With only 3 ingredients and 5 minutes to make, this Garlic Butter Sauce can’t be beat! It’s the perfect garlic sauce for pizza and breadsticks!
If you’ve ever wondered how to make garlic butter sauce, wonder no more. This recipe is just like the Papa John’s dipping sauce for pizza or breadsticks!
What is your favorite part about ordering pizza? The obvious answers would be the ease of no cooking and little clean up, and being able to “indulge” in something cheesy and delicious.
Make sure you PIN Garlic Butter Sauce!
But one of my favorite parts of ordering pizza are the breadsticks. More specifically, dipping said breadsticks into garlic butter sauce!
Inside scoop: Most garlic butter sauces don’t use fresh garlic.
Okay, it’s the garlic dipping sauce I crave. I want ALL the pizza sauce.
I like it so much, in fact, that I came up with my own recipe. You are going to love how quick and easy it is. For being such a simple sauce, it really adds so much extra flavor.
It’s not only good for dipping bread sticks, but I also like to dip pizza crust.
Besides dipping, you could even brush this sauce on top of rolls before they go into the oven for an extra garlic kick or vegetables. With only 3 ingredients and 5 minutes to make, it’s an easy way to add flavor!
PRO TIP: Feel free to use fresh garlic cloves. Minced garlic will give you the most punch, while sliced garlic the least. You can also flavor your sauce with salt and pepper for fresh lemon juice.
This sauce is one of those times when the quality of butter is important. This garlic sauce is such a simple recipe, that choosing quality ingredients is very important and not all butters are created equal.
While it is fine to just throw a stick of butter in the pan, consider using cultured or European butter for a tangy, robust flavor. You can also use clarified butter, butter with milk solids and water removed.
Butter is required to have an 80% butterfat, but cheaper butters might also have more water.
American butter typically doesn’t have as much flavor either. Grades, ranging from the best grade AA to grade B, are based on flavor, body, color and salt and water content.
PRO TIP: For compound butters with heavy flavors, you can use a top grade or middle grade. It depends on how much you like your guests. LOL.
For just bread and butter, or something where the dish is butter-forward with uncooked butter, splurge for the AA grade. If you plan to mix it, clarify it or use it minimally, opt for a lower grade. I keep 3 types of butter in my house.
The good stuff for bread, toast and bagels. It is typically already salted. A middle grade for basic cooking, also usually salted. And unsalted middle grade for baking.
PRO TIP: This isn’t just for pizza. Serve Garlic Butter Sauce with all sorts of seafood! Fish, shrimp, crab and more. I like to add a dash of lemon juice, lemon zest or hot sauce when I serve it with seafood and fish.
You can also serve it on or with vegetables! One of the things that makes garlic butter dipping sauce from many pizza joints different is that they use margarine, not real butter. So if you think the taste is a little “off,” that might be why. I do suggest using clarified butter if you are going to use real butter.
The second trick is using garlic POWDER, not granulated garlic. Powder will absorb into the butter without being grainy.
Taylor says: “I love this stuff! It is the BEST for pizza!”
Lastly, the sauce tastes best if it sits for a while to allow the flavors to marinate. Chances are the dipping sauce you got from the restaurant had a days… if not weeks to sit. It is one of the reasons they use margarine, it is much more stable and lasts longer!
Some companies even supplement their butter sauces with vegetable oil or olive oil. To me, that is just greasy, so I stick with the basics.
So the next time you’re craving the garlic sauce from your favorite local pizza place, just take a few minutes to make your own. Your taste buds will thank you! Pizza also tastes great with homemade buffalo sauce!
You can also get super fancy and use my Truffle Butter or compound butter as the base!
Here are some fabulous homemade pizza recipes to dip in your garlic butter sauce:
Tools for making Garlic Butter Sauce:
Heavy Bottom Sauce Pan– this will be one of your most used kitchen tools. Having something that is heavy bottom will distribute heat better and prevent burning whether you are using an electric or gas range.
Ramekins– I like giving folks their own individual sauce cups. Then you don’t have to worry about double dipping! Ramekins are also great for ingredient preparation and baking mini soufflés.
Whisks– I buy whisks in multiple sizes. You never know which one you will need
Questions you might have about how to make Garlic Butter Sauce:
Mine tastes different… why? As stated earlier, most restaurants use margarine instead of butter. Chances are if you used real butter and even further more, clarified it, it will taste a little different.
Another issue could be using granulated garlic, which is coarser in texture, instead of powdered garlic, which is very fine. The texture helps it to absorb into the butter without being grainy.
Lastly, this is a basic garlic butter sauce. Like the most basic. It is virtually impossible for me to emulate ALL garlic butter recipes. If you ask your favorite joint about how they make theirs, they just might tell you!
Can I freeze Garlic Butter Sauce? You can freeze butter, but you want to make sure it is a high quality butter with little to no additional water. You’ll see they are graded on the packaging. Clarified butter freezes better than straight butter with milk solids.
Some folks like to pour slightly cooked butter into ice cube trays, pop them out and then freeze them in airtight plastic bag. I like the silicone ones, they are easier to pop the cubes out.
How do I remove butter sauce from clothes? We’ve all been there. A butter stain. Why it is so hard to get out???? For me, it is a job hazard. I get a lot of butter on my clothes and some stains are more difficult to get out than others. So there is what I do.
Rinse the stain immediately. Try to get out as much as you can before the stain really starts to set.
Pretreat! Spray the stain with a a stain remover. Let is sit and marinate for a little while. Wash in the highest heat possible.
Sometimes it takes more than one wash. To be totally transparent, some won’t come out at all. But give it your best try!
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Garlic Butter Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter*
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Dash fine sea salt
Instructions
- Combine butter, garlic powder and fine sea salt in a small sauce pan.
- Stir and heat until melted. Serve.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, please come back and leave us a note!
Is it best to use salted or unsalted butter? Will it be too salty if I use salted butter and the sea salt?
This is totally dependant on the brand of butter you use and your personal salt tolerance. When in doubt, use unsalted and then add salt until your desired flavored. If you use salted butter, taste it first and then add salt sparingly until it tastes right to you. I like mine salty…. so…
So simple and delicious. Fascinating reading about the types of butter available in the US. I’m in the UK and we are limited to salted or unsalted. Now, if you could also tell me why I always spill grease on a brand new top that would be perfect LOL.
This tastes just like the sauce from Papa John’s! I loved it.
Oh my gosh, this this Garlic Butter Sauce is amazing! I make it for dipping garlic knots – so good!
Thanks! We love it too!!!
Helpful hint regarding getting butter stains; you are correct about hitting the stain immediately with water, I usually use cold. One sure way to get butter out of clothing is to use Dawn dishwashing soap. As the commercial says, “Dawn gets grease out of your way.”
So far, it hasn’t failed me.
Good to know, Glenda! Thank you!
Love it!!!
Been searching a long time for my pizza garlic butter ty!
Yay! That is what we love to hear!
I love this stuff! It is the BEST dip for pizza. Yum!
Oh, I am so drooling right now! This garlic butter looks amazing and I think I’d hog it all to myself too if it were in front of me! I’m thinking this weekend calls for some bread sticks and this awesome sauce.
Delicious
Awesome! Thank you, Amy!