Pizza Hut Style Cheesy Bread

Cheesy breadsticks are a favorite in my household, primarily Mrs. Unmanly Chef. She LOVES them, specifically the ones from Pizza Hut. They’re cheesy, crispy, and soft all at the same time, making for a heavenly dish. But who wants to deal with delivery? I know it literally comes to your door, but what if you could just make it yourself and have it be even MORE delicious?

Well luckily I got you covered. Homemade cheesy bread is ridiculously easy to make (once you’ve made your dough) and I would venture to say it’s even tastier than the real thing! But first let’s talk a little backstory about BREADSTICKS! So legend has it that a Italian Duke had difficulties digesting regular bread, so he had his people craft a bread-stick that was more digestible. The end result was the thin and crispy breadsticks you often associate with breadsticks. From there breadsticks have evolved into various different machinations, from being the thin crunchy sticks that resemble the originals to full on pieces of bread. Any way you slice it (see what I did there) breadsticks are delicious and I for one love a pre-carb before my main dish of carbs, it’s just right.

Anyways back to this dish, the key to it is making your own, specifically a focaccia dough. Why is making your dough so important? The quality is superior and it’s hard to find pre-made focaccia dough out in the wild. Also pan-pizza is essentially focaccia anyways, so it will taste more like the real thing. I always use the recipe from Bon Appetit it’s pretty full proof and has always worked for me. One note about the recipe is that they call for you to rest it for up to 24 hours, I never do that and it seems to turn out fine, so if you’re short on time a few hours will probably suffice. I highly recommend using a stand mixer for this as focaccia is a wet dough and it can make for a gloopy mess if you’re using your hands. I recommend making a bunch and freezing the dough in portions so you can easily make it at a moments notice.

The other essential aspect to this cheesy bread is using a dry mozzarella with a blend of provolone and romano in it as well, that blend really works wonders in conjunction with the bread.

Once you make this dish, you’ll wonder why you ever ordered cheesy bread before! (well obviously if you’re drunk and it’s 2AM I recommend ordering, but in all other situations this is better!)

Recipe – Pizza Hut Style Cheesy Bread
Ingredients
(1 portion of focaccia bread dough)
1 cast iron skillet (9″ wide is preferable)
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
2 Cup of Whole Milk Dry Mozzarella
(the amount of cheese is really preference based, you want it cheesier? add more cheese and don’t write me an angry email)
1/4 Cup of Shredded Provolone
1/4 Cup of Shredded Romano
1 Tsp. of Oregano

Method
*pre-heat your oven to 450F*
Step 1-Grease the cast iron skillet with the olive oil.
Step 2-Add your dough and press it into the sides of the skillet so that it’s completely covered.
Step 3-Add half of your cheese to the dough by sprinkling it over top.
Step 4-Heat the pan at a medium high heat until the bottom of the crust begins to turn golden brown.
Step 5-Once the bottom of the pan has gotten sufficiently golden brown, transfer the entire thing to the oven and bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the cheese has turned almost golden brown.
Step 6-Now add the balance of your cheese overtop of the existing cheese and bake again until that cheese is fully melted. The dough should be golden brown at this point with a nice crispy rim around the exterior. Enjoy! (Sprinkle the oregano to taste)