The Only Grill Sauce You Need This Summer

If you’ve been watching The Real Food Show, you know the goal is simple: cook more real food at home.

One of the biggest misconceptions in cooking is that great food requires a pantry full of expensive sauces and seasonings. Walk down the condiment aisle, and you’ll find bottles filled with seed oils, corn syrup, gums, preservatives, and ingredients you can’t pronounce. Most of them promise to make your food taste better. Most of them just cover it up. Instead, start with real ingredients.

This butter-based grill sauce has become my go-to all summer because it takes about three minutes to make and works on just about everything. Brush it over chicken during the last minute on the grill. Spoon it over a rested steak. Toss it with grilled shrimp, salmon, vegetables, or potatoes. It even doubles as a bread dip - one simple sauce with endless uses.

• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 3 cloves garlic, finely grated

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

• Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Melt the butter over low heat. Remove from the heat and whisk in the olive oil, garlic, Dijon, Worcestershire, lemon juice, zest, herbs, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Let the sauce sit for about 10 minutes so the garlic and herbs infuse the butter.

Use it warm or refrigerate it for up to five days. If it solidifies in the refrigerator, simply warm it gently before serving.

• Brush onto grilled chicken during the final minute of cooking.

• Spoon over a rested ribeye or New York strip.

• Toss with grilled shrimp or lobster.

• Finish grilled salmon or halibut.

• Drizzle over grilled asparagus, corn, zucchini, or potatoes.

• Serve alongside warm crusty bread.

The more I cook, the less I rely on bottled sauces. Real ingredients already have everything they need. Butter carries flavor. Fresh herbs bring brightness. Garlic adds depth. Lemon wakes everything up.

Fire up the grill this weekend, make this sauce, and let me know what you put it on.