Most bbq chicken pizza is barbecue sauce, chicken and cheese, and it is usually one note repeated three times. The interesting version puts something sharp against all that sweetness.
Here that job is done by pecorino romano, which is salty and slightly funky, plus raw red onion sliced paper thin, green bell pepper and a handful of cilantro thrown on after the pizza leaves the oven. The dough is a one-hour bread flour dough. The whole thing takes about two hours from a bowl of warm water to a sliced pizza, and only thirty minutes of that is work.
- A single rise of about an hour, so it is a weeknight dough rather than a weekend project
- Pecorino romano under the mozzarella, which is what stops it tasting only of barbecue sauce
- Green pepper and raw red onion for crunch, both of which most versions leave out
- Cilantro and scallion go on after baking, so they stay green and sharp
- Cooked chicken from any source works, including a supermarket rotisserie bird
- Three cups of flour makes one generous 14-inch round or two thinner 12-inch ones
Three things decide whether this comes out well, and only one of them is the sauce.
- What Goes on a BBQ Chicken Pizza
- Ingredient Notes
- The Dough, and Why Hydration Matters More Than Flour
- How To Make BBQ Chicken Pizza
- Getting a Crisp Base at Home Oven Temperatures
- How To Tell When the Crust Is Done
- Make It Ahead
- Storing BBQ Chicken Pizza
- Variations and Substitutions
- What to Serve with BBQ Chicken Pizza
- BBQ Chicken Pizza FAQ
What Goes on a BBQ Chicken Pizza
The classic California bbq chicken pizza is barbecue sauce, mozzarella, smoked gouda, chicken and red onion. This one keeps the frame and changes two things.
Pecorino romano instead of gouda. Gouda is smoky and sweet, which doubles down on what the sauce is already doing. Pecorino is sheep’s milk, sharp and properly salty, and it cuts across the sugar rather than joining it. Half a cup is enough to be felt.
Green bell pepper, which almost nobody uses. It is slightly bitter and it stays crunchy through a short bake, and against a sweet sauce that is exactly what is wanted. Red pepper is sweeter and does not do the same job.
Red onion stays raw and paper thin. Sliced thick it steams and goes limp. On a mandoline or with a sharp knife it half cooks in ten minutes and keeps its bite.
Sauce goes on twice. Half a cup under the cheese, and two tablespoons drizzled over the finished bbq chicken pizza, where it has not been through the oven and still tastes of vinegar and smoke.
Herbs go on last. Cilantro and scallion baked into a pizza turn khaki and taste of nothing.
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Ingredient Notes
A bbq chicken pizza is two lists, one for the dough and one for the top. Exact amounts are in the recipe card below.
- Bread flour: three cups, about thirteen ounces. Bread flour runs around twelve to thirteen percent protein against all-purpose at ten or eleven, and that protein is what gives a bbq chicken pizza a rim that puffs and chews rather than one that snaps. The Wheat Foods Council’s Wheat 101 is a clear explanation of how the wheat classes differ if you want the background.
- Yeast: one packet, which is two and a quarter teaspoons. Instant yeast can go straight into the flour; active dry wants five to ten minutes in the warm water first.
- Water at 105F to 110F. Warm on the wrist, not hot. Above about 130F you kill the yeast and nothing rises.
- Salt: two teaspoons of Diamond Crystal kosher, or one and a quarter teaspoons of fine sea salt. Kosher salt brands differ by nearly a factor of two by volume, which is why the original tablespoon in this recipe was a gamble.
- Barbecue sauce: half a cup plus two tablespoons. A thick, vinegar-forward Kansas City style works best; anything thin runs off the dough and pools.
- Chicken: two cups shredded, about ten ounces. Leftover roast, poached breast or a supermarket rotisserie bird are all fine. It is already cooked, so it is only warming through.
- Mozzarella: one and three quarter cups of low-moisture whole milk mozzarella, grated yourself. Fresh mozzarella in water floods this pizza.
