BBQ Chicken Pizza

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Crust:

1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 active dry yeast)

1/4 cup warm water

2 1/2 to 3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons honey

3/4 cup cold water

Dissolve yeast in warm water and let stand for 10 minutes.  In mixingt bowl, combine flour, salt, olive oil, honey and cold water.  Add yeast mixture and knead with dough hook (or by hand) for 5 minutes.  Form into a ball and place in oiled bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise about 1 hour.  

Roll the dough out onto a floured surface and roll to fit a large rimmed cookie sheet.  Baste about 1 teaspoon of olive oil on the pan before placing the dough on.  After you place the dough on the sheet, you may have to stretch is out a bit to fit.

Makes enough for two pizzas. 

Pizza:

1 pizza crust

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup barbecue sauce

Fresh mozzarella, sliced thin

1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced

Fresh cilantro

Olive oil

You can do the sauce a few different ways.  You can marinate the chicken in about a cup of barbecue sauce in a large zip lock bag for 4 hours or overnight and then bake it at 325 degrees for 30 minutes (in the sauce you marinated it with), or you can just skip marinating the chicken and cook it in the barbecue sauce.  I have made it both ways and they both turn out great.  Let the chicken cool, then slice into small pieces.

Spread 1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil on the rolled out dough and then spread the barbecue sauce over that.  Place the sliced mozzarella all over the dough and then layer that with the chicken.  Add the thinly sliced red onion and bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes.  Once the pizza is done, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and serve.

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{cooks note}

After I slice the chicken, I add it all back to the barbecue sauce I cooked it in while I finish other preparations on the pizza.  That way, the sauce is able to soak into the chicken and make it even more moist.  You won't be sorry you did it.  I make a white dough for this pizza because I think it tastes better.  Making your own dough is well worth the little effort it takes rather than buying a store bought one.  Unless it's Trader Joe's dough.  Then you can't go wrong.

 Bake chicken at 325 for 30 minutes.  

 You want the chicken pieces to be bite size.

Pizza dough after it has risen.

I like to buy this mozzarella because it is in a log and very easy to slice thin.

Dough rolled to fit my cookie sheet.  Don't forget to spread about 1 teaspoon of olive oil on the pan before placing the dough on it.

Pizza ready to be baked.  Notice how there are no red onions.  Well, dinner time is hectic for me.  I 'm lucky we have dinner at all.  The red onions were forgotten and I'm sure they weren't missed by a few little guys. Before spreading on the barbecue sauce spread on 1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil. 

"Leaves" as my youngest boy would call them.  I call it cilantro.  This makes the pizza.  I am currently growing this in my herb garden and I've already had one harvest.  That's what you call, cilantro at your fingertips.

Hot out of the oven.  

We have eaten this pizza a lot over the past years and love it every time.  You can't beat a good homemade pizza.