BBQ Chicken Pizza

bbq-chic-pizza.JPG

After you make the BBQ sauce and pulled chicken for the pulled chicken sandwiches of my earlier post this month go ahead and make this pizza. I don’t think you’ll be sorry. I served with a simple salad of baby Spinach and juicy Bing cherries, Parmesan and Pistachios dressed with a simple Balsamic vinaigrette.

I made a quick pizza crust in my bread-maker- just the dough- and then Rick put this together using it and the BBQ sauce and chicken.  Here’s the recipe:

Bread Machine Pizza Dough

(you can make it without you’ll just have to work harder for it ) 🙂

In a bread making machine that makes at least a 1-1/2 pound loaf and has a dough only setting add to the machine in the following order:

  • 1-1/8 Cups warm water

  • 1-1/2 Tablespoons olive oil

  • 3-1/3 Cups all purpose flour

  • 1-1/2 teaspoons salt

  • 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar

  • 1-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Set the machine to dough setting and let it do the work. It takes about 1-1/2 hours for my machine to run the program. The dough can be kept in the fridge for a day or two or frozen for a month or two tightly wrapped until ready to use.

If you don’t have a machine you’ll have to mix all the ingredients together and knead it until it’s smooth and place in a warm place until risen and punched down twice.

For the BBQ chicken Pizza:

  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup BBQ sauce of your choosing

  • Chopped or shredded cooked chicken, about a cup

  • Chopped red onions about 1/2 cup

  • Cubed or sliced ham about 1/2 cup

  • Mozzarella cheese about 2 cups

  • fresh cilantro, washed and chopped

Preheat your oven or grill  with a pizza stone to 450F. Roll and stretch the dough out to about 1/4″ thickness. Assemble your topping ingredients and then sprinkle a peel or rimless cookie sheet with cornmeal or rice flour. Place your shaped pizza crust on the cornmeal or rice flour. Quickly top the pizza with the first 5 ingredients, in the order given, amounts to your liking and slide onto the stone. Don’t take too long or the dough will begin to stick and you’ll have a hard time sliding it off even with the cornmeal or rice flour.  Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the crust is browned and the cheese is bubbling- make sure it’s done in the center. It helps if you don’t get too heavy handed with the toppings.  Top with chopped cilantro.

Spinach Salad

  • 2 cups well washed and spun dried Spinach

  • 1 cup ripe Bing Cherries, pitted and stemmed * see tip below

  • 1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

  • 1 small handful shelled roasted salted pistachios

  • Balsamic Vinaigrette, recipe follows

  • Freshly ground black pepper

Make the vinaigrette in the bottom of your salad bowl. Add the Spinach and cherries and turn to coat. Top with the cheese and nuts and grind a bit of pepper on top.

*Tip: a chopstick works great as an impromptu cherry-pitter- just stick the small end of the chopstick in the bottom of the cherry and push the pit up through using the stem as a guide.

Balsamic Vinaigrette for the salad

  • 1 small clove garlic

  • 2 Tablespoons Pear Balsamic vinegar or other Balsamic vinegar

  • salt

  • 4 Tablespoons Extra-Virgin Olive oil

  • Pepper

Rub the garlic clove over the tines of a fork or use a mincer to mash into the bottom of your salad bowl. Add the Balsamic and a pinch of salt and use a whisk to mix. Slowly drizzle in the EV olive oil in whisking constantly. Crack some pepper in and add the salad as above.

bbq-chic-pizza.JPG

Hope you enjoy!

xoxo

8 comments

  1. breadchick says:

    Gabi, that looks spectacular! And I love using my bread machine for pizza dough. It is the perfect way to make it easily.

  2. Gabi says:

    Raquel- Thanks abunch on both counts!

    Dhanngit- this dough is the only thing I’m using my bread maker for- I’ll have to come see what you’re doing in yours. I hope you try the pizza crust.

    Maryann- Thanks lovely friend!

    Holly- Thanks for coming to visit and leave such a nice comment- I really appreciate it!

  3. dhanggit says:

    last christmas i got a bread maker as a present from my Mom in law. I was a bit hesitant about it at the beginning but now I couldn’t do away without it. it is so convenient! i just love it.I haven’t tried making pizza dough yet with it but staring at this BBQ chicken pizza I will definitely have to do this!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.