BBQ Chicken Pizza

We love pizza in our house. Alex eats cheese pizza and Bernie and I love pizza with whole wheat dough, homemade sauce, pepperonis and lots of peppers – sweet and hot. This has been “our” pizza for years, and I thought it was time to try something new. When we are in a pinch we will usually go for a frozen California Pizza Kitchen BBQ pizza so why not try to recreate that – but fresh? This was really good and tastes very much like California Pizza Kitchen’s BBQ chicken. I used Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce.

 

BBQ Chicken Pizza, altered slightly from CDKitchen

Ingredients:

Dough:

2 tablespoons honey
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Toppings:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce plus
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1 cup Gouda cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/4 small red onion, sliced into rings
2 tablespoons cilantro

Directions:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees when ready to bake dough.

In a medium bowl, dissolve the honey in warm water. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let stand until foamy, at least 5-10 minutes. After yeast mixture is ready, mix in oil.

In a separate large bowl combine the flour and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the yeast mixture. Stir the flour into wet ingredients until all flour is incorporated.

On a lightly floured surface knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a well-oiled bowl and turn to coat the surface. Cover with a moist towel and let rise in a warm place until dough has doubled in size, about 1-1.5 hours. (if you use fast rise yeast – which I did- it won’t take as long).

Once dough is ready, punch down and divide into 2 pieces for thin crust, use the whole amount of dough for thick crust. Spread dough on a pan and use a fork to poke holes through the dough to prevent air pockets from forming. Place in the oven for 5 minutes, then remove and set aside, lowering oven temperature to 425 degrees.

While crust is cooking, begin to prepare chicken. In a large frying pan, heat olive oil on medium high heat and add chicken pieces. Saute until cooked completely and remove from heat. Coat chicken with 2 tablespoons of barbeque sauce. Set aside.

Spread 1/4 cup barbecue sauce over the surface of the dough. Distribute half of the cheese over the sauce. Spread chicken over the cheese. Place the onions over the chicken then cover with the remaining cheese.

Place pizza in the oven and bake until cheese is bubbling (about 7-10 minutes). Remove pizza from the over and sprinkle with cilantro.