The Best Garlic Bread Ever

I love bread. Who doesn’t? And I’d eat garlic bread as a meal all by itself if I could. But I’m an “adult” and I can’t. And while garlic bread isn’t expensive necessarily, I do love buying in bulk and freezing.

Enter Costco, my favorite place to spend 2 hours on a Sunday. They have a pack of two fresh baguettes for like $4.99. I usually grab two, because they freeze really well.

Like seriously, you just cut these baguettes in half and wrap them in tin foil and toss them in the freezer. When you’re ready, you can take them out and defrost them in the microwave. It’s amazing. And you get basically two loaves out of one baguette, which is a lot of bread. I love it.

Garlic bread is seriously the easiest side to add to any meal. Spaghetti, sure. But also like any pasta, steak, chicken, pork, you name it. It’s just the best. AND you know exactly what’s in it so you can make it healthier if you want (like use less butter or salt, or a different kind if you prefer).

Make this bread immediately

So go grab a loaf of Costco bread – or any French baguette works – and get started.

Cut the bread in half and freeze one for later if you want. If you’re entertaining or cooking for a large group (or you’ve had one of those days and you need it all for yourself, no judgment), feel free to do the whole baguette. You’ll just double down on the spread for the whole thing.

Then cut it hotdog style. That may be a Midwest thing to say, so I apologize if you don’t get that. It basically means length-wise. Cut the half in half.

Once you got the bread prepped, it’s time to get the spread ready. Oh, and you may want to preheat that oven to 400°.  For the spread, you’ll want to use 1 stick of softened butter to start. You don’t necessarily leave it out on the counter to soften, I usually put it in the microwave for 10 seconds or so and call it good. Just make sure it’s not melted. You want spreadable butter. Adding some olive oil to the butter will make it spread more easily.

Now you’ll add the good stuff.

All these ingredients are added to your taste. I have some arbitrary measurements in the recipe, but adjust them to fit your needs/likes. I use kosher sea salt because it’s what I have on hand and I also use minced garlic and dried parsley because it’s easy. If you want to mince your own garlic and add fresh chopped parsley, knock your socks off, man. Does my way still taste great? Yes, it does.

Add that to your softened butter spread and mix it thoroughly.

Now it’s time to spread that on your bread. I slather it on that bread because that’s how I like it. You do you, though. Just make sure to evenly cover the tops of both sides. You don’t want anyone grabbing an unbuttered piece and then thinking you’re a cheap ass who just warmed up plain bread.

Once you got that bread buttered, you pop it in the oven for 10 minutes at 400°. I use a foil-lined baking sheet because as the butter melts, it likes to leak out a bit. Then it kinda pools around the bottom of the bread and gets crispy and delicious and my mouth is watering just thinking about it right now.

Once that bread is done, take it out and slice it up. Serve it with literally any meal you want. It’s great. People will compliment you and your homemade garlic bread. They will think you’re some kind of Martha Stewart wannabe and they’ll ask when your Food Network show debuts. Trust me.

Seriously, when I was taking these pictures I couldn’t even wait two minutes to take the picture before I ate two pieces. Seriously, I have a bread problem and that problem is that this garlic bread is so good it’s ridiculous.