Make your own BBQ chicken pizza at home with this recipe that includes a BBQ-pizza sauce on a homemade crust, topped with mozzarella, chicken, a drizzle of BBQ sauce, and fresh cilantro.
Every Sunday is pizza night at our house. We usually stick to the classic dough + pizza sauce + mozzarella + optional pepperoni, but once in awhile we like to throw together a taco pizza or, my personal favorite, BBQ pizza.
I first fell in love with BBQ chicken pizza when I tried it several years ago at California Pizza Kitchen. It’s not significantly different from regular pizza, but the addition of BBQ sauce, chicken, and cilantro (and red onion, if that’s your thing) just go so well together. Since I like to make chicken ahead of time as part of my meal prep, this is easy to make without much extra effort.
Since I have an intense love of pizza sauce (just ask Matt, I very rarely agree to getting pizza with a white sauce), I usually do a 1:1 combo of BBQ sauce and Homemade Pizza Sauce (or lately, my Deep Dish Pizza Sauce). So you get that BBQ flavor while still enjoying the classic tomato-y flavor of pizza sauce.
On top of the sauce-covered crust, I add shredded mozzarella and cooked chicken. Then stick it in the oven, and when the cheese starts to turn golden brown, you’re ready to add the rest of the toppings!
I think it looks prettier when you add a drizzle of BBQ sauce and a generous sprinkling of fresh cilantro after baking and slicing the pizza. That way every slice looks perfect.
You can use any BBQ sauce for this that you have on hand. I used a Kansas City-style BBQ sauce that we received as a gift from a friend, which is thinner but worked well. Usually, we keep Sweet Baby Ray’s in the fridge. Whatever sauce you fancy will do the trick!
Ingredients:
- 1 medium homemade pizza crust (or your favorite store-bought variety)
- 4 oz pizza sauce
- 4 oz BBQ sauce
- Approx. 2 cups mozzarella cheese
- 2/3 cup diced chicken (cooked)
- Optional: 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 Tbs fresh cilantro
- About 1/4 cup BBQ sauce
Instructions:
- In a medium bowl, mix the pizza and BBQ sauces. Spread the mixture onto the pizza crust.
- Sprinkle the mozzarella, diced chicken, and optional onions on top. Then bake according to the crust's directions, typically about 12-20 minutes (until the cheese begins to brown).
- Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.
- Using a pizza cutter, slice the pizza. Drizzle the remaining BBQ sauce over the top, then sprinkle the fresh cilantro across the pizza.
Also, a little tip for you: If you want to drizzle the BBQ sauce over the tip so it makes clean lines and doesn’t end up in globs, I highly recommend filling a small Ziploc bag with the sauce, cutting a little hole at the corner, and then squeezing it out that way. It’s a super easy piping alternative that doesn’t require any fancy equipment.
And just like that, you’ve got a semi-gourmet pizza in front of you. YUM.
What are your favorite pizza toppings?
Do you ever make pizza from scratch?
BBQ chicken pizza is seriously on of my most fave things ever. Thank you, CPK for introducing me to it lol
Yes! That’s how I first fell in love with it. Mmmm.
My husband makes something similar-it’s hard to make bad pizza right?!
Haha it’s true! Even “bad” pizza is still pizza.