Description
This easy BBQ chicken pizza gets a pop of extra flavor from smoked mozzarella cheese!
Ingredients
- 1 batch of your favorite pizza dough
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 8 ounces smoked mozzarella cheese, torn
- 1 heaping cup cooked shredded chicken
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup barbecue sauce
- 1/3 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Heat oven to 500° Fahrenheit with a baking stone or pizza steel inside. For best results, let the oven heat 30-60 minutes to get the baking steel nice and hot.
- Lay a piece of parchment paper over a large cutting board. Roll or stretch the pizza dough into shape and place it on top of the parchment (this will make it easier to slide in and out of the oven!)
- Drizzle a thin layer of olive oil over the dough, then top with torn mozzarella and shredded chicken. Finish with a pinch of salt and a few turns of fresh cracked black pepper.
- Slide pizza onto the hot baking steel and bake for 10-15 minutes, until crust is browned and cheese is bubbling. Note: The exact bake time here will depend on your oven, equipment, and pizza dough: Check the pizza every few minutes and pull it out as soon as it looks done!
- Use a pair of tongs to carefully pull the cooked pizza out of your oven and back onto the large cutting board. Transfer pizza to a wire cooling rack for 5-10 minutes (this helps the crust stay crispy instead of getting soggy while the pizza cools) then return pizza to the cutting board and slice.
- Drizzle barbecue sauce over the top of the pizza, then top with fresh cilantro. Slice and serve immediately.
Notes
Additions and Substitutions. Add sliced red onions, pineapple, sliced jalapeño, green onions, or any other toppings you like to this pizza. Swap the barbecue sauce for buffalo sauce if you prefer. Use rotisserie chicken, meal prepped shredded chicken, or leftover grilled chicken here (it's also great with pulled pork or crispy bacon!) Add an extra layer of barbecue sauce or ranch dressing to the base of the pizza (under the cheese) if you like.
What smoked mozzarella should I use? We like the BelGioioso Smoked Mozzarella cheese; it's typically available right next to the fresh mozzarella in grocery stores, especially in fall/winter. If you can't find smoked mozzarella, use plain fresh or shredded mozzarella, white cheddar cheese, havarti, or smoked gouda cheese.
If your barbecue sauce is especially thick, mix it with a Tablespoon or two of water to make it easier to drizzle across the pizza.
Can I bake this pizza without a baking stone or pizza steel? Yes! If you have a sturdy sheet pan - one that doesn't warp in high heat - you can use that in place of a pizza stone (if your sheet pan has edges, turn it upside down in the oven to make it easier to slide the pizza on and off). Pop the sheet pan in the oven while it heats, but you don't need to heat it for longer than 10-15 minutes (like you would for a baking steel). You can also make this recipe as a pan pizza - just press the dough into a pan, top, and bake!
Do I have to heat my oven to 500° F? Nope - you can absolutely use a lower oven temperature if you prefer! We find that the high temperature yields the best crust, but we've also baked this pizza at 450°F and 475°F with great results: just make sure you give your baking steel or pizza stone plenty of time to heat up (ideally 30 minutes to an hour) and extend the cooking time if you need to.
