BBQ Chicken Pizza
BBQ Chicken Pizza – homemade pizza crust topped with BBQ sauce, shredded chicken, onions, avocado, and lots of cheese.
Ok let’s talk pizza. Who doesn’t love pizza?
I consider myself extremely lucky because I live in New York City. Not because I live in the best city in the world which is basically the center of the world, but because of the food. The pizza to be exact.
My absolute favorite is ordering pizza by the slice. Something magical happens when a slice of pizza meets an oven for the second time around. The crust crisps to perfection and the cheese melts perfectly.
Anyways, onto this pizza. Although my go-to is plain cheese pizza (you can never go wrong!), I sometimes like to jazz it up a bit.
Making your own pizza at home is definitely worth it. You get to customize the flavors to whatever mood you’re in and its actually pretty fun. There are 4 components to building the perfect pizza – the crust, the sauce, the cheese, and the toppings. Once all 4 components are in sync, you have created your pizza masterpiece.
It all starts with the crust. This crust recipe is extremely easy to make and beats any store bought dough. I love using King Arthur’s Organic Bread Flour. Once you have the dough prepared, you are ready to begin putting your work of art together. Think of the crust as a blank slate, a canvas if you will. Now you can paint it up however you like.
I was in a West Coast mood when I decided to make this pizza. I topped my canvas with barbecue sauce, barbecue chicken, a mixture of shredded Asiago, Fontina, and Provolone cheeses, red onion, and avocado. I thought I had some cilantro in the fridge to sprinkle over the top, but I was wrong.
Since the dough has to rise, begin by making the dough first. The recipe for the dough is enough for two pizzas so you can either make both at once or wrap half of the dough and freeze it for another time.
I used Annie’s Organic Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce. A very sweet barbecue sauce on pizza didn’t sound too appealing to me, so the spiciness added the perfect balance (but it’s your pizza so if you want sweet barbecue sauce on it, be my guest!). You can use any type of shredded cheese, mozzarella, gouda, jack, cheddar – whatever you have on hand.
After about 10 minutes in the oven, the pizza comes out bubbly, crispy, and fabulous. Top it off with avocado pieces and chopped cilantro, and you’ll be in pizza heaven!
BBQ Chicken Pizza
Ingredients
Crust
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 1 pack Active Dry Yeast
- 4 cups bread flour
- 1 cup cold water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
Pizza
- 1 chicken breast butterflied
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce divided
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 cup shredded cheese mozzarella, asiago, cheddar, jack, etc.
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- 1/4 avocado cubed
- 2 tbsp chopped cilantro optional
Instructions
Crust
- In a large bowl, add warm water, yeast, and 1/2 cup flour. Whisk and set aside for 30 minutes.
- After half an hour, whisk in cold water, oil, sugar, and salt. Add remaining flour and knead until a dough forms. Cover bowl with a towel and let the dough rise for 1 hour.
Chicken
- While the dough is rising, prepare the chicken.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Add chicken breast to a small baking pan, and cover with 2 tbsp barbecue sauce. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Bake 20-25 min. Remove from oven and cool.
- Shred the chicken breast with a fork.
Pizza
- Preheat oven to 500°F.
- Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly dust with flour. Once the dough has risen, divide it in half (you can make two pizzas, or cover the other half and freeze it). With a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Place on baking sheet.
- Spread 1/3 cup barbecue sauce over the dough, avoiding the edges. Sprinkle with cheese. Add shredded chicken and red onion slices.
- Bake 10 minutes.
- Remove pizza from oven and top with avocado pieces and chopped cilantro.
That’s a wise answer to a tricky quteison
You can definitely never go wrong with a good pizza!! 🙂