Peanut butter is basically an entire food group for us here at Delish. While we love it right out of the jar with a spoon, it's one of our favorite ways to add creamy, decadent flavor to some of our favorite desserts, smoothies, and stir-fries. It lends so much richness to both sweet and savory dishes too. And of course, it's the quickest way to travel back to our childhood sandwiched in a PB&J sandwich or PB&J-inspired treat.
Hot take: What would chocolate be without peanut butter? Kinda boring, to be honest. We love how a salty peanut butter swirl or filling can really elevate any chocolate dessert, like our flourless peanut butter chocolate cake, peanut butter explosion cakes, and these extreme peanut butter brownies. If you want even more peanut butter dessert recipes, we've rounded up all of our favorites that will blow any PB lover's mind.
When it comes to savory dishes, peanut butter packs a punch when it comes to mixing up a killer sauce. Whether you use it for dipping summer rolls, topping peanut-sesame chicken lettuce cups, or tossing with sesame noodles or Thai peanut chicken pasta salad, having a peanut sauce on hand will make any weeknight dinner an event.
If you're serious peanut butter lovers like us, you will flip over all the ways you can incorporate peanut butter flavor into your favorite alcoholic desserts. Shake up a round of drunken peanut butter cups or make a batch of PB&J Jell-O shots for a sweet surprise at your next party.
Peanut Butter Cookies
Peanut butter cookies are one of those desserts we're always in the mood for. They're salty, sweet, and more rich than a chocolate chip cookie ever could be. We're suckers for the classic fork crosshatch look, but you can totally skip it. (Ready for the next level? Make peanut butter STUFFED cookies.)
Get the Peanut Butter Cookies recipe.
Peanut-Sesame Chicken Lettuce Cups
These flavor-packed peanut-sesame chicken lettuce cups are as simple as it gets for a weeknight dinner. For the juiciest, most tender shredded chicken, try to pick breasts that are similar in size, so they cook at roughly the same rate, then toss in the peanut sauce while hot for maximum flavor absorption.
Get the Peanut-Sesame Chicken Lettuce Cups recipe.
Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
We gave the classic flourless chocolate cake an upgrade in the form of LOTS of peanut butter, and we think it's the cake you Reese's lovers have been dreaming of. The fancy stripes are optional—but who doesn't love a little extra peanut butter?!
Get the Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake recipe.
Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta Salad
Skip bringing the traditional pasta salad to the summer potluck. This pasta salad has a creamy peanut dressing and is full of fresh, crunchy veggies with no mayonnaise in sight. It’s just as simple to make and is as delicious hot as it is cold, which means you can easily make it ahead of time.
Get the Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta Salad recipe.
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Apparently, a woman by the name of Mrs. Freda F. Smith from Ohio developed the original recipe for The Grand National Pillsbury Bake-Off competition in 1957. She lost, but her cookies became legendary. These are definitely up there as one of our top favorite Christmas cookies.
Get the Peanut Butter Blossoms recipe.
Summer Rolls With Peanut Dipping Sauce
These homemade summer rolls (aka shrimp rolls) make the perfect light appetizer or lunch, especially with this easy peanut dipping sauce. The dish is highly adaptable too. The shrimp can be replaced with slices of cooked pork, cilantro can take the place of mint or basil, and romaine or even iceberg can be a good Napa cabbage substitute.
Get the Summer Rolls With Peanut Dipping Sauce recipe.
Nutter Butter Cheesecake
This decadent cheesecake is loaded with Nutter Butters, chopped Heath Bars, and copious amounts of peanut butter. Make it for the PB lover in your life, and they'll love you forever. Looking for more Nutter Butter recipes? This Nutter Butter cake, well, takes the cake.
Get the Nutter Butter Cheesecake recipe.
PB&J Jell-O Shots
Just what you never knew you needed—your favorite childhood sandwich recreated as Jell-O shots. Three boozy layers made with your favorite kind of jam. It's nostalgia at it's finest!
Get the PB&J Jell-O Shots recipe.
Thai Peanut Skillet Chicken
The Thai peanut sauce on this chicken is crazy good. It adds the right amount of sweetness and saltiness to the dish. It's quick to make and you can add any vegetables you have on hand.
Get the Thai Peanut Skillet Chicken recipe.
Peanut Butter Explosion Cakes
These are the best molten cakes, hands-down. The Instant Pot or air fryer are both able to gently cook them to pure decadence. The cake is so rich with a perfectly creamy center that's to live for.
Get the Peanut Butter Explosion Cakes recipe.
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Chocolate peanut butter lovers, this cheesecake is for you. This is a rich and creamy peanut butter cheesecake with an Oreo crust and topped with lots of chocolate ganache for a decadent dessert and its always what we are craving. Go ahead and top with Reese's to drive the theme home.
Peanut Butter Cake
This cake was made with the peanut butter obsessed in mind; Peanut butter cake, peanut butter frosting, AND peanut butter drizzle. We love whole chopped Reese's, but for a colorful (and still peanut-buttery) twist, use chopped Reese's Pieces instead! If this cake still isn't enough, then you must try this peanut butter pound cake.
Get the Peanut Butter Cake recipe.
Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies
This genius hack is similar to the one we use in our Nutella-stuffed cookies. Mix peanut butter with powdered sugar, roll the mixture into balls, then freeze them. (This prevents a PB explosion while baking.)
Get the Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies recipe.
Chicken Satay
Satay, a national dish of Indonesia, is a popular Southeast Asian street food. We're using flavorful chicken thigh meat here, but you can substitute anything from breast meat to pork or beef or even tofu and vegetables. But that peanut sauce? Absolutely essential to the eating experience, and contains all the fragrant notes of lemongrass, coconut, fish sauce, and fresh lime zest.
Get the Chicken Satay recipe.
Reese's Peanut Butter Blondies
We have a real soft spot for our Reese's stuffed brownies, but when we're craving a cookie and peanut butter (and chocolate), these blondies are the solution.
Get the Reese's Peanut Butter Blondies recipe.
Chicken Pad Thai Nachos
We love pad Thai for the salty, sweet, pungent, spicy flavors it has all in one bite. So what better way to bring that flavor to dinnertime than by adding it to nachos? No lie, this might be our favorite way to top them.
Get the Chicken Pad Thai Nachos recipe.
Peanut Butter Dessert Lasagna
This dessert is peanut butter overload in the best way possible; layers of whipped cream, Nutter Butters, peanut butter, and vanilla pudding that's then topped with Butterfingers?! If you love this, you gotta try our s'mores dessert lasagna next.
Get the Peanut Butter Dessert Lasagna recipe.
Copycat Nutter Butters
We know, it's so easy to just pick up some Nutter Butters at the store, but these homemade versions are infinitely better. Once you make a batch of these, you can make Nutter Butter cakes whenever you want.
Get the Copycat Nutter Butters recipe.
Sesame Noodles
For these sesame noodles, you can use any noodle in a pinch, and the nutty dressing comes together in under 10 minutes. The only step that requires heating is boiling your noodles—the rest is just tossing everything together in a large bowl and slurping to your heart's content.
Get the Sesame Noodles recipe.
Peanut Butter Icebox Cake
This makes an extremely decadent cake. The amount of layers you end up with will depend on how much whipped cream you spread between the Oreos. You really can't go wrong, but fair warning: We ended up with 10 layers, which resulted in A LOT of cookies.
Get the Peanut Butter Oreo Icebox Cake recipe.
