Prep Time 5 min cook time 5 min
Never in the annals of cooking have so many dishes owed so much to one sauce. Lemon butter sauce and variations of this quick and easy recipe is my go-to answer to dress up grilled or seared chicken, a fillet of fish or prawns and scallops. It is also delicious on vegetables like seared zucchini’s and asparagus and that’s just for starters. You can use your imagination to create endless interpretations using wine, a touch of sherry or tarragon vinegar or even champagne.
The two things to watch out for when making a butter sauce are flavor balance and the emulsion process.
Flavor Balance
When you get the right balance between the flavored liquid base (in this case lemon juice) and the butter, the sauce envelopes the dish in a light, velvet smooth blanket that really transforms it. The amount of butter you use will determine how rich the sauce will be and you can get away with a couple of tablespoons to give the sauce a very light creamy texture or use more butter for a richer flavor. Play around with the recipe to suite your taste.
Emulsion
The secret to this and any other butter based sauce is the emulsifying of the butter. This is what gives it texture. Quite simply it involves the continuous stirring in of cold butter, a tablespoon at a time into a liquid base over a low heat until you get a creamy consistency.
If you overheat the sauce, the butter will separate from the liquid and you won’t get that creamy effect. Once you have mastered the technique, you can pretty much create any sauce from this base recipe.
Lemon Butter Sauce
by
Derek Farwagi
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp shallot finely chopped
- juice and zest of half a lemon. (if you want the sauce more lemony, you can add a dash more juice at the end).
- ¼ cup water
- ½ tsp sugar
- 3 tbsp cold unsalted butter (for a creamier sauce add more butter)
- 1 tbsp finely chopped herb (optional and your choice depending on preference and what you are adding the sauce to. It could be parsley, tarragon, oregano or dill).
- salt to taste
Instructions
- On a medium to low fire, melt a tablespoon of unsalted butter. Add the finely chopped shallot and cook until soft. About a minute.
- Add the juice and zest of half a lemon (you can always add more juice at the end if want it more lemony), a 1/4 cup of water, a teaspoon of sugar and on a high heat reduce to about a third of the volume. About 2 minutes.
- Turn the fire on very low and blend in 2 to 3 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter, one tablespoon at a time. The trick is to keep stirring the butter and emulsify it with the lemon juice.
- Optional -blend in 1 Tbs chopped herbs and stir for one minute to infuse sauce.
- Salt to taste and serve.
Nutrition
Great on cod, halibut or mahi mahi (see recipe)
Dresses up seared baby zucchini(see recipe)
Add capers for a great chicken piccata (see recipe)
Recipe variations
Instead of the onions you can used coarsely chopped garlic for a delicious lemon butter sauce to dress up grilled prawns or scallops. Instead of a 1/4 cup of water and sugar, use white wine with the lemon for added complexity. Add a teaspoon of tarragon vinegar and fresh tarragon to the white wine mixture for a refreshing dressing on seared or grilled chicken.
Ari Mäkelä
A very good recipe and exceptionally well explained, thank you. I’ve cooked it before for a Spanish flatfish, but as I said: you explain things better than my Spanish cookbook. I had almost forgotten this sauce, thank you for reminding me.
The sauce was an excellent companion for sous vide pike perch and new potatoes.
Derek Farwagi
Ari,
Thank you for your comment.
I have never had Pike Perch. Is it a Pacific or Atlantic fish?
Best
Derek
Roberto Pinoni
Totally delicious and very simple to make. I started with juice of a quarter lemon and added more to taste at the end. Had the sauce with Ling cod plated on Japonese black rice.
Patrick Daly
I’ve been buying fish in butter sauce for many years,( boil in the bag) but the last few times I have bought it the butter sauce is as thin as milk, so I have decided to make my own sauce, thanks for the recipe.
Derek Farwagi
You are welcome.
Krista
Totally delicious. I’d use less Lemon though. I used a hand blender to emulsify all the butter at the end to make it super creamy. Thanks for the recipe!
Derek Farwagi
Glad you found your own way to enjoy this recipe. That is what I enjoy about cooking. Doing my own thing.