Maple Cowboy Butter

Apply to chicken, wings, pork, salmon, or steak before grilling. Over direct heat the maple caramelizes into a glazed crust. It also works as a finishing rub on smoked ribs in the last 30 minutes.

To make cowboy butter: Mix 1 to 2 Tbsp. into 4 oz of softened unsalted butter and use it as a compound butter. Melt it over steak straight off the grill, slather it on corn, or serve it alongside bread at the table.

Our co-founder's recipe for Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings come out with sticky, crackling skin and a maple crust that tastes like it took all day. Dry brine them overnight, smoke them low over apple wood, then hit them with another sprinkle while they are still hot.

Cowboy butter is a steakhouse standard, a garlicky compound butter melted over a hot steak at the table. Co-founder Mike Johnston started there and moved it to the smoker, working maple sugar and smoked Spanish paprika into the base so it could stand up to fire and time.

It launched as a Savory Reserve small-batch, limited release blend, but enough people asked about it coming back that we made it permanent, the first Reserve release to earn its place in our main line.

It's family friendly and sweet enough for a crowd that does not want heat, and it still earns respect from the low-and-slow crowd, because the maple and butter build a bark that a plain sugar rub never gets to.