BBQ Chicken Pizza

I’ve been in a baking mood lately, especially with recipes involving yeast. I find it ironic considering how uncomfortable I was trying any recipe that included it a year ago. I’m making it a habit to try having some dough on hand so I can make pizzas or calzones at any given time. In fact, today was one of those times.

With some BBQ chicken I made in advance yesterday, I took the shredded chicken and made the following BBQ pizza. It’s pretty easy to make homemade pizza and I wish I felt more confident working with yeast sooner!

Instead of resorting to bottled BBQ sauce, I set out to try Tyler Florence’s recipe. I made some adaptations to the original recipe by dicing up the bacon, using yellow mustard instead of dry, adding more garlic and using dark versions for the brown sugar and molasses. It was a nice rich flavor and was a breeze to make in advance. I plan on making the BBQ sauce recipe again for the upcoming grill and BBQ season!

BBQ Chicken Pizza
sauce recipe adapted from Tyler Florence

2 lbs chicken quarters
(garlic) salt & pepper to taste
BBQ sauce prepared (recipe below), + 1/2 cup reserved
Mexican blend shredded cheese for topping
1/2 small red onion, diced
2 stalks green onion, sliced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, chopped
pizza dough, prepared

Sauce:
1 slice bacon, diced
1 bunch fresh thyme, leaves removed
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup (dark) molasses
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika or smoked paprika if available
Freshly ground black pepper

To make the sauce:
In a saute pan over high heat, place the diced bacon and fry until slightly crisp and the fat renders out. Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly without coloring for 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, give the sauce a stir, and turn the heat down to low. Cook slowly for 20 minutes to meld the flavors. Once the sauce is done cooking, remove about 1/2 cup of the sauce and reserve to use as the pizza sauce. You can make this sauce in advance.

To make the BBQ chicken:
In a crockpot, place your chicken quarters and season liberally with (garlic) salt and pepper to your taste. Add the prepared BBQ sauce, cover and cook for 4-6 hours on high (or 6-8 hours on low). Allow the chicken to cool before removing off the bone. You can make the BBQ chicken in advance as well.

To make the pizzas:
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. (If using a pizza stone, allow the stone to heat up. Prepare the pizza accordingly to use the stone.) Because I made individual pizzas, I used a half sheet dusted with some cornmeal.

Prepare your pizza dough either as a large pizza or individual pizzas and place it on the cornmeal dusted baking sheet.

Top each pizza with some of the homemade BBQ sauce and add your shredded chicken. Feel free to add the remaining toppings (or whatever you prefer) to the pizza. Sprinkle the cheese on top and then bake in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes or until desired wellness.