What would you say is a cowboy recipe? For me, a cowboy recipe means bold flavors, simple prep, and, of course, grilled over an open flame. I’d say that has Over the Fire Cooking style written all over it!

Ribeye with herbs and butter, basting in a cast iron skillet on the grill

Plus, when it comes to cowboy food, you’ll see ingredients that make you think of the wide open spaces of the American West and Southwest. Think chili beans, cornbread, jalapeños (cowboy candy, anyone?), and cuts of meat that are perfect in the smoker or flashed on the grill. I’ve put together this collection of cowboy recipes I’ve made over the years to bring those flavors to life in your backyard. So, no matter what view you have, you can enjoy some cowboy cooking. 

Make sure to check out my Cowboy Butter and Cowboy Candy seasonings and recipes. They make bringing these cowboy inspired recipes even easier to bring to life!

Table of Contents

Why You’ll Love These Cowboy Recipes

Basically, if you like the flavor profiles of classic campfire cooking, you’re going to love these cowboy recipes. Lots of hearty main dishes, one-pot meals, various types of meat, fresh herbs, compound butter, ranch-style beans and much more. Whatever you choose, you’ll find a great recipe that works just as well for weeknight dinners as it does for cattle drives. 

A lineup of cowboy candy burgers with baked beans in a cast iron skillet in the background for cowboy recipes

Some of these recipes may seem like they have a ragtag selection of ingredients. But, that’s the beauty of these cowboy recipes. Everything works really well together, and you have the benefit of riffing if you’re camping or on the road (just like the real cowboys). I bet your truck can carry more than a cowboy’s horse, though! Including your FYR Grill. Wouldn’t want to put that in the saddlebags…

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​Want even more roundups (pun intended) that are similar to these cowboy recipes? Check out Cast Iron Skillet Recipes, The Best Tailgating Recipes and FYR Grill Recipes.

What Makes a Cowboy Recipe

In putting together this roundup, I made a few categories about what defines a cowboy recipe here at Over the Fire Cooking. Here’s what I came up with (besides being so freakin’ delicious): 

  • Cowboy Candy: A simple syrup made with candied jalapeños — usually fresh jalapeños simmered in white vinegar, white sugar, and brown sugar until everything hits a full rolling boil and turns into a glossy, tangy syrup.
  • Cowboy Butter: Basically any spicy herb and garlic butter. This sauce delivers a kick to cowboy steak, loaded cowboy burgers and tacos!
  • Chimichurri: A beloved South American cowboy sauce that is just next level. Chimichurri hails from Argentina and Uruguay and combines flat-leaf parsley, garlic, vinegar and olive oil. This creates a bright green sauce that’s both savory and tangy. Adding red pepper flakes or fresh tomatoes can turn it into a delicious chimichurri rojo, offering a slightly different, but equally awesome taste.
  • Skillet Meals: Nothing says cowboy cooking like a giant cast iron skillet on the grill grates, full of freakin’ delicious food and ready to feed a crowd.
  • Pendleton Whisky: This whisky isn’t just for cool cocktails. Pendleton is all about living life to the fullest: seeking out wild adventures, sharing a meal or drink with friends and making core memories. It’s simply great as is, so no wonder it’s the whisky of choice for cowboys, cowgirls and anyone who celebrates the American West. 
A lineup of cowboy candy burgers with baked beans in a cast iron skillet in the background for cowboy recipes

Ingredients you’ll want to have on hand for a lot of these savory recipes include ground beef, barbecue sauce, chili powder, sour cream, red onion, cheddar cheese, fresh lime juice, fresh cilantro and crispy bacon. There’s more to it than that, but this list will get you started with a boost of cowboy flavor! 

How to Make Cowboy Candy

I go into more detail in this post, but here’s a quick rundown of how to make cowboy candy. First, thinly slice 1 pound of fresh jalapeños. Then, put a cast-iron skillet on medium heat. Add 1 cup apple cider vinegar, 3 cups of granulated sugar, ½ teaspoon turmeric, ½ teaspoon of celery seed, 1.5 teaspoons of granulated garlic and 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper to the skillet.

Bring the vinegar mixture to a full rolling boil, then add the sliced jalapenos. Let those jalapeños cook in the boiling syrup for 2-3 minutes. Then, take them out with a slotted spoon and set them aside in a mason jar. Boil the sugar sauce for another five minutes, then remove it from heat and pour the boiling sweet syrup into the mason jar with the jalapeños.

