Swap out your traditional centerpiece for a delicious Thanksgiving butter board turkey with sweet honey butter—a perfect appetizer for grazing. Grab a buttery dinner roll, fresh fruit, or a crostini, and dive in!
What is a Butter Board?
Why serve traditional bread and butter as an appetizer when you can make a festive Thanksgiving butter board? Butter boards feature softened butter spread over a wooden board topped with flavorful garnishes. They are served family-style, so guests can scoop the butter with bread, fresh fruit, or crackers.
Butter boards first appeared in Josh McFadden’s 2017 cookbook Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables and gained popularity in 2022 after a TikTok video by Justine Snacks went absolutely viral.
Ingredients You Need
- Butter: Use high-quality, salted butter like Kerrygold to balance the sweetness of the other ingredients.
- Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar sweetens the butter and gives it a light, spreadable consistency.
- Honey: Naturally sweeten the compound butter with honey and drizzle more as a tasty garnish.
- Cinnamon: Ground cinnamon adds a warm fall flavor.
- Pear: Use half a pear for the turkey face and body, then slice the other half to create feather-like accents. You can even add eyes and a beak to make it more festive.
- Toppings: My favorite holiday toppings are chopped pistachios, fresh figs, dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds, and chopped rosemary.
Additions and Substitutions
Butterboards are an easy, crowd-pleasing way to entertain. Plus, you get to show off your creative side.
- Switch up the flavors. For a savory twist, use miso compound butter, bone marrow butter, or pesto butter instead of honey butter.
- Experiment with different spreads. For example, build the Thanksgiving butter board turkey with whipped ricotta dip or cranberry whipped feta dip.
Tools You Need
All you need is a food processor and a high-quality wooden board or platter to make the recipe. Spread the Texas Roadhouse-inspired honey butter onto the board using a butter knife or silicone jar spatula for the best results.
How to Make a Thanksgiving Butter Board
The full recipe with measurements is in the recipe card below.
Step 1: Remove the butter from the refrigerator for one hour in advance.
Combine the softened butter in a food processor with powdered sugar, honey, and ground cinnamon until it is spreadable.
Step 2: Transfer the butter mixture to a wooden board or platter and use a butter knife to create the turkey feathers and body.
Preparation Tip
I recommend starting with the feathers and working your way down to the body.
Step 3: Decorate the feathers with toppings like chopped pistachios, dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds, figs, and finely chopped rosemary. Take half a pear to form the turkey’s face and body.
Expert Tips
- Soften the butter. Use room-temperature butter for easy spreading; set it out about an hour before you start.
- Spread the butter. Smooth the butter onto your board or platter in a thin, even layer. Aim to create grooves and swirls as you form the feathers and body for the turkey, forming wells for the toppings.
What Can I Serve With A Butter Board?
Invite guests to dive into the sweet Thanksgiving butter board with crostini, crackers, air fryer pita chips, or pillowy soft French bread like pão de sal.
Pair the sweetened butter with Thanksgiving classics like buttery dinner rolls, or try apple slices, pear slices, graham crackers, or pretzels. For more ideas, these are the best crackers for charcuterie boards. And don’t forget to provide utensils for spreading. No double dipping allowed!
Topping Ideas for the Holiday Butter Board
- Spreads: Garnish with fig jam, balsamic glaze, cranberry jalapeno sauce, tamarind chutney, agave nectar, hot honey, olive oil, or chili oil.
- Fresh Fruits: Decorate with chopped dates, persimmon, or a sprinkle of lemon zest.
- Herbs and Veggies: Add thinly sliced red onions or shallots, chives, mint leaves, or edible flowers.
- Nuts and Seeds: Finish the board with hulled sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, or pine nuts instead of pistachios.
- Seasonings: Lightly sprinkle za’atar, sumac, Aleppo pepper, or red pepper flakes over the butterboard.
- Savory Toppings: Add crumbled bacon or chopped prosciutto.
What To Do With Leftovers
- Storage: The butter will stay fresh for two weeks without toppings. However, once you add the toppings, the USDA recommends consuming the butter within a few hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I use instead of butter?
Dips and spreads aren’t new to the appetizer game, but serving them on a board is genius and perfect for entertaining.
If you’re unsure about serving a Thanksgiving butter board, try butter bean hummus, beetroot dip, labneh, Biscoff butter, Greek yogurt, apple butter, or Nutella.
Can I make this recipe in advance?
Make your butter board 1-2 days in advance by preparing the honey compound butter and spreading it onto the board. Leave the toppings off until just before serving. Cover the board tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Remove the butter from the refrigerator 30 minutes to an hour before serving to soften and finish with your toppings.
How long can a butter board sit out?
Butter can sit out for about 2 hours at room temperature, depending on the environment.
More Thanksgiving Recipes:
Thanksgiving Butter Board
- Wooden Board or Platter
- 3 sticks salted butter, softened at room temperature
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup hulled pistachios, chopped
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- ¼ cup fresh pomegranate seeds
- ½ cup fresh figs, quartered
- fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
- Remove the butter from the refrigerator for one hour in advance. Combine the softened butter in a food processor with powdered sugar, honey, and ground cinnamon until it is spreadable.
- Transfer the butter mixture to a wooden board or platter and use a butter knife to create the turkey feathers and body. Tip: I recommend starting with the feathers and working your way down to the body.
- Decorate the feathers with toppings like chopped pistachios, dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds, figs, and finely chopped rosemary. Take half a pear to form the turkey's face and body.
- Soften the butter. Use room-temperature butter for easy spreading; set it out about an hour before you start.
- Spread the butter. Smooth the butter onto your board or platter in a thin, even layer. Aim to create grooves and swirls as you form the feathers and body for the turkey, forming wells for the toppings.
Melissa Wagner
Wednesday 8th of November 2023
I am so excited to try out this butterboard for Thanksgiving this year! I loved how easy it was to shape the sweet cinnamon butter into a turkey—an extra kudos because we are huge Texas Roadhouse fans.