Barbeque Chicken Pizza

It was unbelievably cold in Kansas today. Ridiculously cold. When I arrived at work it was 4 degrees F. That does not include the wind chill and it was very windy. It was the kind of cold that makes your eyes water and your nose hairs freeze up in only the 1-2 minutes it takes to walk from the building to your car. On any ordinary day I wouldn’t have left my office for my lunch break as it was just too darn cold.

But today I had lunch plans with a buddy at California Pizza Kitchen, known to me as CPK. Despite having to bear the brunt of the freezing weather, it was a particularly nice lunch as I hadn’t seen this buddy in quite some time (since before the new year I think!) and because I really, really enjoyed my food.

I went with the original Barbeque Chicken Pizza with the honey wheat crust. It came out fantastic and I ate 2/3 of it to prove it! As I was eating the pizza I remembered, hey I have made this at home before! I remember making this pizza back in the spring or early summer last year. I got the recipe from my friend Katie who also supplied me with the pizza dough recipe and pizza sauce recipe. And even though I wasn’t blogging back then, I took a picture of the pizza because I was so impressed and happy with the way it turned out. Now I will share with everyone.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Pizza Dough (pre-made or make your own)
2-3 chicken breasts
Barbeque sauce
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Shredded gouda cheese
Red onion, sliced
Cilantro

Notice that I haven’t supplied amounts in the ingredients. That’s so you can personalize your pizza to your own tastes. If you like a lot of chicken, use more. If you like it extra cheesy, use a lot of cheese. If you hate onions, leave them off. And so on and so on.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Begin by cutting up the chicken into bite size pieces and toss with barbeque sauce (any kind you like). Cook in a skillet over medium high heat until browned and cooked thoroughly. Remove from heat and set aside.

Next, pat the pizza dough out into a jelly roll pan. If you use the pizza dough recipe I previously posted, one batch of dough will fit a jelly roll pan. You can also make two round pizzas if you desire. I have also made this pizza with a Pillsbury prepared pizza crust in the can when I was lazy and didn’t want to make the crust from scratch. It works fine and tastes good, but the homemade crust tastes WAY better.

Dry bake the pizza crust for five minutes in the oven. That means to bake the pizza crust alone in the pan with nothing on it.

Remove pizza from oven. Spread more barbeque sauce over the top of the crust. Top with cooked chicken, cheeses, red onions and cilantro. Return to oven and bake for 12-15 more minutes or until cheese is melted and the edges of the crust begin to turn golden brown. Voila!

Here’s what it looked like before I baked it the second time. Delicious! I did not take a picture of it after baking, but it looks pretty much the same, only with melted cheese.


So is it worth it? Um, yeah! The pizza I got today cost around $12 I think and it was only six pieces. This monster probably costs the same or less to make and you could feed a family of four! If you are in a money crunch, leave out the gouda and use all mozzarella. But really the gouda adds a wonderful flavor so I think it’s worth it. :)

This pizza is great to serve to guests. It seems fancier than regular pizza so people always seem to be impressed by it. Plus it’s really yummy.

Now I also had the chocolate soufflé cake today at lunch. I’ve never made a chocolate soufflé before so that will have to be the subject of another post….