Tender, juicy chicken, smokey homemade barbecue sauce, and a creamy combination of mozzarella and sharp white cheddar piled onto an easy homemade crust make this pizza a fun family favorite. Take-out pizza will be a thing of the past once you try this delicious homemade version!
When you love the taste and cost savings cooking at home provides it's easy to be inspired. After home canning the Best Homemade Barbecue Sauce recently, I knew I had to make a homemade pizza with it. And what goes better with barbecue sauce than juicy chicken and crispy bacon? Restaurant pizza just doesn’t even come close to this deliciousness!
Making a homemade pizza almost completely from scratch may seem overwhelming but with just a little preparation, it really does come together pretty quickly. Even on the busiest of weeknights, it's easy to get dinner on the table fast by using homemade convenience items.
If you aren’t quite prepared to make this pizza from scratch, don’t worry I’ll give you my best store-bought recommendations!
To Make this BBQ Chicken Pizza you will need:
Pizza Dough
Homemade pizza dough is made up of simple pantry staples like flour, yeast, salt, and oil. Mixed with warm water for just a few minutes and with a quick rise of about 10 minutes, you can have a homemade pizza crust ready to go by the time the chicken is done cooking!
If your local grocery store has fresh pizza dough available in their bakery, I highly recommend picking up a few. They freeze well and thaw pretty quickly making them great to have on hand for a quick meal. In my neck of the woods, I can find fresh dough at Publix. Aldi has refrigerated pizza dough as well, but it isn’t as fresh tasting as the one from Publix, in my opinion. If you’re really in a pinch, a Pillsbury pizza crust will be just fine.
Barbecue Sauce
We absolutely love my homemade barbecue sauce. It really is the BEST. It's a home-canned recipe that definitely takes a little time, but it is so worth it. My future self is always so happy for my past efforts!
You can make a semi-homemade barbecue sauce in about 15 minutes and there’s no home canning required! Simple ingredients like ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and a couple of spices are really all you need to make a quick and easy semi-homemade barbecue sauce.
Semi-Homemade Barbecue Sauce
1 cup ketchup
¾ cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 ½ Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Simmer over low-medium heat for approximately 10 minutes.
We enjoy Sweet Baby Ray’s original barbecue sauce. Aldi’s store brand is extremely similar, and both are very affordable.
Chicken
I like to use a boneless, skinless chicken breast for pizza, but you could certainly use a couple of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. This is also a great way to use up any leftover chicken! To make things super easy, you can purchase a rotisserie chicken and shred it at home in just a couple of minutes.
Red Onion
Fresh red onions offer a mild tanginess and a bit of freshness that marries well with the other savory flavors.
Bacon
Am I the only one who thinks bacon makes everything better? Crumbly crisp bacon is a must on this savory pizza!
To really speed up this process, you can purchase microwavable bacon at the grocery store.
Cheese
We love a blend of creamy mozzarella and sharp white cheddar cheese. However, a blend of provolone and parmesan would also be delicious. We think freshly shredded gives the best overall flavor because it doesn’t typically have the preservative coating found on store-bought shredded cheeses.
A quick store-bought option is Tillamook Italian blend. It's delicious, convenient, and the ingredients are pretty clean.
Let’s Make BBQ Chicken Pizza!
First, you’ll want to prepare your dough. If using store-bought, just follow the package directions. If using homemade, you can follow this recipe.
Next, cook the bacon until brown and crispy in a medium skillet over medium heat. Remove from skillet and place a paper towel-lined plate to allow excess oil to drain off. When cool enough to handle, break the bacon into smaller pieces.
Add diced chicken breast to skillet with residual bacon grease. Cook chicken for approximately 5-7 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned on all sides. Remove from heat and place on a paper towel-lined plate to allow excess oil to drip off. I usually just pile the chicken on top of the bacon to avoid dirtying up another plate. I’m a rebel that way.
Top prepared pizza dough with about ½ to ¾ cup of prepared barbecue sauce, circling it around the dough but leaving about a 1-inch rim of crust.
Begin layering the cooked chicken and bacon pieces. Top with sliced red onion and shredded cheeses.
Bake in a 400-degree oven for approximately 16-20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting into slices.
Allowing the pizza just a few minutes to cool will help the cheese stay intact rather than sliding off immediately.
Make this recipe with me on YouTube!
Ingredients
4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 large chicken breast, diced
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ red onion, diced
1 ½ cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
½ cup freshly shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
½ - ¾ cup Homemade BBQ Sauce
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare dough according to recipe or package directions.
Over medium heat, cook bacon in a medium skillet until brown and crispy. Remove cooked bacon from skillet and place on a plate lined with paper towels. Break bacon into pieces.
Add diced chicken to the hot bacon grease left in the skillet. Cook chicken for approximately 5-7 minutes or until cooked through completely. Remove chicken from skillet and add to a plate lined with paper towels.
Add barbecue sauce to prepared pizza dough leaving a 1-inch rim for the crust.
Top with cooked chicken, bacon pieces, and red onion slices.
Top with shredded cheeses.
Bake for approximately 16-20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.
Allow to cool 5 minutes before cutting.
If you made this BBQ Chicken Pizza, we would love to know how it turned out. Let us know in the comments!
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