Olive Garden Breadsticks

Olive Garden Breadsticks are one of the primary reasons people go to the restaurant. These buttery breadsticks can’t be beat. They go so well with their salad and soups. Never fear, I will help you make them at home.

Homemade Olive Garden breadsticks wrapped in a kitchen towel and a salad


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Breadsticks at Olive Garden

Who doesn’t love these? Everyone loves the Olive Garden breadsticks! Hot and buttery, they are so hard to resist. Here is my homemade breadstick recipe that is a little heartier than what you will get in the restaurant.

I have seen a lot of recipes for these online, but I think the butter seasoning is missing a touch of oregano which gives these breadsticks a little something extra.

If you have any leftover of the buttery Parmesan blend you need to use it for when you take the breadsticks out of the oven.

Ingredients

Here’s a list of what you need:

  • Active dry yeast
  • Water
  • Sugar
  • Vegetable Oil
  • Salt
  • Bread flour
  • Butter
  • Garlic powder
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Oregano
Olive Garden breadsticks ingredients

How to Make Olive Garden Breadsticks

  1. Combine warm water, sugar, oil, and yeast in a large bowl of a mixer or a food processor.
    yeast, water, oil, and sugar in a mixing bowl
  2. Add flour and salt and process until the dough forms a nice uniform ball.
    Olive Garden breadsticks dough in a mixing bowl
  3. Place dough in a bowl that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.
  4. Cover the bowl with a towel and allow to rise in a warm place.
  5. When the dough has doubled in size, place dough on a well-floured board and roll out the dough into a large rectangle.
    breadsticks dough rolled out on a floured mat
  6. Cut the dough in half horizontally and then cut vertical strips of dough about 1 1/2 inches thick.
    Olive Garden breadsticks dough cut into strips
  7. Roll the strips of dough into logs.
    Olive Garden breadsticks dough rolled into logs
  8. Place dough logs on a greased baking sheet and allow them to rise until they have doubled in size.
  9. Melt butter and stir in Parmesan cheese and oregano.
  10. Just before baking the breadsticks, brush them with the melted butter mixture.
  11. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
  12. Brush any remaining Parmesan butter on the breadsticks just before serving.

CopyKat Tip: For best results, rub the oregano between your fingers as you place it into the butter. This will help release the oils of the oregano and make it taste even better.

homemade Olive Garden breadsticks wrapped in a kitchen towel, salad tongs, and a salad

Recipe Tips

A couple of suggestions I would like to add to this recipe:

  • Use bread flour if you have it. The breadsticks will come out slightly better. If you don’t have bread flour, don’t worry about it, all-purpose flour will be fine.
  • Use real butter. When you use real butter on the breadsticks you are enhancing the flavor.
  • Buy yeast in bulk. I like to buy yeast in bulk packages from large stores because you can save a lot of money doing this. I keep my yeast in an airtight container in the freezer to help lengthen its shelf life.
  • Kneading the dough. If you don’t have a mixer or a food processor you can knead the dough by hand, it will work out fine. Often if I am having a stressful day I love to knead the breadstick dough by hand because it helps me to work out my frustrations.

Do these taste exactly like Olive Garden breadsticks? No, but they are pretty close. You will find these have a much denser structure. So you are going to get a familiar taste with a heartier bread.

Homemade Olive Garden breadsticks, pasta with marinara, and salad on a plate

Love Olive Garden? Check out these copycat recipes:

More Copycat Bread Recipes

Be sure to check out more of my easy bread recipes and the best copycat Olive Garden recipes here on CopyKat.com!

Homemade Olive Garden breadsticks wrapped in a kitchen towel and a salad

Olive Garden Breadsticks

Enjoy homemade Olive Garden Breadsticks with this copycat recipe.
5 from 17 votes
Print Pin Rate Add to Collection
Course: Breads
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: Breadsticks, Olive Garden Breadsticks, Olive Garden Recipes
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Servings: 8
Calories: 353kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups water warm
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 1/8 teaspoon yeast or one package of active yeast
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 4 1/2 cups bread flour plus extra for the board
  • 4 tablespoons butter melted
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
  • 1/8 teaspoon oregano

Instructions

  • Combine warm water, sugar, oil, and yeast in a large bowl of a mixer or a food processor. Add 4 1/2 cups of flour and salt and process until the dough forms a nice uniform ball. Place dough in a bowl that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.  
  • Cover the bowl with a towel and allow to rise in a warm place. When the dough has doubled in size (this should take about an hour) place dough on a well-floured board and roll out the dough. Roll out dough into a large rectangle. Cut in half horizontally, and then cut vertical strips of dough about 1 1/2 inches thick.
  • Roll the strips of dough into logs. Place dough logs on a greased baking sheet, and allow them to rise until they have doubled in size (this should take about 45 minutes). You should get between 20 and 24 breadsticks from this recipe. Melt butter, and stir in Parmesan cheese garlic powder, and oregano.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Just before baking the breadsticks, brush them with the melted butter mixture. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Brush any leftover butter topping on these just before serving.

