Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza

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So my family likes pizza…a lot! Usually we get $5 pizza because the boys are more than happy with it and hey, it’s cheap. 🙂 So I got a wild hair and decided I was going to try my hand at making pizza…from scratch.

I’d never done it before and was fully expecting that I’d probably have to go pick up a $5 pizza after I failed miserably. Shockingly, that didn’t happen! I found a fantastic (and I truly mean that) recipe on Food.com for a bread machine pizza dough recipe. Now, making the dough even in the bread machine isn’t quick so you’ll have to give yourself about 3 hours before you plan on eating to make this. So go get your bread machine out and lets get started!

Bread Machine Pizza Dough

(very slightly adapted from Food.com)

Add in your machine…

1 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons sugar

4 cups flour

1 tablespoon of your favorite pizza seasoning (I just combined parsley flakes, oregano, garlic salt and pepper to equal 1 TBSP)
4 teaspoons quick rise yeast

Set your machine on dough setting and let it rock and roll!

While you’re waiting the 90 mins for the dough to do it’s thing you can use this time to clean your kitchen, read a book, catch up on the Tivo…whatever you’d like. 🙂

Now that your dough is done, remove it from the machine and place it on a lightly floured surface. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise another 30 minutes until about double in size. You don’t want to WRAP the dough, just drape the plastic wrap over the top of it so it’s completely covered.

Preheat your oven to 425°F.

During this 30 mins is when I prepped my toppings. I used my covered baker to cook a large chicken breast in the microwave. Boiling the chicken will also do the job, you just want it to shred easily. You are also going to need…

about 1 cup bbq sauce of your choice (I used Kraft Hickory Smoke BBQ Sauce)

1 1/2 to 2 cups of shredded cheese, depending on how cheesy you want it. ( I used medium cheddar and mozzarella)

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

3 slices of onion, halved

This is what my dough looked like after the 30 mins…

At this point I divided the dough into two equal parts. I have a 15″ round baking stone and 15″ x 13″ rectangle baking stone. I made a round pizza for Josh and I…it was probably about 13″ and a rectangle cheese only pizza for the boys, it was probably about 14″ by 12″. So yes, this makes a lot of dough! If you don’t need that much you can freeze it or use it to make delicious breadsticks!

Use about 2 tablespoons of corn meal to spread on your stone or baking sheet and press the dough out on it. Your edges are going to be a little bit thicker and that’s okay because it’s delicious crust! 🙂 Cover lightly with a dish towel and let rise for another 20 mins or so.

After that, bake for about 5 minutes. This will help your dough get all the way done without your toppings being over cooked.

Using about half of the bbq sauce, spread it out on the pizza crust. Use the rest of the bbq sauce to mix with your shredded chicken. Next do a light sprinkling of cheese. After that top with the bbq chicken, bell peppers, onions and then the rest of the cheese.

Here is my pizza just before baking…

By this time your mouth is watering and you are hoping the pizza bakes in a flash! Bake for another 15 mins. After the 15 mins are up, I move the pizza to the bottom rack and bake for another 3-5 mins to get the bottom nice and crispy!

Then voila! You have this…

The flavor is fantastic! I love this crust because the bottom gets nice and crispy but the inside is still soft and delicious! Let it sit for about 5 mins and then slice it up and dig in!

My whole family LOVES our new rotation of homemade pizza! Seriously my husband told me there was no reason for us to ever order out again! Feel free to use whatever toppings your family likes best and don’t forget that topping a pizza is a great job for little hands to help with! Enjoy!

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