Finish up your cowboy candy by placing the jar of jalapeños in the fridge to cool. Ideally, you’ll want them in there for three or four days, but you’ll get a nice flavor with two or three hours if you’re in a pinch. Then you’re ready to add the sweet and spicy kick of cowboy candy to any meal you desire!

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The Best Cowboy Recipes

I’ve divided up my favorite cowboy recipes into the buckets I mentioned. Let me know in the comments which ones you try and like the most!

Cowboy Candy Recipes

The Cowboy Candy Rubbed Grilled Steak with Bacon Jam is cooked, sliced, and ready to devour.

Cowboy Candy Rubbed Grilled Steak with Bacon Jam

Cowboy Candy Rubbed Grilled Steak with Bacon Jam is a next-level grilled steak that delivers big flavor. Featuring my new caramelized jalapeno Cowboy Candy Rub, it’s sweet, smoky, spicy—and guaranteed to impress.
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Cowboy Stuffed Onion rings piled on a serving plate.

Cowboy Candy Stuffed Onion Rings

Cowboy Candy Stuffed Onion Rings for a spicy, sweet and smoky onion ring experience!
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The burger is built and ready for the first bite. A total flavor bomb for your taste buds awaits.

Cowboy Candy Burger

This breakfast-style farm burger features bold layers of Cowboy Candy, crispy bacon, a fried egg, and a few spicy surprises.
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Here's a close up of the rib covered in lip-smacking Cowboy Candy.

Cowboy Candy Party Ribs

Cowboy Candy Party Ribs are smoked ribs layered with the bold, sweet heat of my new Cowboy Candy Rub. Smoke them until that bark is perfect, then finish in a cowboy candy-BBQ sauce crutch for a tender, flavor-packed bite.
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Cooking cowboy candy slices in the sugar syrup.

Cowboy Candy

Cowboy candy is a freakin' delicious way to turn fresh jalapeño peppers into a savory, sweet treat that is perfect for topping burgers.
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Cowboy Butter Recipes

A hand holding a full plate of grilled salmon fillets with cowboy butter, with a sliced lemon half on the side, in front of the FYR Grill

Grilled Salmon Fillets with Cowboy Butter

These grilled salmon fillets with cowboy butter are simple, easy, and absolutely off the charts for a weekday dinner or special occasion.
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A close-up of the Cowboy Butter Arayes in the hands of Derek Wolf, juicy and tasty looking.

Cowboy Butter Arayes

Cowboy Butter Arayes is a recipe inspired by the traditional Middle Eastern street food that is popular for a reason. It's freakin' delicious! Instead of hummus or tahini we're throwing the twist of Cowboy Butter, which makes it herby, garlicky, and spicy.
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The Cowboy breakfast skillet is a masterpiece that gets leveled up by savory and garlicky Cowboy Butter.

Steak and Eggs with Cowboy Butter

Steak and Eggs with Cowboy Butter is an easy brunch or breakfast recipe with juicy hanger steak bites, farm-fresh eggs, and crispy potatoes.
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The tender steak and juicy shrimp are dipped in the Cowboy Butter, which is next level freakin' delicious!

Cowboy Butter Steak and Shrimp

Cowboy Butter Steak and Shrimp takes your classic surf and turf dinner to the next level, especially with the addition of my new Cowboy Butter Rub.
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Steak Pinwheels with Cowboy Butter

Steak Pinwheels with Cowboy Butter

Since it's socially unacceptable to drink a spicy, herbaceous butter on its own, I had to come up with this epic Steak Pinwheels with Cowboy Butter recipe. It's the perfect combo, and every bite is so freakin' delicious.
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The Cowboy Butter Burger is the ultimate bite.

Cowboy Butter Burgers

Cowboy Butter Burgers bring the best of beef and butter together for one epic bite!
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Cowboy butter steak taco

Cowboy Butter Steak Tacos

Cowboy butter steak tacos are another way to use this spicy garlic herb butter, which is freakin' delicious on everything.
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Cowboy Butter Sliders

Cowboy Butter Sliders

Cowboy Butter Sliders are the ultimate comfort food. Tender sliced filets are slathered in the zesty spicy butter and paired with caramelized onions and gooey mozzarella cheese.
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One sliced and one whole Grilled Ribeye with Cowboy Butter.

