Garlic Lemon Butter Seared Scallops
on Feb 16, 2021, Updated Mar 11, 2025
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These Garlic Lemon Butter Seared Scallops will be on your weeknight dinner rotation! You’ll start by searing your scallops and then making your lemon garlic butter sauce topped with chopped parsley. This recipe has less than 10 ingredients, and the flavors come together simply.
If you’re looking for more seafood recipes, check out our Five Ingredient Habanero Prawns, and Lobster Rolls with Pickles & Tarragon Butter.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
These seared scallops are a special recipe because they come together in under 15 minutes, and include less than 10 ingredients. The sauce is rich but balanced out with the freshness from the parsley.
- Quick: With a total of 15 minutes with a 5-minute prep time, these scallops cook quickly!
- Less than 10 ingredients: This recipe has less than 10 ingredients, and a lot of them are pantry staples.
- No fuss, but fancy: It’s a special recipe that not only comes together quickly, but it’s quite impressive!
Recipe Ingredients
Below are the ingredients you need to make this recipe, including all our tips and substitutions.
Sea Scallops: We are using dry sea scallops for this recipe! Make sure you completely dry your scallops to get the perfect sear. The drier your scallops are, the best crust you’ll have with tender flesh.
Unsalted Butter: This creates the most luscious sauce melted with fresh garlic cloves, minced, and fresh lemon juice.
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper: Truly the only seasoning you will need, but you can opt to adjust with your favorite spices.
Fresh herbs: Like basil, fresh thyme, or parsley. For this, we are using fresh parsley. Even some chives or dill will work.
The full list of ingredients with exact quantities can be found on the recipe card below.
Tips and Substitutions
Use your favorite herbs: For this recipe, we are using parsley, but you can use any such as basil, thyme, or chives.
Dry your scallops: Dry your scallops extremely well with paper towels to ensure they get an even coating and crust when searing.
Tips for the Perfect Lemon Butter Sauce
This lemony, saucy butter sauce is perfect poured over seared scallops! You want to ensure that the sauce stays intact and doesn’t break! Similar to a buerre monte, which is a classic French butter sauce, this sauce has the addition of lemon juice.
You can serve this lemon garlic sauce on anything from shrimp, lobster tails, salmon, to chicken, to any protein of your choice!
- Ensure the skillet is warm, but not HOT, with the heat off as you emulsify the butter.
- If your sauce breaks, don’t panic! Just bring the heat up to low, and add in water to the skillet, constantly stirring to re-ignite your butter sauce.
- Ensure your butter is cold and cubed! This will help make your silkiest sauce!
- Add extra flavor and aroma if you’d like by adding lemon zest.
How to Make Seared Scallops in Butter Sauce
Step 1: Pat your scallops dry with a paper towel. Season on all sides with salt and pepper.
Step 2: Start by heating your oil in a skillet. Sear your scallops for 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
Step 3: In the same pan, with the heat off, add in your minced garlic, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add in butter, stirring to emulsify.
Step 4: Finish the sauce with lemon juice and add back in your scallops to heat through. Finish with parsley.
The full detailed instructions can be found on the recipe card below.
Serving Recommendations
Looking for some ideas to serve this seared scallop recipe? We have you covered! You can serve your scallops over pasta, over rice, polenta, risotto, creamed spinach, roasted vegetables, or salads, to name a few.
- Sides: Serve with Paprika Roasted Baby Potatoes, or Citrus Avocado Salad with Chili Crisp for a side salad.
- Appetizers: Shrimp Cocktail with Old Bay Mayo makes a great starter with these scallops, or opt to serve it with Roasted Olives with Feta, Garlic & Citrus.
- Desserts: To build out a full meal, serve this with our Easy Chocolate Mousse Recipe.
Seared Scallops FAQs
Make sure your scallops are super dry! Start by heating your olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until piping hot. Add your scallops in a single layer and sear scallops until golden, around 2 to 3 minutes per side, remove and transfer to a plate to create your sauce.
Dry scallops are a little bit sweeter and sear a little easier than wet scallops. Wet scallops taste a tad more watery, and soapy and most likely use artificial preservatives, this also gives the scallops a more rubbery finish.
The secret to searing scallops is to really ensure they are dry before cooking them! This will ensure they are getting the perfect crust.
You can do either! We like to start a hard sear with oil, and then go in with butter to finish the sauce like we’re doing in this recipe.
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15 Minute Pan Seared Scallops (with Garlic Lemon Butter)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry scallops, cleaned and dried well
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- juice of 1 small lemon, adjust with more juice according to your preference
- 1/4 cup finely chopped chopped parsley
Instructions
- Pat your scallops dry: Pat your scallops dry with a paper towel. Season on all sides with salt and pepper.
- Sear scallops: Start by heating your olive oil in a skillet, you can use stainless steel or a cast-iron skillet, over medium-high heat until piping hot. Add your scallops in a single layer, in a clockwise position, and sear scallops until a golden brown crust forms, around 2 to 3 minutes per side. Turn the scallops in your clockwise formation to keep track of the timing of each scallops. Remove and transfer to a plate. Turn the heat off the skillet, but keep on the stovetop.
- Make your lemon garlic butter sauce: In the same pan, with the heat off, add in your minced garlic, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, it should soften, but you don't want any browning here. Stir until fragrant.
- Then add in your butter, constantly stirring to emulsify. You want your butter sauce to be smooth and creamy, by constantly stirring and turning off the heat to do so, will ensure your sauce doesn’t break.
- Finish the sauce with lemon juice.
- Add scallops back in, and warm through: Lastly, add your scallops back in the pan to heat through and toss with the sauce. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
A really delicious seared scallop recipe! A classic, simple and comes together in under 15 minutes. I hope you enjoy!
It might be a great recipe but it is a pain in the ass to print off and it takes way too much paper to do so. So, I did sign up for your newsletter but I will unsubscribe asap!! Sorry but wasting paper etc. is just not cool.