If you love seafood as much as I do, you need my easy seafood butter recipe in your life! It generously coats your seafood with a silky, buttery flavor, a little spice, and acidity to perfectly balance it out. This recipe is super simple to make with minimal ingredients and it will be your new favorite way to eat seafood! Let’s get started!

Why use seafood butter?

I feel like seafood back in the day was prepared by making a seafood boil, which meant boiling the seafood in water and a blend of seasonings and herbs. Today, steaming the seafood then coating it in seafood butter has become more popular than boiling because it’s the best of both worlds. Instead of relying on seasoned water to flavor the seafood, the butter is now seasoned and added on top of the seafood for a richer, more potent flavor!

How to make easy seafood butter

This easy seafood butter recipe only has 5 ingredients and is ready in just a few minutes! Here’s what you need.

Let’s talk unsalted butter! First things first, butter and margarine are two different things. To know if it’s real butter or not, read the package ingredients. It should only contain pasteurized cream and we’re using unsalted butter because we will be adding seasonings. Margarine however, which contains water, oils, salt, and other ingredients will not work for this recipe.
In my opinion, garlic is the best way to compliment butter. I like my garlic minced for this recipe because it releases the most flavor and I hate chewing large pieces of garlic.
The best seasoning to use for seafood butter is Old bay seasoning. It already has salt and all the spices needed to flavor seafood.
White pepper belongs in this recipe and I can’t really explain why lol. It adds a subtle flavor and also compliments seafood very well.
Lemon juice is a natural flavor enhancer for seafood, so it only makes sense to add it to this easy seafood butter.

Skimming the butter

Once the seafood butter is done cooking, there will be some foam on top. This is just the milk solids separating from the butter. Skimming it is optional but recommended for making a restaurant quality seafood butter. Simply use a spoon to remove the impurities.

How to store my easy seafood butter

Storing for later use is super easy! Simply make the seafood butter as directed below, then allow it cool to room temperature. Next, transfer it to an airtight container with a lid and refrigerate for up to 5 days. When ready to use, remove the lid and microwave until the butter is fully melted. This is also an excellent way to maximize the flavor!

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Make it surf & turf with my juicy steak recipe or try my ultimate bang bang shrimp tacos!