Grilled Ribeye with Cowboy Butter

Grilled Ribeye with Cowboy Butter
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Chimichurri Recipes

Brazilian Steaks with Habanero Chimichurri sliced and topped with the chimichurri.

Brazilian Steaks with Habanero Chimichurri

These Brazilian steaks are topped with a habanero chimichurri for an extra spicy kick that is so freakin' delicious.
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closeup of a pile of cubed steak topped with tomato herb chimichurri

Parmesan Crusted Steak Skewers with Tomato Herb Chimichurri

These Parmesan Crusted Steak Skewers are juicy bites of grilled steak crusted in parmesan and served with fresh Tomato Herb Chimichurri. 
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steak and smashed potatoes being drizzled with a spoonful of chimichurri butter

Beef Short Ribs with Chimichurri Butter

These Grilled Beef Short Ribs with melted chimichurri butter are cooked over a smokeless firepit until tender and served with crispy smashed potatoes.
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Wagyu Secreto Steak with Roasted Chimichurri

Wagyu Secreto Steak with Roasted Chimichurri

American Wagyu is the best of the best when it comes to steak. Grilled over an open flame and then topped with roasted chimichurri, it's next-level perfection.
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The Rotisserie Beef Ribs smothered in Chimichurri.

Rotisserie Beef Ribs with Chimichurri

Rotisserie Beef Ribs brings the best of slow cooking to your backyard, yielding fall-off-the bone tender beef smothered in a flavor-packed chimichurri sauce.
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Chimichurri Steak & Shrimp Cooked Over the Fire

Chimichurri Steak and Shrimp

Perfectly grilled filet mignon, smoky bacon and succulent shrimp are leveled up by our delicious chimichurri sauce.
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grilled skirt steak

Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri

With a nice crusted outer layer and a tender, juicy inner layer, this cut is a fan favorite, especially because of the chimichurri sauce on top.
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beef back ribs

Beef Back Ribs with Chimichurri

Juicy and well marbled beef back ribs thrown on the smoker and cooked till they fall off the bone. Maybe add some chimichurri?
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Skillet Cowboy Recipes

Perfect Ribeye Steak Recipe.

Perfect Ribeye Steak

This is my take on making a butter-basted ribeye in your backyard, which is the makings of the Perfect Ribeye Steak.
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The All-American Country Breakfast Skillet is a work of art!

Country Breakfast Skillet

Ring in the New Year with this classic American breakfast, a hot, over-the-fire griddle filled with sausage, bacon, eggs, potatoes, and pancakes. And in classic OTFC fashion, we also have a ribeye steak!
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The Grilled Steak with Skillet Potatoes served in a cast iron pan.

Grilled Steak with Skillet Potatoes

Grilled Steak with Skillet Potatoes for comfort food at it's finest.
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southwestern breakfast skillet

Southwestern Breakfast Skillet

Here is my twist on a classic huevos rancheros with this Southwestern Breakfast Skillet. The ideal breakfast for any morning. 
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The Cast Iron Skillet Salmon recipes is one of the easiest ways to get smoky flavor into everyone's favorite fish.

Cast Iron Skillet Salmon

The ingredients and method for my Cast Iron Skillet Salmon recipe couldn't be any more straightforward or freakin' delicious!
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Chicken Fried Steak is Southern Comfort Food at its best. No need to go to Cracker Barrel when we can make it in our own backyard.

Chicken Fried Steak

Chicken Fried Steak cooked up in my awesome Finex cast iron pan is Southern comfort food at its best.
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beer brats

Beer Brats in a Skillet

Beer brats made in cast iron over the fire. Perfect backyard cooking.
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Skillet Choriqueso

Skillet Choriqueso

Skillet Choriqueso is quick, simple but extremely delicious! Enjoy!
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Leftover Brisket Breakfast Skillet Recipe

Leftover Brisket Breakfast Skillet

Start your morning off with a hearty breakfast skillet using leftover brisket. The best way to reuse some delicious beef again for even more flavor!
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Pendleton Whisky Cowboy Recipes

The French Onion Steak Skewers are plated next to a bottle of Pendleton Whisky next to the grill with flames.