- Cornmeal: two tablespoons, for the peel or the pan. Coarse, so it acts like ball bearings.
The Dough, and Why Hydration Matters More Than Flour
One cup of water to three cups of bread flour is about sixty-one percent hydration in a bbq chicken pizza dough, which is deliberately on the low side.
Low hydration is easier to handle and it is why this dough can be rolled or pressed straight out of the bowl by someone who has never made pizza. Wetter doughs make better bread and are miserable to shape.
It also browns faster, which matters at home oven temperatures where you have ten or twelve minutes rather than ninety seconds.
Add the flour slowly and stop when it gathers. Flour absorbs different amounts depending on how it was milled and how humid the kitchen is. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl and stay slightly tacky to the touch.
One rise is enough. An hour to an hour and a quarter in a warm spot, until doubled. This is not a dough that gets better over three days; it is built to be used the same afternoon.
Three cups makes about a pound and a half of dough, which is one thick-rimmed 14-inch round. Divide it and you get two thinner 12-inch pizzas, which is the better option if your oven only fits one at a time.
How To Make BBQ Chicken Pizza
Get the oven going before you shape anything, because a bbq chicken pizza is only as good as the surface it lands on. A stone needs longer to heat than you think.
- First, stir the yeast and sugar into 1 cup of warm water and leave it 5 to 10 minutes until it foams. Add the oil and salt, then the flour a little at a time, and mix until the dough gathers around the hook.
- Next, fold it over on itself a few times, shape it into a ball, put it in an oiled bowl and cover it. Leave it somewhere warm for about 1 hour, until doubled.
- Then put a stone, a steel or a heavy dark pan in the oven and heat it to 500F for at least 45 minutes. This is the single biggest thing you control.
- After that, press or roll the dough into a 14-inch round on a cornmeal-dusted peel, brush the rim with oil, spread the sauce to within an inch of the edge and layer on the pecorino, mozzarella, chicken, pepper and onion.
- Finally, bake 10 to 14 minutes until the rim is blistered and the underside is browned, then scatter the cilantro and scallion, drizzle the last of the sauce and rest it 5 minutes before cutting.
Getting a Crisp Base at Home Oven Temperatures
A pizzeria oven runs at 800F and bakes in ninety seconds. A home oven does not, and the way you compensate is with stored heat.
Preheat for forty-five minutes, not fifteen. A stone reaches the air temperature of the oven long before it is actually saturated with heat. Fifteen minutes gives you a stone that is 500F on the surface and cold in the middle, and it steals heat from the base of the pizza instead of giving it.
Use the highest temperature you have. The original version of this recipe said 450F for fifteen to twenty minutes, which is long enough to dry the toppings out before the base has browned. At 500F it is ten to fourteen minutes and everything finishes together.
Steel beats stone, and a dark heavy pan beats nothing. Steel conducts heat roughly twenty times faster. If you only have a pizza pan, preheat that too and accept a slightly softer base.
Bake on the lower third of the oven. That is where the radiant heat from the floor is strongest.
Do not overload it. A wet, heavily topped bbq chicken pizza steams itself. Two cups of chicken across fourteen inches is already generous.
How To Tell When the Crust Is Done
The clock is only a guide with a bbq chicken pizza, because ovens and stones vary more than recipes admit.
Lift the edge and look underneath. This is the only test that matters. The base should be dry, firm and freckled with brown. Pale and floppy means it goes back for two more minutes.
The rim should be blistered, with a few dark spots. An evenly golden rim with no color variation usually means the oven was not hot enough.
The mozzarella should be fully melted and just starting to spot brown. Cheese that is still in distinct shreds is not done.
The green pepper should still have an edge. If it has gone soft and translucent the pizza has been in too long.
The chicken is already cooked, so it is not a doneness signal at all. It only needs warming through, which is another reason not to bake this any longer than the crust needs.
Make It Ahead
Most of a bbq chicken pizza can be got out of the way in advance.
The dough: after mixing, it will hold in the refrigerator for up to two days. Take it out an hour before you want to shape it, or it fights you.
