24 Tasty Recipes Using Buttermilk

Refreshing and delicious, these nectarine-buttermilk pops are all you need during hot summer months.

"These are the best pancakes you will ever have," Alex Stupak says of these rich pancakes, which are light, fluffy and full of corn flavor from the masa harina (corn flour). The recipe is from his wife, Lauren Resler, a pastry chef.

Chef Carla Hall flavors her Southern buttermilk pie with rum and lots of nutmeg, which evoke the flavors of eggnog.

This beautiful, layered treat is tangy and smooth with floral notes from bay leaves and whole black peppercorn. Enjoy this sophisticated dessert after a hearty meal.

The key to the flaky, super-crisp texture of these crackers is pastry flour, a low-protein, low-gluten flour.

Made with a combination of grated cold butter for flavor and vegetable shortening for tenderness, Carla Hall's biscuits owe their towering, flaky layers to her classic laminating technique.

Instead of roasting brussels sprouts, toss raw sliced sprouts with arugula, parsley, and a light buttermilk dressing. If you've got a few extra minutes, quick-pickled shallots add color, texture, and tang.

A buttermilk marinade with a touch of cayenne ensures juicy meat, while a flour dredge spiked with garlic and onion powder delivers a crunchy, flavorful crust in every bite.

Crisp on the outside with an airy, spongy center, crumpets are lovely hot out of the pan but also reheat beautifully in the toaster. Buttermilk helps to keep them tender and light, while spelt flour lends a nutty flavor.

Be sure to use the best buttermilk you can get for this recipe: The ice cream is just as much about the rich, tangy buttermilk as it is the fragrant peaches.

Simplicity reigns supreme in this classic roast chicken that browns to perfection in your favorite cast-iron skillet. An overnight marinade in buttermilk not only infuses the chicken with flavor, but also ensures a tender bird. We cover the chicken with parchment then foil during roasting to lock in moisture, then discard both for a final broil to get the skin extra bronzed and crispy. Served with a spoonful of lemony-garlicky-schmaltzy pan juices, this is one serious chicken dinner winner.

A quick sauté renders baby kale leaves perfectly tender, allowing them to almost melt into the buttermilk-enriched béchamel in chef and cookbook author Alexander Smalls' riff on mac and cheese. For a smooth sauce, make sure all of the dairy is at room temperature.

Chef Justin Smillie serves this creamy dressing with his signature shareable salad. At home, assemble a composed salad of a mix of pickled, raw, and cooked ingredients to your taste.

Maneet Chauhan, cookbook author, TV personality, and chef-owner of Chauhan Ale & Masala House in Nashville, designed this dish to help get through a long, cold winter. "What I love about this recipe, in terms of the ingredients and method, is that the mint and charred flavors are reminiscent of summertime despite the chill of winter," she says. All of the components may be prepped ahead of time, leaving only the last-minute broiling and plating of the dish.

F&W food editor Josh Miller preheats the cast-iron skillet in the oven to get it screaming hot. You want the batter to literally sizzle when you pour it in to achieve a crispy crust. But before you pour the batter in, salt the skillet. His friend Lane Snider taught him this trick from his Granny Ollie—to fling a pinch (or two) of kosher salt into the hot skillet before pouring the batter in. This transforms the delightfully crispy (but sometimes bland) crust into a savory almost-cracker that you can't get enough of.

If you can't find full-fat buttermilk at the market, you're better off substituting a mix of milk and sour cream. Collect your sourdough discard in a bowl in the fridge, adding to it until you have enough for the recipe. The sourdough discard can keep for up to 5 days before using. You can also make pancakes with this batter.

This version of okroshka, a Russian chilled soup, is garnished with chopped vegetables, eggs, pickles, and fish roe. The tangy buttermilk in this recipe highlights zucchini's mild sweetness and light vegetal flavor. Look for pickled pattypan squash at Middle Eastern groceries; if you can't find it, substitute diced dill pickles.

Punchy rémoulade cuts through the richness of the crispy buttermilk fried chicken, which is served over a salad of pickled fennel and peaches in this recipe from Top Chef Season 16 winner Kelsey Barnard Clark. Seek out underripe, firmer peaches for the salad—they'll hold up to the pickling.

Whole buttermilk adds a cultured tang to classic sweetened whipped cream. A touch of sugar and salt balance the light and airy topping; adjust them to taste. Serve this easy dessert-topper with Lisa Donovan's cast-iron cornmeal cake.

Pouring the batter into a hot skillet ensures a perfectly cooked, dark golden–bottomed crust with a fluffy, golden interior. To check for doneness, pastry chef Lisa Donovan relies on the visual cues for browning—a cake tester will come out clean before the cake is cooked through.

Ben Mims riffs on chess pie in this ingenious recipe, transforming the classic Southern dessert into irresistible bar cookies.

The first bite of one of these buttermilk donuts takes you from a super crunchy, craggy crust to a deliciously tender cake interior, all draped in a glorious lemonade-like glaze. A touch of nutmeg adds a touch of old-fashioned flavor. Be sure to drain the donuts twice—first on a wire rack and then again on paper towels—to remove any excess oil before glazing them.

To create biscuits with incredibly-distinctive flaky layers, chef Michael Reed adds very cold, thinly-sliced butter to the dry ingredients and folds the dough over several times. The accompanying gravy is packed with sausage and to make this a truly satisfying breakfast. The recipe calls for pork sausage, but you can use chicken or turkey sausage instead. You can also cut the recipe in half for a smaller group. And if you'd like to make it even more hearty, top the biscuits and gravy with fried eggs.

Fire-roasted poblanos add everything that a fresh green chile has to offer in terms of smokiness and flavor without the heat (unlike a jalapeño or serrano which would be an automatic turn-off to the heat-averse). The buttermilk adds a refreshing tang that will keep you ladling more and more over turkey, chicken, or potatoes. It would even be a great base for the most memorable pot pie you'll ever have.