French Onion Steak Skewers

Inspired by @salvalacocina and Turkish steak skewers, this French Onion Steak Skewers recipe features tender steak and caramelized onions deglazed with Pendleton Whisky.
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Whisky Brined BBQ Wings

The Best Brined BBQ Wings I know of are my whisky brined chicken wings. The Pendleton whisky adds great flavor but also helps retain moisture.
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Hot Smoked Salmon with a Whisky Chipotle Glaze

Hot Smoked Salmon

My Hot Smoked Salmon recipe features a Whisky Chipotle Glaze made with the finest Pendleton Rye Whisky.
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Steak with Peppercorn Cream Sauce and Pendleton Midnight Whisky served up.

Steak with Peppercorn Cream Sauce

Steak with Peppercorn Cream Sauce is a decadent meal to make for steak night or just for fun when paired with Pendleton Midnight Whisky.
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The perfectly cooked Whisky Injected Prime Rib is displayed on the cutting board in front of a bottle of Pendleton Whisky.

Whisky Injected Prime Rib

This Whisky Injected Prime Rib recipe is full of depth, smoke, and just the right hint of sweet oak flavor. Finished with a rich whisky butter, this holiday-worthy cook is pure fire-grilled perfection.
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A stack of sliced grilled steaks with bourbon butter and a bottle of Pendleton Whisky

Bourbon Butter for Grilled Steaks

We hosted an epic summer steak and fries party — and the bourbon butter I made to baste the grilled steaks 1,000 percent stole the show.
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Honey fire party ribs in the crutch on the smoker.

Honey Fire Party Ribs

Honey fire party ribs is a sweet and spicy take on party ribs, a viral trend recipe.
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Smoked party ribs ready to eat.

Smoked Party Ribs

Smoked party ribs are a freakin' delicious barbecue recipe to share with friends and family.
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What to Serve with These Cowboy Recipes

Beans are big in cowboy cooking, so you can serve these recipes with cowboy caviar, or use your crock pot to simmer some baked beans, pinto beans or black beans. Other sides include classic BBQ favorites like potato salad, cornbread, slaw or homemade biscuits.

A hand holding a burger over a bowl of cowboy butter for dipping with a live grill fire in the background

You can also use your Pendleton to make an old fashioned or mint julep! Finish off your freakin’ delicious meal with cowboy cookies, which typically have oatmeal, chocolate chips, pecans and coconut.

Leftovers and Reheating

​How you store and reheat your cowboy recipes will depend heavily on the recipe itself, so be sure to check the notes there. Generally, you should store components in airtight containers in the fridge for up to three days and reheat gently on your grill or stovetop. 

For More Beef

FAQs

Where should I buy my steak for these cowboy recipes? 

Honestly, the steak you can source from local grocery stores or your neighborhood butcher is high quality and freakin’ delicious. Another great option is to go online and buy some of the best pasture-raised beef you’ll ever taste. White Oak Pastures, US Wellness Meats, and Primal Pastures are some popular sites. If you know of another high-quality meat supplier I should know about, drop a comment below.

What type of ground beef should I buy? 

Here’s a good way to think about it: 80/20 beef is the sweet spot for burgers, tacos, and most of these cowboy recipes. There’s enough fat to stay juicy and flavorful without being overly greasy. Something like 85/15 still has good flavor if you want something a bit lighter, and then 90/10 has even less fat. If you want maximum flavor in these cowboy recipes, the fattier ground beef usually delivers better results. The fat renders during cooking so the beef stays moist and flavorful.

How do I adjust the spice level? 

You’ll see a lot of jalapeños in a handful of cowboy recipes. If you’re sensitive to spicy foods, you can remove the ribs and seeds from the chiles to tone down the heat. If you like it hot, leave ’em in!

What can I substitute for whisky? 

If you don’t want to use whisky in these recipes, you can go with beef broth, apple juice or apple cider vinegar. It won’t be exactly the same but you’ll still get flavor and depth in your cowboy recipes.

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Derek Wolf

Derek is the driving force behind Over the Fire Cooking. He started cooking with live fire in 2016 and decided to start a social media page so his friends and family could follow the journey. Fast forward to today and Over the Fire Cooking has spread across multiple platforms with millions now following Derek's fire cooking journey. He's a southern fellow who enjoys everything from classic BBQ to Central and South American inspired dishes. Whatever he's cooking up, it's guaranteed to be so freakin' delicious!

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Comments

  1. Derek,
    This OTF has been the best so far, IMO
    Thanks for the ideas of great and simple recipes to execute
    Harry

    Reply