Restaurant Style Barbecue Rolls

If you have ever eaten at Red's Barbecue in Simi, or at any of the Wood Ranch Barbecue restaurants (FYI... it always bothers me when people spell it "barbeque"), then you have probably overindulged in the deliciousness of their garlic rolls. If you have ever wished you could make them yourself... read on.

In carefully meal planning this week to use as many similar ingredients as possible while still having very different meals (trying to save money), I decide on asian style chicken lettuce wraps, minestrone soup, and barbecue chicken salad.  Relatively healthy choices overall, except what is a barbecue chicken salad without garlic rolls, right? 

So, I figured there were two options-  buy a pack from Red's or make them myself. Since I had a loaf of leftover bread dough in the freezer, the economical choice seemed to be to make them myself. I was nervous that they wouldn't come out quite right, but I decided to just give it a shot. I'm glad I did. They were a huge success. Marc declared them better than either of the restaurant rolls.

Thus, I share with you my recipe. (Be forewarned, I don't like to measure anything).
1. Thaw a loaf of ready dough. You can buy it in the freezer section at Albertson's. It looks like this:
2. Thaw the dough according to the directions on the package (there is an option to microwave thaw it, in case you forget to do it overnight).
3. Cut the dough into 12 pieces and throw it in a big bowl.
4. Melt a few big spoonfuls of butter or margarine in the microwave.
5. Add a spoonful chopped garlic (depending on how much you love garlic). I recommend getting a jar of it pre-chopped garlic; this recipe uses a lot.

6. Add a spoonful of garlic powder and a spoonful of italian seasoning or parsley flakes, and mix it all together. Pour the mixture over the dough pieces in the bowl and stir to coat.
7. Place the rolls a few inches apart on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray (I highly recommend Trader Joe's olive oil spray).
8. Follow the "Quick Rise" instructions on the bread package (but don't worry if you don't have a full hour... even like 30 minutes is okay).
9. Preheat the oven to 375 and then bake them for 15 minutes.
10. Meanwhile, mix up a couple of spoonfuls of butter or margarine, about a 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil, and a few teaspoons of chopped garlic (depending on how much you love garlic), and about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning in the same big bowl you used before. Microwave it for about 30 seconds. Stir it altogether, then add a bunch of parmesan cheese.
11. Once the rolls are out of the oven, let them cool for a few minutes until they are cool  enough to pick up. Put them in the bowl a couple at a time and stir to coat, making sure they each get to the bottom to get nice and coated, and they will start to sort of coat each other too.
12. Serve. YUM!


There you are. The secret to yummy, delicious, diet-destroying, garlic rolls. :-) (You can tell when I have had a totally rough day, because I decide to cook foods that soothe my soul).