Friday, April 24, 2009

BBQ Chicken Pizza and Easy Pizza Crust

I was craving a BBQ chicken pizza, so I thought we could make one. I was sure I had a tube of pizza crust in the fridge. But I didn't. I found a quick pizza crust recipe online, and another one to modify the BBQ/pizza sauce a little. This turned out pretty good, but I think it totally depends on what kind of BBQ sauce you use as the base.
BBQ Chicken Pizza
makes ~14" pizza

Crust:
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt (I also added 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning and a little garlic powder)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in flour, salt and oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan or baker's peel dusted with cornmeal. Prebake for about 10 minutes before topping.

Pizza:

2 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cubed (~1 lb chicken, make small cubes!)
1 cup hickory flavored barbeque sauce (I used Thick and Tangy, but I don't remember the brand)
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon molasses (I omitted as I didn't have any)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped (Didn't have any of this either!)
1 (12 inch) pre-baked pizza crust (see above)
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup thinly sliced red onion (I also added some green pepper rings)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a saucepan over medium high heat, combine chicken, barbeque sauce, honey, molasses, brown sugar and cilantro. Bring to a boil.

2. Spread chicken mixture evenly over pizza crust, and top with cheese and onions (and peppers).
Now bake pizza for additional 10-15 minutes (at 425-450 deg F), or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving. REVIEW:
This was good, but it was hard to eat too much (maybe thats actually a good thing). The BBQ had a pretty strong taste. Next time I might look for a honey BBQ sauce, and reduce the sugars in the recipe. Also, you probably don't need quite so much sauce. The crust recipe worked for us b/c it was nice and quick, but it is a pretty thin crust since you don't let it rise. It will work in a pinch, but its not my favorite.

2 comments:

  1. Mmm - now that is one serious pizza! Looks fantastic!

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  2. This looks great - I love a good BBQ chicken pizza. I don't have it enough so I need to make one soon!

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