This garlic herb compound butter is perfectly balanced, fresh, and garlicky with beautiful green herb flecks throughout every jar. We tested this recipe with three cloves of garlic and without rosemary so you do not have to. The result is a butter where every herb gets to shine without anything overpowering. Spread it on steak, crusty bread, or anywhere you want a hit of fresh garlic and herb flavor.
Quick Look
- 📋 Recipe: Garlic Herb Compound Butter
- ⏲️ Ready In: 10 minutes
- 👪 Servings: 16 tablespoons
- 🔪 Difficulty: Easy 💭
- Top Tip: Make this butter the day before you need it. The garlic and herb flavors meld into the butter overnight and the flavor will be better the next day.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Bright and fresh with great balance of flavors.
- A tested combination of flat leaf parsley, chives, and thyme that works beautifully on everything.
- No rosemary -we tested it and found it overpowers the other herbs.
- Made with salted butter so no additional salt is needed.
- Ready in 10 minutes with no cooking required.
- A crowd favorite.
The combination of fresh garlic, flat leaf parsley, chives, and thyme produces something that is genuinely greater than the sum of its parts. Bright, fresh, garlicky, and full of real herb flavor.
Raw garlic gives this butter its character. If you want something more mellow and caramelized, check out our roasted garlic butter recipe.
Lots of garlic herb compound butter recipes include rosemary as one of the default herbs. We tested it with and without. Rosemary is a beautiful herb, but it can overpower everything around it. By leaving it out the parsley, chives, and thyme each contribute their own character and the finished butter is more balanced and more versatile. We also tested lemon zest and preferred the butter without it. The fresh garlic and herbs provide all the brightness this butter needs.
This recipe is part of a compound butter collection developed for our bread and butter toast party where guests built their own gourmet toasts all evening long.
Our full compound butter recipes guide covers all six compound butters from the toast party with tested recipes and make-ahead timelines. If you love the garlic flavor but want something deeper and more mellow you will love our roasted garlic butter. And if you are planning a party our butter board post shows you how to serve all six butters together as a stunning entertaining spread.
Ingredients
Here are a few notes on the key ingredients before you get started. Full quantities are in the recipe card below.
- Salted Butter: Salted butter is our recommendation for this recipe. The salt beautifully enhances the fresh herb flavors and provides the right balance against the garlic. If you only have unsalted butter, add some fine sea salt while mixing.
- Fresh Garlic: Two cloves of fresh garlic, grated on a microplane, minced, or very finely chopped. We tested three cloves and found it too hot and overpowering. Two cloves is the sweet spot, present and punchy without overwhelming the herbs. Fresh garlic is essential here. Garlic powder will not give you the same bright fresh flavor. All garlic cloves are not created equal, if your cloves are small you might need more, if they're large you might need less.
- Flat Leaf Parsley: Also called Italian parsley, flat leaf is our strong preference over curly parsley. It has a stronger more complex flavor, softer more delicate leaves that chop more cleanly, and it produces beautiful bright green flecks in the finished butter. Use more parsley than any other herb. It is the base and backbone of this compound butter.
- Fresh Chives: Chopped chives add a mild onion note that rounds out the garlic beautifully.
- Fresh Thyme: Just one teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves adds a subtle earthiness and complexity without dominating. Strip the leaves from the stems and discard the stems entirely before measuring.
- Why No Rosemary?: We tested rosemary in this butter and left it out of the final recipe. Rosemary is a beautiful herb but its assertive piney flavor tends to overpower the other herbs, and delicate flavor of the butter. Without it the parsley, chives, and thyme each contribute their own character and the finished butter is more balanced and more versatile.
Variations
- Lemon herb butter: Add the zest of half a lemon in Step 3 for a brighter more citrusy result. This variation is particularly beautiful on fish and seafood.
- Tarragon butter: Substitute one teaspoon of fresh tarragon for the thyme. Tarragon has a subtle anise note that is particularly wonderful on chicken and fish.
How to Make Garlic Herb Compound Butter
- Step 1: Place room temperature butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large bowl if using a hand mixer. Whip on medium high speed for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Step 2: Mince the garlic and chop the parsley, chives, and thyme. Add the minced garlic, parsley, chives, and thyme to the whipped butter. Mix until fully combined and herbs are evenly distributed throughout.
- Step 3: Transfer to an airtight container or wrap tightly in parchment paper. Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Remove 30 minutes before serving to soften to a spreadable consistency.
Expert Tip
- This recipe is built around the bright fresh flavor that only fresh herbs can produce.
- Dried herbs will give you a completely different and noticeably muted result and we do not recommend them for this recipe.
- The same applies to garlic. Fresh minced garlic is essential. Garlic powder lacks the sharpness and immediacy that makes this butter so good.
Frequently Asked Questions
Flat leaf parsley is the essential base herb. Use more of it than anything else. Chives add a mild onion note and thyme adds subtle earthiness. This combination is balanced and versatile enough to work on steak, bread, and vegetables equally well. We tested rosemary and left it out because it tends to overpower the other herbs. Lemon zest is a common addition but we preferred the butter without it.
We recommend fresh herbs only for this recipe. The whole point of this butter is bright fresh herb flavor and dried herbs will not give you that result. The same applies to garlic. Fresh minced garlic is essential. Do not substitute garlic powder.
Two cloves is our tested sweet spot. We tested three cloves and found it too hot and overpowering. Note that garlic cloves vary in size. If your cloves are very large start with one and taste before adding the second.
They are genuinely different flavor profiles. This butter uses raw fresh garlic which is sharp, bright, and a little hot. Our roasted garlic butter uses oven roasted garlic which is mellow, sweet, and deeply savory. If you want bright and fresh choose this recipe. If you want deep and mellow choose the roasted version.
Up to five days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Remove 30 minutes before serving to soften to a spreadable consistency.
We don't reccomend freezing. The flavor holds well in the freezer for up to three months. However the fresh herb flecks may darken slightly and chives in particular can lose some of their visual brightness after freezing and thawing.
Our favorite pairings are a simply grilled steak, warm crusty bread, sourdough toast, focaccia, and roasted vegetables. A generous slice melted directly onto a hot rested steak is one of the best and simplest things you can do with this butter.
More Compound Butter Recipes You Will Love
If you try this garlic herb compound butter or any other recipe on my blog please leave a star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!
Recipe
Garlic Herb Compound Butter
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter room temperature
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley
- 1 tablespoon fresh chives
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Instructions
- Place room temperature butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large bowl if using a hand mixer. Whip on medium high speed for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy.1 cup butter
- Mince the garlic and chop the parsley, chives, and thyme. Add the minced garlic, parsley, chives, and thyme to the whipped butter. Mix until fully combined and herbs are evenly distributed throughout.2 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, 1 tablespoon fresh chives, 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- Transfer to an airtight container or wrap tightly in parchment paper. Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Remove 30 minutes before serving to soften to a spreadable consistency.
Notes
- If using unsalted butter add a small pinch of fine sea salt in Step 1.
- Garlic cloves vary in size. If your cloves are very large, start with one and taste before adding the second.
- We tested rosemary and lemon zest in this recipe and preferred the butter without either. Both are lovely additions if you want to experiment.
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