Since taking an adult cooking class on pizza making taught by Ron Sarni at Create-a-Cook in Newton, Massachusetts last winter CK and I have been experimenting with various pie toppings almost every week. Of all the combinations and experiments we’ve attempted the one we come back to time and time again is this simple BBQ Chicken Pizza creation. Of course, I doubt we’d be quite so pizza addicted if it wasn’t for the incredible dough recipe that we were given in the class. It comes out perfectly every single time…well, except when I forgot to replenish the flour stash and substituted bread flour for all-purpose. CK complained about the state of that batch of dough the entire time he was shaping it.
Speaking of CK, making pizza for dinner has become a sort of tag-team affair for us. I prep and tend to the dough, and then he shapes it and adds the toppings. He’s also a total prince and does the dishes too so it’s like a double kitchen holiday for me. This is probably another reason why I tend to suggest pizza so often *wink* *wink*
Erin & CK’s BBQ Chicken Pizza
Inspired by Ron Sarni’s Techniques of Italian Cooking Class at Create-a-Cook.
For the Dough:
Adapted from The Italian Baker by Carol Field via Ron Sarni’s recipe recommendation
Erin’s Note: This recipe will make four individual sized 12-inch pizzas. I generally half the recipe though without incident.
1- 3/4 tsp active dry yeast
Pinch of sugar
1-1/3 cups warm water
1/4 cup olive oil, plus additional for brushing the crust
3-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp salt
**You Can Mix the Dough By Hand:**
Stir the yeast and sugar into the water in a large mixing bowl; let stand until foamy about 5 minutes.
Stir in the oil. Mix the flour and salt and stir, 1 cup at a time, into the yeast mixture, beating well to get all of the lumps out.
Knead on a lightly floured surface until soft and satiny, but firm, about 8 minutes.
**Or You Can Choose to Mix the Dough in Your Mixer:**
Stir the yeast and sugar into the water in a mixer bowl; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the oil with the paddle.
Mix the flour and salt and add to the yeast mixture.
Mix until the dough comes together.
Change to the dough hook and knead at medium speed until soft and satiny but firm, about 3 minutes. Finish kneading briefly by hand on a lightly floured surface.
Erin’s Note: At this point place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover tightly and allow it to rise for 1 hour. Then punch the dough down, cover it again (I prefer Press’n Seal for this), and allow it to rise a second time for approximately 30 minutes.
Next, pre-heat the oven to 500ºF. Liberally sprinkle your baking sheets with olive oil. Divide and shape the dough. Generally, we cook one pizza per pan. For BBQ Chicken Pizza layer the below toppings in the following order: BBQ sauce, cheese, chicken, red onions, and finally pepper. Bake for 10 minutes and then immediately remove the pizzas from the pans and place them on a cutting surface or board. Slice and serve.
Toppings for One Pizza:
1 cup shredded roast chicken.
2/3 cup BBQ Sauce (Erin’s Note: Our preferred brand is Bull’s-Eye Original).
1-1/2 cups shredded mozzarella (Erin’s Note: We’ve also used various blends of Parmesan, Fontina, and Gouda before. Any or all of these cheeses make a great topping).
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
Freshly ground black pepper
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
This looks fantastic! BBQ chicken pizza is one of my favorites. I’ll have to try this!
This looks *amazing*. AHP would go gah gah if i put something on pizza besides just veggies. LOL
oh I m getting hungry just looking at it. delicious!
For some reason, I’m not a big fan of chicken on my pizza, but this looks totally fabulous and so, so pretty!
The pizza crust looks awesome, I am definitely going to give it a try the next time I make homemade pizza.
That looks wonderful! And I love the bit about the tag team in the kitchen. That’s always fun (especially the dishes part!).
BBQ chicken pizza is one of my favorites but no one else in my family likes it- so more for me!
I will have to give this dough recipe a try.
Yum! This sounds fabulous, and I love the look of your crust. Homemade pizza is also a staple at our house – and our go-to meal when we have to feed a crowd!
A pizza making class sounds like a blast. From the looks of this scrumptious pizza, you’re making the most of your studies. 😉
I loooove homemade pizza. I never thought to do shredded chicken, when I make my buffalo chicken pizza I use tenders and marinate them, then cook them. But I bet shredded chicken would keep more sauce, and therefore more flavor. Hmm…
me being the pizza-junkie you know I’ll love this. that crust looks so darn good!
The crust looks perfect! I can imagine spending every monthly pizza night with different variations of this. Thanks so much for sharing; will definitely give this a go!
Mmmmm. This sounds exceptional. I love BBQ pizza, but sadly my BF does not agree.
This is my favorite kind of pizza! I was happy to see it make it’s way onto your blog. My favorite toppings to add are pineapple and banana peppers! OOOh, yum!
YUM! This really sounds great. I haven’t made my own pizza dough yet, but I’m just now starting to want to! (I’ve been experimenting with different toppings, but just using boboli crust.) Our favorite combo so far was fresh tomatoes on the bottom (no sauce) – topped with frizzled ham and shallots, havarti cheese. I sprinkled on some italian spices, it was SO yummy!
Gorgeous! BBQ pizza is one of my favorite things, I just made one the other day. Didn’t get any pics though.
I’m so glad you kept it up. That pizza looks great! And thanks for the great mention.
Lovely blog!
I have made a recipe just like this many times. Always my go to pizza to make at home!
Pizza crust looks great…I’ll have to try it out. We love cooking together as well…pizza seems like it would be a great duo project.
wow, you really know your food. Do you think that you could give this recipe a try?
http://yovia.com/blogs/naturalingredients/2009/09/08/kangaroo-filets-with-mustard/
Looks amazing. I have a question though, at the beginning you mention that you used all-purpouse flour because you didn’t have any bread flour left, and the dough didn’t come out quite as good. But later on the recipe ingredients it says to use all-purpouse and yeast. Do you recommend using bread flour AND yeast or yeast when using all-purpose only, as bread flour tends to grow a fair bit on its own?
Again, the pizza looks beyond amazing 😛
♥
Hi Di,
To clarify, this recipe works best with all-purpose flour. I ran out of AP and substituted bread flour one time and the dough was terrible. So I wouldn’t recommend doing that. Plain old regular flour works just fine, and yes you absolutely have to use yeast.
I hope this helps!
that pizza looks incredible… like it would be hard to stop at just one piece! I need to make more pizza at home, the possibilities are endless with the toppings…
Great looking pizza! It sounds delicious 🙂
Is it possible to make some dough ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate it, or would it make the dough not turn out?
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