Video

Notes

For best results, rub the oregano between your fingers as you place it into the melted butter. This will help release the oils of the oregano and make it taste even better.

Nutrition

Calories: 353kcal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 510mg | Potassium: 95mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 185IU | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 3.3mg

About Stephanie Manley

I recreate your favorite restaurant recipes, so you can prepare these dishes at home. I help you cook dinner, and serve up dishes you know your family will love. You can find most of the ingredients for all of the recipes in your local grocery store.

Stephanie is the author of CopyKat.com's Dining Out in the Home, and CopyKat.com's Dining Out in the Home 2.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. kitcheniest

    5 stars
    These are absolutely perfect! I didn’t measure the dough when dividing very well, so I ended up with 10 extremely puffy bread sticks, they may look more like hot dog buns -lol! But the taste absolutely perfect, these are the closest to Olive Garden at home that I have ever made! Thank you for this great recipe.

  2. Nancy

    I think the breadstick recipe looks great and I look forward to making it. How large of a rectangle to your roll the dough out to?

  3. Warren Mass

    A couple of posters said they want to make these to go with spaghetti or lasagna. There is no way these “go” with any Italian pasta dish. Growing up in an Italian American family, I learned to break off a piece of Italian bread (which should be firm and crusty) and dip it in my sauce. You need a bread that will absorb the sauce without turning to mush. The OG breadstick are far too soft for this purpose. It is because they aren’t Italian that they can’t be used to eat like an Italian.

    • Stephanie Manley

      It’s wonderful we live where people are allowed to choose what they want to eat. I hate, I mean loathe when I see people putting ice into a glass of wine. I will admit I am a freak about wine being served at the right temperature. For these guests, I have learned to buy inexpensive bottles of white zinfandel for them, and I open other decent bottles of wine for others.

      With that being said, I also sometimes really enjoy a blue box of macaroni and cheese.

      There is no arguing taste.

  4. Paula H

    I want to make these tomorrow night to go with spaghetti, but I can’t seem to find the written version to fill in a couple blanks in the video. I couldn’t find a bar or pop-up on the video as was mentioned. Specifically, I didn’t hear:
    • how much sugar
    • is the cloth you cover it with wet (I’ve never made a bread dough!)
    • do you cover when letting the sticks rise
    • how much butter do I melt
    • what’s the oven temp
    • approximate baking time
    Thank you! Can’t wait to try them!

      • Melissa

        Thank you so much, these breadsticks are awesome. I have a question Stephanie, I am looking for a recipe close to Ginza of Tokyo’s garlic shrimp. Sadly Ginza closed both of our locations in Madison Wisconsin, and they are my favorite place to eat, I have been trying to recreate their garlic shrimp recipe for two years and haven’t been able to do it, can you please help me? The staff told me three ingredients that go in it, garlic powder, heavy cream, and panko breadcrumbs, and then you mix that & other ingredients together and refrigerate it, is almost like a paste. If you can help me figure out the other couple of ingredients that would be amazing. Thank you very much.

        Melissa

  5. Hillary

    The recipe says 1-1/2″ thick for the strips. Did you mean 1-1/2″ wide?
    1-1/2″ thick would make a really large breadstick.
    This looks so yummy and I love Olive Garden breadsticks! :0)

  6. Steve

    Made these breadsticks in my breadmaker on the dough cycle with the exact amounts and they come out and rolled out perfectly. The dough was very easy to work with and rose wonderfully after rolled out. Also froze the leftovers, definitely a do again recipe. Loved em

  7. Rachel

    I made these and served them with copycat chili and olive garden salad dressing. 7 and 13 year olds (as well as the hubs) LOVED it all. Thank you for the video (very helpful in the rolling of the breadsticks) and MANY thanks for making yeast not such a scary ingredient to work with! It’s rare I can concoct a meal that everyone devours, so I can’t thank you enough!

  8. Saidi

    I just made these last night, my VERY picky son loved them and could barely wait for the second batch to finish! I will definitely be making them again. We chose to add more garlic powder on top-the amount in the recipe was sufficient but I love garlic. Thanks so much for sharing 🙂

  9. Kristal Warnick Fernandez

    Dang. The dough is rising but it doesn’t say anywhere in the recipe when to add the salt so I left it out. I should have put it in with the dry ingredients. Is there a time where I can add it later? Or do I need to start over? Thank you!

  10. Jiji

    Hi Stephanie,
    I’ve never really made bread before and I’m excited to try it out your recipe. I have a question about the instructions written up top vs. the video. In step one, you’ve written “Combine warm water, sugar, oil, and yeast in a large bowl…”, yet in the video you added only the water, sugar and yeast. The oil did not come into play until after the flour was incorporated. My question: does it matter what order the ingredients are added? Thank you.

  11. rachel

    I made these tonight using gluten free flour (Cup4Cup). Because gluten free flour acts differently than wheat flour, I shaped them right after mixing, let them rise for 30 minutes, then brushed with butter and baked them. They came out great. 🙂

  12. kiki

    I am making these atm and there is an instruction difference between video and the written. At the end, do you brush the butter mix right away after rolling them or do we wait until sticks double in size? Does it matter?

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