13 Easy Recipes Using Buttermilk
13 Easy Recipes Using Buttermilk – Milky creaminess with the perfect tart to balance both sweet and savory dishes and boost the power of baking soda. Thick and pleasantly tart milk is a buttery-rich addition to breads, cakes, and salad dressings. Oh, I can hardly wait to share my favorite recipes with you.
Buttermilk is one of those ingredients I love to have on hand. Nothing beats a buttermilk biscuit, and cakes are so much more decadent. Since I got the hang of how this fabulicious ingredient works, I always have a carton in my fridge.
Now that buttermilk is a staple at my house, I’ve found even more recipes perfect for using it. Pancakes, fried chicken, waffles, pound cake, and so much more just get a level-up when you add it.
FAQs
Yes, you can freeze buttermilk if you don’t plan on using it within a week or two. Just let it thaw overnight in the fridge when you’re ready for it.
Traditionally, buttermilk was the liquid left after churning butter that fermented into a tasty probiotic. Authentic buttermilk is easy to make by adding two tablespoons of real buttermilk with live culture to a quart of whole milk, stirring well, and letting it sit at room temperature overnight. Check out my post on How to Make Buttermilk for other easy ways.
Buttermilk is a famous marinade for chicken (and almost any meat) because the high acidity level tenderizes meat while keeping it nice and juicy. That’s what I call a win-win!
Super Easy Recipes Using Buttermilk
Savory Recipes
1. Southern Buttermilk Biscuits
These flaky, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits only need a few staple ingredients and minimal prep time. And buttermilk makes these delicious bites the high rise of the biscuit world. Talk about soul food at its finest!
2. Skillet Cornbread
Moist, buttery, and melt-in-your-mouth cornbread with crispy edges has the perfect balance of sweet and tang. I could eat this all by itself fresh from the oven with a slab of butter melting over the top. Diced jalapeños thrown into the batter also are ridiculously mouthwatering.
3. Irish Soda Bread
Gnarly and rustic, a loaf of Irish soda bread is a must on Saint Patrick’s Day or any other day of the year for that matter. The tender, dense texture will have you moaning in delight. You don’t need special ingredients or equipment and no kneading for this melt-in-your-mouth delight.
4. Fluffy Cathead Biscuits
These Southern biscuits are buttery but perfectly crumbly, tender yet firm. You don’t even need to knead the dough for this one; just combine all the ingredients, shape the biscuits with your hands, and bake them to golden perfection. Oh yeah!!!
5. Homemade Tartar Sauce
Tangy, creamy tartar sauce is a classic with fish and chips, shrimp, or any seafood, for that matter. Mayo, sour cream, and buttermilk make this tasty tartar sauce base. However, garlic, sweet pickle relish, onions, and capers deliver the trademark flavors. It’s so delicious that sometimes I use it instead of mayo on my hamburger.
6. Cajun Chicken Avocado Salad
The salad dressing is the secret to the deliciousness of this extraordinary salad. And, of course, it’s all thanks to the buttermilk for the perfect blend of creamy and tart. How could the chicken and avocado be anything but ecstatic smothered in this delectable dressing?
7. Blue Cheese Dressing
This absolute tastiest buttermilk blue cheese dressing goes great with wings, chicken nuggets, and onion rings. Its creamy, smooth, and chunky texture owes its existence to real crumbled blue cheese and our star—buttermilk. Of course, a dash of hot sauce and chives really kick it up, too.
Sweet Recipes
8. Fluffy Pancakes
Now is a great time to get rid of that boxed pancake mix. Thanks to our friend buttermilk, these soft and light pancakes from scratch have a beautiful golden brown color and rise a mile high (only slightly exaggerated). They’re so easy to make you’ll swear off of the mixes. Fluffy pumpkin pancakes are my favorite twist on this already incredible recipe.
9. Buttermilk Pie
This classic Southern delicacy comes together fast with pantry-staple ingredients. The light creamy custard with a sweetly tangy zing wrapped in a homemade pie crust is divine. It’s great for holidays or whenever the sweet tooth craving hits.
10. Texas Sheet Cake
This amazing, buttery, chocolatey-rich sheet cake covered with chocolate frosting and topped with pecans is just what you need for your next family cookout. It’s like brownies on steroids, so the kids will love it. And, of course, it wouldn’t be the same without the star of our show—buttermilk.
11. Homemade Waffles
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got a box of Eggos in the freezer, too. But just for the kids when I have to work.😉 However, for quality family time, I make them from scratch. First, they’re so deliciously crispy tender, and second, they beat the boxed waffles hands down. Versatile and super easy are their middle names. Serve these buttermilk waffles with fried chicken for a pure-comfort Sunday brunch.
12. Old Fashioned Doughnuts
You don’t have to be a pastry chef to make this buttermilk recipe because it’s as easy as eating a donut. You’ll love the melt-in-your-mouth glaze over these delectable donuts. The last time I made this recipe, I even made my buttermilk from scratch! And don’t worry if they don’t turn out perfectly round because that’s part of their charm!
13. Devil’s Food Cake
No cake is more decadent than this one. And the chocolate buttercream frosting is over the top. Semisweet chocolate, heavy cream, and butter give you a sinfully rich frosting to top it off. Maybe that’s why it has the devil in its name.
The Wrap on Buttermilk Recipes
Now you can see how valuable it is to have this handy ingredient around. It adds flavor, texture, and deliciousness to anything you put it in. Cornbread is my go-to reason for using it. And the buttermilk pie is another family favorite. Which recipe do you plan on trying first? Let me know how it goes below. Thanks:)
