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When dinner needs a little something extra, try Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce. A professional chef’s secret weapon, this nutty brown butter sauce is ready in mere minutes and works citrusy magic on fish, chicken, or vegetables.
This lemon butter sauce recipe is flavored with simple ingredients like fresh garlic and green herbs. It’s a simple, straight-forward pan sauce that tastes excellent over poultry, seafood, or any other protein, and you might just feel like a real chef while you make it.
Like many easy sauces, this one is ripe for your own customizations, too. Swap the garlic for a touch of minced shallot. Grate some lemon zest before squeezing the fruit for juice. Add a splash of dry white wine, a touch of heavy cream, or both, for the most spectacular creamy lemon butter sauce you’ve ever had.
Swap the parsley and thyme for your favorite fresh herbs. Basil, chervil, tarragon, and dill would all be delicious choices. Or, finish the sauce with a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Garlic: Or substitute minced shallots or red onion.
- Parsley and thyme: Or substitute chopped chives, marjoram, tarragon, rosemary, dill, or almost any fresh green herb in this sauce.
Step-by-step instructions
- In a small, heavy-bottom saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Cook, swirling constantly, until butter turns dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma, about 4 to 5 minutes.
- Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove pan from heat and stir in parsley, thyme, and lemon juice.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper (I like ¼ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon pepper). Serve immediately over scallops (shown below), shrimp, fish, or roasted vegetables.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes about 6 tablespoons of rich sauce packed with flavor, enough for 4 servings, 1 ½ tablespoons each.
- Storage: Store leftover sauce covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: You can make brown butter lemon sauce up to 30 minutes ahead, as long as you keep it warm. If needed, gently reheat over low heat.
- Smaller is better: Use a small saucepan to make this sauce, instead of a wide skillet. It may be tempting to use the same pan as the fish, but it’s too big to be able to notice the butter transform. You want to be able to see the butter as it gently browns.
- Stay at the stove: Brown butter can go from toasty to burned in seconds, so stay present, watch the heat, and keep swirling.
- Use your nose: Beurre noisette is directly translated to “hazelnut butter.” This refers to the distinct change in aroma as the butter browns. When ready, the butter should smell nutty.
- On shellfish: Scallops, lobster, shrimp, prawns, or crab legs. Even filled pasta, like lobster ravioli, would be unbelievable.
- On seafood: A perfect fit. Any fresh fish you happen to bring home: salmon, cod, halibut, tuna, swordfish, tilapia, or trout, would be delicious if you sauté it in lemon butter.
- On vegetables: Lemon sauce breathes new life into a dish of green vegetables, roasted or steamed. Think broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, green beans, or artichokes. It’s also delicious drizzled over mashed potatoes.
- On chicken: Simple poached or grilled chicken breasts become a lot more special with homemade lemon garlic butter sauce.
- On steak: This lemon butter garlic sauce tastes like a clarified butter with compound butter flavors. Whatever it is, it would be great on your next New York Strip or Surf and Turf (filet mignon with lobster tails).
- On pasta: This sauce reminds me of the base for my Artichoke Pasta. Try this lemon sauce over cooked pasta for a citrus-garlic infusion. Same some pasta water for tossing with the sauce if you need some extra starch so the sauce sticks better.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many cooks, professional and otherwise, favor unsalted butter so they can control this salt in their finished dishes. I typically use salted butter because it’s what I have, and I taste the sauce before adjusting the seasonings.
Substitute your favorite vegan butter and make the recipe as written. I like Earth Balance original buttery spread.
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Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter ½ stick, cut into 4 pieces
- 2 cloves garlic minced (see note 1)
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley minced (see note 2)
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme minced
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a small, heavy-bottom saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Cook, swirling constantly, until butter turns dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma, about 4 to 5 minutes.
- Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove pan from heat and stir in parsley, thyme, and lemon juice.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper (I like ¼ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon pepper). Serve immediately.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Garlic: Or substitute minced shallots or red onion.
- Parsley and thyme: Or substitute chopped chives, marjoram, tarragon, or almost any fresh green herb in this sauce.
- Yield: This recipe makes about 6 tablespoons of rich sauce packed with flavor, enough for 4 servings, 1 ½ tablespoons each.
- Storage: Store leftover sauce covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
This sauce is great for a quick bite~! I Just have a question: Is it possible to thicken this sauce more? I want to be able to cook grilled chicken and just pour the thick lemon sauce on top so it will not evaporate on high heat. Is it possible to store this then thick sauce in a squeeze bottle of sorts? I noticed your recipe solidifies very quickly when left in room temperature, hope there is a work around to this! Thank you again.
Hi Marcus! I would have to do some testing to figure that out, you could probably thicken it with flour but I don’t know if that would work in a squeeze bottle. I cannot say for sure without some investigative recipe testing, I’m so sorry about that. Thank you! -Meggan
I mixed 1/4 tsp arrowroot with the lemon juice and thyme then simmered for 1 minute after adding it to the butter to thicken it.
Sounds amazing, Derrick! – Meggan
Marcus, to thicken the sauce just add more butter.
The Lemon Butter Sauce was GREAT! Works very well with broil seafood
This one is going in my repeat recipe file. I almost could eat it like a soup. Not kidding!
It is a splendid recipe Meggan. Thank you for sharing it with us.
I made this to coat some ricotta & lemon zest ravioli with roasted asparagus for a summery pasta and it was delicious! Next time I make shrimp or salmon, I’ll definitely pull this recipe out.
Delicious! I give this recipe a 5 out of 5.
It worked great on salmon.
So good. Would be great on any seafood. I had it on salmon.
I wanted a quick, yummy and lemony sauce for sauteed chicken. This was easy and delicious!