Nando's
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A whole chicken opened flat, a day in the marinade, and a baste that only goes on in the last five minutes because it…
How to Make Nando's Garlic Bread at Home
Garlic Bread With Peri-Peri Butter, Which Is the Whole Idea
Crisp edges, soft middle, and butter that has actually soaked in.
AI-generated illustration created for food.fast. It is not photographic evidence of a prepared batch.
Garlic bread is one of those things everybody assumes they already know how to make, and most home versions are worse than they need to be for one reason: the butter sits on top instead of going in.
The fix is to split the baguette lengthways rather than cutting it into slices, and to spread a soft compound butter right to the edges of both cut faces. As it bakes, the butter is absorbed into the crumb from the cut surface downward. You get bread that is buttery all the way through with a crisp golden face, rather than dry bread with a greasy top.
The peri-peri version adds warmth and a lot of colour, and it is a good way to use up the last of a jar of sauce.
How this page shows its working
The method gives quantities, timings and observable cues rather than asking you to guess. The 4 cases in If it goes wrong explain likely causes and corrective action; 1 ingredient note explains choices that materially affect the result.
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Compound butter, and why it must be soft rather than melted
A compound butter is softened butter beaten with flavourings. It matters that it is softened and beaten, not melted.
Melted butter poured over bread runs straight through to the tray and pools underneath. It fries the bottom crust and leaves the middle dry. Soft butter spread onto a cut surface stays where you put it, melts gradually as the bread heats, and soaks downward evenly.
Take the butter out of the fridge an hour ahead, or cut it into small cubes and leave it fifteen minutes. If you are impatient, grate it on a box grater - it softens in about three minutes.
Beat it hard with a fork until it is pale and fluffy before adding anything. That beaten air helps it spread thinly and evenly rather than tearing the soft crumb.
A day-old baguette is better than a fresh one
Fresh bread has a soft, moist crumb that goes squashy under butter and steams rather than crisping. A day-old baguette has lost some of that water, so it takes the butter in and crisps at the cut face. This is one of the few recipes where the reduced-price bread is the right buy.
How to make it, step by step
Make it
-
Beat the butter until pale, then add everything else
Hard, with a fork, for a minute until it lightens in colour and looks fluffy. Then garlic, peri-peri sauce, parsley, paprika, oregano and salt, beaten through.
About 4 min -
Split the baguette lengthways, not into slices
One long cut through the middle, opening it into two halves. This is what lets the butter reach the whole loaf.
About 1 min -
Spread thickly, right to the edges
All of the butter across both cut faces. To the edges and the corners - dry ends are the most common complaint about home garlic bread and this is why.
About 2 min -
200 °C / 180 °C fan / gas 6 for 12 minutes
Cut side up on a lined tray. The butter will bubble and the edges will go deep gold. Cheese, if using, goes on for the last four minutes only.
About 12 min -
Cut across into pieces and eat it now
Garlic bread has a window of about ten minutes. After that the crumb reabsorbs the steam and it softens.
About 1 min
Making the butter in bulk, which is what you should actually do
The butter is the recipe; the bread is just bread. So make four times the butter and freeze it.
Beat up a quadruple batch, roll it into a log in baking parchment or clingfilm, twist the ends and freeze. It keeps three months and slices straight from frozen with a warm knife.
From there, a baguette from the freezer and four slices of butter gives you garlic bread in fifteen minutes from a standing start, which is fast enough to make it a default rather than a plan.
The same butter is excellent on a baked potato, melted over grilled chicken, or stirred through pasta with nothing else.
Ways to change it once you have made it once
Cheesy
60 g of grated mozzarella and 20 g of parmesan for the last five minutes.
Lemon and herb
Leave out the peri-peri and paprika, add the zest of a lemon and a tablespoon of fresh thyme.
On flatbread
The same butter on a large flatbread or a pitta, 6 minutes. Faster and works as a base for other toppings.
What went wrong, and how to fix it
Each entry names a likely cause as well as a correction, so the advice remains useful when equipment, ingredients or batch size differ.
Dry at the ends
- Why it happened
- The butter did not reach the edges.
- What to do
- Spread right into the corners. It seems like too much butter and it is not.
Soggy
- Why it happened
- Very fresh bread, or melted butter rather than soft.
- What to do
- Day-old baguette, and beaten soft butter spread on rather than poured.
Burnt garlic
- Why it happened
- Crushed garlic exposed on the surface at 200 °C.
- What to do
- Beat the garlic thoroughly into the butter so it is coated in fat rather than sitting on top, and do not go above 200 °C.
It went soft within minutes
- Why it happened
- Normal - steam from the crumb reabsorbs into the crust.
- What to do
- Serve it straight away, and cut it across only at the last moment.
Questions people actually ask about this recipe
Why split the baguette lengthways?
So the butter soaks down through the crumb from a large cut surface, rather than sitting on individual slices.
Can I use garlic powder?
You can, and fresh is much better here because the butter protects it from burning. Use 1½ teaspoons of powder if you must.
Does it freeze?
Yes, assembled and unbaked. Bake from frozen for 18 minutes. The butter alone freezes for three months as a log.
Fresh or stale bread?
Day-old. Fresh bread goes squashy under the butter.
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