and stir.
- The sauce can be served warm. You could also store it in the fridge in an airtight container or separate it into an ice cube tray.
How to Make Cajun Garlic Butter for Seafood
What if you want to make a spicy Cajun version of this classic dish? It doesn’t take much to change it up and give it that wonderful Cajun heat.
In fact, the only addition you need to make is some red pepper flakes. Use a half tablespoon of red pepper flakes, added to the list of ingredients up above, and then make it the same way as I’ve already directed you. This gives you the same great garlic butter sauce for your seafood, but with a spicy Cajun flair.
You may want to try some different seasonings to get a similar heat if you’re not a fan of red pepper flakes. Or, if you just want to try something a little different and change things up, you can switch out the red pepper flakes for ground Cajun seasoning, chili powder, or even a little bit of hot sauce.
If you’re using a liquid hot sauce, I recommend cutting down on how much apple cider vinegar you’re using.
Ingredient Substitutions for Garlic Butter Sauce
Most of the ingredients in this quick and easy recipe can be traded out for something else, determined by your preferences. You may be wanting to make something healthier or just make a different kind of seafood butter sauce.
As I mentioned before, the butter can be traded out for different kinds of butter or for margarine.
Some people will use white wine rather than apple cider vinegar, and there are a few other alternatives you could go with as well. You may want to try and add juice or such as white grape juice in the sauce if you want to make it a little sweeter.
That’s not typically how garlic butter sauce is made, but it can definitely change things up and give you a different kind of sauce than what you are used to. You might enjoy the new experience.
If you find that your sauce is too sweet because you’re using a sweet substitute, you can add a little bit of vinegar or lemon juice. You want to be careful about how much you’re using, as usually just a splash is all that’s needed to dial back the sweetness of the sauce.
As you can see, making garlic butter sauce for seafood is really simple and doesn’t take long at all. I hope this article helps you feel confident enough to make it for yourself and realize that you don’t need to spend money on premade sauce when it’s so simple to make it at home.
I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!