Shred the chicken and grate the cheeses the day before and keep them in separate containers.
Slice the pepper and onion a few hours ahead, but no longer, or the onion goes limp and starts to smell.
Freeze shaped dough rounds between sheets of parchment for up to a month. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
What cannot be done ahead is assembling it. Sauce on raw dough for more than a few minutes soaks in and gives you a soggy middle. Shape, top and bake in one continuous run.
Storing BBQ Chicken Pizza
- Refrigerated, in an airtight container: bbq chicken pizza keeps 3 days, with parchment between the slices.
- Reheat in a dry skillet over medium heat with a lid on for three or four minutes. Far better than an oven and infinitely better than a microwave.
- Frozen: 1 month, wrapped individually. Reheat from frozen at 400F for about twelve minutes.
- Add the cilantro fresh after reheating. The baked-on herbs from yesterday will taste of nothing.
- Never wrap it warm. The trapped steam turns the crust to cardboard by morning.
Variations and Substitutions
In a bbq chicken pizza the dough and the double dose of sauce are the structure. Everything above the sauce is negotiable.
- Smoked gouda in place of the pecorino, if you want the classic California profile rather than a sharp one.
- Pineapple, cut small and patted dry, which is a genuinely good match for barbecue sauce whatever anyone says.
- Bacon or pancetta, cooked first and crumbled over at the end so it stays crisp.
- Pickled jalapenos instead of the green pepper, for heat as well as acid.
- Pulled pork in place of the chicken, at which point cut the sauce to a third of a cup since the pork is already sauced.
- Store-bought dough works. A pound of it, at room temperature for an hour, saves the whole first stage.
What to Serve with BBQ Chicken Pizza
A bbq chicken pizza is rich and sweet, so everything beside it should be acidic and cold.
- A sharp green salad with far more vinegar in the dressing than you think you want.
- A lemony caesar salad, which is the pairing this pizza was built for.
- Quick-pickled red onions, using the other half of the onion.
- Corn on the cob in summer, since the whole thing already tastes of a backyard.
- Cold beer, or a jug of gin lemonade if it is hot out.
If the oven is already on there is pepperoni pizza casserole for a crowd, and pepperoni pizza crescent rolls for anyone who is not going to wait an hour for dough to rise.
Here is what readers ask most often.
BBQ Chicken Pizza FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use store-bought dough?
Yes, and it changes nothing else. Buy a pound of plain pizza dough, leave it on the counter for an hour so it relaxes, and shape it the same way. Cold dough springs back the moment you press it and will not hold a 14-inch round. Everything else about a bbq chicken pizza, especially the hot stone and the short bake, matters more than whether the dough was made at home.
What barbecue sauce is best?
Thick and vinegar-forward, in the Kansas City style. Thin, watery sauces run off the dough while it bakes and collect at the edge. Very sweet sauces make the whole thing cloying, which is exactly what the pecorino and the raw onion are there to counter. If your sauce is on the sweet side, add a teaspoon of cider vinegar to the half cup that goes under the cheese.
My base was soggy. What went wrong?
Almost always heat, or too much on top. A soggy bbq chicken pizza is a heat problem nine times out of ten. A stone that only preheated for fifteen minutes cannot dry the base out in twelve. Assembling the pizza a long time before it goes in does the same thing, since the sauce soaks into raw dough. Fresh mozzarella packed in water is the third culprit; use low-moisture and grate it yourself.
More Questions About Dough, Cheese and Equipment
Good to Know
Do I need a pizza stone?
No, but you need something with mass that has been preheated. A baking steel is the best of them, a stone is next, and a heavy dark pizza pan left in the oven while it heats is a real third place. What does not work is a room-temperature sheet pan, because the first thing it does is take heat out of the base. The photographs here were taken with a dark pan, so it plainly works.
One big pizza or two smaller ones?
