If you’ve ever torn into a hot pizza and immediately reached for that little cup of garlic dipping sauce, you already know the magic.
The restaurant version is usually super simple: margarine, garlic powder, and salt- but this homemade garlic butter sauce uses real butter for a richer, better flavor. It’s smooth, savory, and perfect for dipping pizza, breadsticks, crust, wings, and just about anything that could use a buttery garlic finish.
Some recipes add a little olive oil to keep the sauce from firming up, but you really don’t need it here. A good-quality butter, a little garlic powder, and salt are all it takes to make a quick garlic sauce for pizza that tastes nostalgic, but better.
What It Tastes Like
This garlic butter sauce is rich, salty, buttery, and packed with that classic pizza-shop garlic flavor. Since it uses garlic powder instead of fresh garlic, the flavor is smooth and evenly distributed instead of sharp or chunky. Think of it as that familiar pizza dipping sauce, but a little more homemade and a whole lot better because it starts with real butter.
Ingredients at a Glance
The list is small, but mighty- just whisk these together with a little bit of heat and you’ll be good to go!
- Butter– Use a good quality butter for best flavor. Clarified butter or ghee is an even better pick.
- Garlic Powder– make sure it is powder and not granulated garlic for the smoothest texture.
- Salt– Just a basic fine sea salt works best.
- Variations– While the traditional is basic, feel free to add fresh or dried thyme, parsley, lemon zest, grated fresh garlic cloves, a touch of heavy cream, black pepper, fresh or dried rosemary, fresh or dried oregano or any fresh herbs.
It’s the perfect garlic pizza sauce and breadsticks or anything else that needs a buttery dipping sauce.
Why It’s Better to Use Garlic Powder then Fresh Garlic
For this particular sauce, garlic powder is actually the better choice. Fresh garlic can burn quickly in butter and turn bitter, especially if the heat is too high. Garlic powder gives you a smoother sauce with that classic takeout-style flavor and no bits floating around in the cup. If you want a more gourmet version, you can absolutely add a little freshly grated garlic, but for that iconic pizza dip taste, garlic powder wins.
Uses for Garlic Sauce
Besides dipping, there are so many uses for this simple garlic sauce.
- Baste on seafood or chicken
- Drizzle on grilled veggies
- Use to make garlic bread with a
sprinkle of parmesan cheese - Baste onto pizza dough before baking
- Garlic knots
- Use on hot dogs
- As a garlic sauce for pasta
- Dipping for wings or boneless wings
- Stir 1 tablespoons with red sauce
or tomato sauce - Use for omelettes or eggs
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 or even ranch dressing.
You can also get super fancy and use my Truffle Butter or compound butter as the base!
Storage & Freezing
You can this sauce in an airtight container or covered tightly with a piece of plastic wrap in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, but remember it will solidify so you’ll need to remelt it. Butter easily takes on other flavors of things around it, so make sure it is contained.
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.
Homemade Pizza Ideas
We love doing pizza, flatbreads and calzones at home.
Garlic Sauce for Pizza
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter*
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Dash fine sea salt
Instructions
- Combine the 1/2 cup unsalted butter*, 1 teaspoon garlic powder and Dash fine sea salt in a small saucepan.
- Stir and heat until melted. Serve.
- If you've tried this recipe, please come back and let us know in the comments or star ratings!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Why would the sodium content be so high when you are using unsalted butter?
Hi Jill- we use an API to calculate nutrition, there is a disclaimer that they aren’t all exact, especially brand specific. It would be near impossible for me to do each one individually. I do agree that is odd and will go check, I bet you it’s adding in a whole teaspoon for a “dash” of fine sea salt.
My family loved it instant favorite in my kitchen
Really good! If you put a little bit of Italian seasoning as well it even better!
I tried it and it turned out great!! You dont even need to use the stove I just popped it in the microwave 15 seconds twice stirring both times and it tastes great!! Perfect for if you’re in a hurry but still want something nice
Thanks for the recipe. Super easy and great for dipping pizza crust. Note – I halved the garlic powder and it was still a little strong for my liking. I suggest folks add 1/4 tsp at a time to taste.
Awesome butter
Actually used this to baste on some grilled shrimp and it was amazing! Will definitely try it with pizza too. It’s finger-lickin’ good.
Every Friday we have a pizza night so this will be a quick, easy, and sooo tasty addition to our fun family night!
This tasted just like my favorite garlic sauce from Papa Johns…but WAY easier to make from home! So excited to have this recipe.
LITTLE CEASARS IS BETTER
We loved it for basic pizza night!😋😋😋😋😋😋😋😋🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Woot woot- that is what we love to hear!
We loved it for basic pizza night!😋😋😋😋😋😋😋😋🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
OMG! This was so good. The buttery Garlic Sauce is my favorite dipping sauce! Thanks for the easy recipe.