Easy Homemade Garlic Bread

The perfect cozy side dish to serve with almost any meal, this Easy Homemade Garlic Bread recipe is a back pocket recipe you can have ready on your table in about 15 minutes.

Have you ever met anybody who doesn't like garlic bread? Yeah, me either. It's a classic and cozy staple to serve for all kinds of dishes such as pastas (hi Tomato Basil Pasta), soups (hey Broccoli Cheddar and Bacon Soup), stews (yes to Colombian Chicken Stew), and a variety meat dishes (most definitely Chicken Parm Meatball Bake). Garlic bread is not only really delicious, but it's also really simple to make! All you need to do is mix up a quick garlic butter (which in and of itself is pretty amazing) and slather it onto your bread.

Plus, it's easily made and frozen ahead of time (more on this below), so you can have garlic bread on hand and ready to be baked anytime.

So let's get to making it! The text below offers some tips for making it, or you can scroll down to the bottom for the complete recipe.

Garlic Bread Ingredients and Substitutions

Here is a brief overview of the ingredients needed for this recipe. The full recipe with quantities is listed below this text in the recipe card. If substitutions are available for this recipe, they'll be listed here. If you don't see a substitution you are looking for, please leave a comment below.

• roasted or fresh garlic (many grocery stores carry already roasted garlic cloves in the deli section, which is where I buy it, but if you can't find it, you can either make your own or use fresh garlic!)
• unsalted butter (make sure it's softened---if it isn't a quick hack to cut the butter into small cubes, thin slices or even grate it with a cheese grater: by increasing the surface area, the butter softens super quickly within minutes)
• garlic powder
• kosher salt (if you are using parmesan cheese you'll only need a pinch)
• fresh parsley
• grated parmesan cheese (this is optional)
• Italian loaf (you can easily use a different bread for this, but check out the discussion below for the best bread choices for garlic bread)

Best Bread to Use

The recipe calls for a large Italian loaf (generally about a 2 pound loaf) or a French loaf. These two types of bread are good because they are large, with thick soft interiors perfect for soaking up garlic butter.

However, you can really make garlic bread with anything, depending on what you and your family prefer. You can use baguettes, ciabatta, sourdough, etc. Though the drier the bread interior (such as baguettes), the less garlic butter you'll want to add. This is because you want to avoid the garlic bread from feeling too oily if there isn't a lot of soft bread to soak up the butter.

How to Make It

In terms of a recipe for garlic bread, what we really have going on here is actually a recipe for garlic butter! Because all you need to do to make garlic bread is to make the garlic butter, spread it on some bread and bake it!

The garlic butter itself is so simple to make. My version calls for roasted garlic cloves (which I buy already roasted in the deli section), but if you can't find buy it and don't want to make it, you can use fresh garlic too. I've made it plenty of times both ways, and either yield drool-worthy results.

As the recipe is written, all the garlic butter ingredients are minced up, and then mixed together.

Want to make it quicker? If you have a mini food chopper or mini food processor at home, you can throw all the garlic butter ingredients into it without pre-mincing them and process it all together.

Once you've got your garlic butter, it's time to slather it on. This garlic butter should be enough for a large Italian loaf of bread. Once it's on, it needs to get baked for about 10 minutes, and then a quick broil for 2-3 minutes just to crisp up the top.

Got Leftover Garlic Butter?

Lucky you! The garlic butter can last up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. That's a bonus!

You can use extra garlic butter for more garlic bread, but you can use it for other purposes, for which there are plenty.

You can use it on anything that would taste great with buttery garlic! We're talking pastas, rice dishes, and meats, such as chicken or steak, and potato dishes! The options are endless.

I especially think it would be amazing on this Garlic Butter Chicken Bites or in this Skillet Pizza Gnocchi.

How to Make it Ahead

Garlic bread can easily be made ahead of time. As stated above, the garlic butter can be stored for up to 2 weeks. But, you can also spread the butter on the loaf and either refrigerate it for a few days wrapped well in plastic, or, freeze it for 3-6 months.

Frozen garlic bread can be baked straight from the freezer. It will just take an additional few minutes to cook.

Making the recipe? Be sure to leave a comment with a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on your experience! Have a question? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can!

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