Three cups of flour gives about a pound and a half of dough. As one 14-inch round it has a thick puffy rim, which is what the pictures show. Divided in two it makes 12-inch pizzas with a thinner base and a crisper bite, and most home ovens handle two smaller ones better than one large. Halve the toppings accordingly.
Grilling and Serving a BBQ Chicken Pizza
Good to Know
Can I grill it instead?
Yes, and it suits the flavors. Grill the oiled bare dough directly over medium-high for about two minutes a side, then move it to the cooler side of the grill, top it and close the lid for five or six minutes until the cheese melts. Have everything sliced and within reach before the dough goes on.
How many does it feed?
A bbq chicken pizza this size gives eight slices, which is two people who are hungry or four alongside a salad. It is a substantial pizza, and the two cups of chicken make it more filling than a plain cheese one of the same size.
A bbq chicken pizza is worth making at home mostly because you can put things on it that a delivery kitchen will not, and the pecorino and the raw pepper are the whole argument. If dough is not happening tonight, my pepperoni pizza casserole gets you there faster.
Loaded BBQ Chicken Pizza
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Ingredients
For the Pizza Dough
- 1 packet active dry yeast 2 1/4 teaspoons
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 cup warm water 105F to 110F, warm on the wrist and not hot
- 3 cups bread flour about 13 ounces, plus more for dusting
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt or 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
For the Topping
- 2 tablespoons coarse cornmeal for the peel or the pan
- 1 tablespoon olive oil for brushing the rim
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce thick and vinegar-forward, plus 2 tablespoons to finish
- 1 3/4 cups shredded mozzarella low-moisture whole milk, grated yourself
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken about 10 ounces
- 1 small green bell pepper thinly sliced
- 3 ounces red onion about half a small one, sliced paper thin
- 1/2 cup grated pecorino romano
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt divided between the sauce and the toppings
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground
- 1/4 cup cilantro leaves roughly chopped, added after baking
- 1 scallion white and light green parts, thinly sliced
Equipment
- Pizza Stone
- Baking sheet
- Stand Mixer (optional)
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer and leave it 5 to 10 minutes, until it looks foamy. If nothing happens the yeast is dead or the water was too hot.
- Add the olive oil and the salt with the dough hook on low, then add the flour a little at a time. Mix on medium a few minutes, stopping to scrape the hook, until the dough gathers into a ball that clears the sides of the bowl and is still slightly tacky. Add flour or water in small amounts if it is sticky or crumbly.
- Turn it out onto a floured surface, fold it over on itself a few times and shape it into a ball. Put it in a lightly oiled bowl, turn it to coat, cover with a damp towel and leave it somewhere warm for about 1 hour to 1 1/4 hours, until doubled.
Heat the Oven and Shape
- Preheat a baking stone, a steel or a heavy dark pizza pan on the lower third of the oven at 500F for at least 45 minutes. Fifteen minutes gives you a surface that is hot on top and cold inside, and it will steal heat from the base of the pizza rather than giving it.
- Roll or press the risen dough into a 14-inch round on a peel dusted with the cornmeal, or directly onto a sheet of parchment if you have no peel. Have every topping sliced and within reach before the dough is shaped, because it will not wait.
Top the Pizza
- Brush the outer inch of the dough with the tablespoon of olive oil, then spread the 1/2 cup of barbecue sauce to within an inch of the edge and season it lightly with half the salt. Scatter the pecorino first, then the mozzarella, then the chicken, green pepper and red onion, and finish with the rest of the salt and the black pepper. Pecorino underneath the mozzarella melts into the sauce instead of browning hard on the surface.
Bake and Finish
- Bake 10 to 14 minutes. It is done when the rim is blistered with a few dark spots, the mozzarella is fully melted and just spotting brown, and the base lifts to show a dry, firm, freckled underside. Give it two more minutes if it is pale.
- Scatter the cilantro and scallion over the hot pizza, drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of barbecue sauce and let it rest 5 minutes before cutting into 8 slices. Resting lets the cheese set enough to hold the toppings on the slice.