Pizza Hut Breadsticks

A at-home recipe for Pizza Hut breadsticks, made from scratch. Chewy, buttery, loaded with seasonings and A straightforward dipping sauce!

Does anyone else have the same nostalgic soft spot that we do for Pizza Hut? We honestly can’t remember the last time we actually got pizza from them (maybe 10 years ago?), but growing up, we LIVED for a trip to Pizza Hut! Thankfully those were back in the days of Book It! so we often had a great excuse to convince our parents to go. Fast forward to high school when a large group of us would routinely go to the movies on Friday nights and walk over to the Pizza Hut for food afterwards (and then call our parents from the PAY PHONE for a ride home… oh our gosh we're old!).

We loved the little video game console you could play while you waited, the memorable crushed iced and pitchers of pop, the salad bar, the personal pan pizzas, and oh those breadsticks! We're a sucker for any type of appetizer or snack you can throw at us to curb our hunger before a meal arrives, so breadsticks with a pizza order is a no brainer.

Last week when we had our families over to drop the gender reveal news, we decided to order pizzas. We thought it would be a great opportunity to try our spin on a at-home recipe for Pizza Hut breadsticks. If you’ve never had them, they are light and chewy with a buttery crust and tons of seasoning on top. We could actually make an entire meal just out of breadsticks, truthfully.

We saw this recipe some time ago and have been meaning to try it… we were thrilled with how it turned out given some of our tweaks!

Here’s how we altered it:

• The original recipe called for lots of (butter-flavored?) oil, but we used melted butter instead in all instances. Butter always trumps oil in our world.
• There is enough dough for two pans of breadsticks, so that’s what we made. If you don’t have two 9×13-inch pans, we think you could probably use one 13×18-inch pan.
• We cut the amount of seasoning in half because we only ended up using half of what we made and we thought it was more than enough!
• We got rid of the garlic salt in the topping (too salty for our taste!) and upped the garlic powder a bit and added a little salt on its own.
• Based on comments on the post, we brushed the dough with butter before it started to rise, then again as soon as it came out of the oven and immediately sprinkled the seasoned topping on. We don’t remember the topping being baked on; we think adding it afterward gives these breadsticks more of an authentic flavor.

Everyone LOVED these breadsticks and at least two people asked if we made them myself, from scratch.

Why yes, yes we did!

If a breadsticks order is a must for you, definitely give these a try! They’re straightforward, don’t take long, and are DELICIOUS!

Three years ago: Frozen Brownie Sundae
Four years ago: Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

• Yield: 20 breadsticks
• Prep: 50 minutes
• Cook: 10 minutes
• Total: 2 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the Dough:

• ¼ cup ( 32 g ) non-fat dry milk powder
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2¼ teaspoons ( 2.25 teaspoons ) instant rapid-rise yeast
• ½ teaspoon ( 0.5 teaspoon ) salt
• 1⅓ cups ( 333.33 ml ) warm water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups ( 500 g ) bread flour

For the Dipping Sauce:

• 15 ounce ( 425.24 g ) can tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon ( 0.5 teaspoon ) dried basil
• ½ teaspoon ( 0.5 teaspoon ) dried marjoram
• ½ teaspoon ( 0.5 teaspoon ) garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon ( 0.25 teaspoon ) salt

For the Breadstick Seasoning:

• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1¾ teaspoons ( 1.75 teaspoons ) garlic powder
• 1½ teaspoons ( 1.5 teaspoons ) dried basil
• ½ teaspoon ( 0.5 teaspoon ) salt
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided, melted

Method

1. Make the Dough: Place the dry milk powder, sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add the water and stir to mix well. Allow to sit until the mixture starts to bubble, about 2 to 5 minutes. Add the olive oil and stir again.
2. On low speed, gradually add the flour until a dough begins to form. Increase the speed to medium-low and knead until a soft, slightly tacky dough forms and it clears the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide in two.
3. Coat the bottoms of two 9x13-inch pans with 4 tablespoons each of the melted butter. Roll each piece of dough into a 9x13-inch rectangle and fit in the bottom of each pan. Brush the tops of the dough with 1 tablespoon melted butter each. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft-free area until puffed and nearly doubled in size, about 90 minutes.
4. Make the Dipping Sauce: While the dough is rising, prepare the dipping sauce. In a small saucepan, stir together the tomato sauce, sugar, oregano, basil, marjoram, garlic powder and salt. Place over medium heat until the sauce begins to boil, then reduce to low and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
5. Bake the Breadsticks: Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.
6. Once the dough has risen, remove the plastic wrap and score each pan of dough into 10 equal breadsticks (we used a pizza cutter). Bake until golden brown and the edges begin to look crisp, 10 to 15 minutes.
7. For the Breadstick Seasoning: While the breadsticks are in the oven, prepare the breadstick seasoning. In a small bowl, stir together the Parmesan cheese, onion powder, oregano, garlic powder, basil and salt.
8. As soon as the breadsticks come out of the oven, brush each pan with the remaining 1 tablespoon each melted butter, then immediately sprinkle with the breadstick seasoning. Allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the pan, then use a spatula to slide the breadsticks out onto a cutting board. Slice the breadsticks with a pizza cutter or knife and serve warm or at room temperature with the dipping sauce.