Deluxe BBQ Chicken Pizza

When I made a barbecue chicken and pineapple pizza with sharp cheddar, I thought I really had something there. And at the time, I did. But then the world of Pinterest presented to me an even better version of something I thought couldn't be topped. And here it is…

It's still a BBQ chicken pizza with pineapple chunks, but so much more…red onions, bacon, and jalapeños.  I am still recovering from this delight and can't possibly fathom improving upon this pizza any further.

Also, I did a twice-baked crust to make it a bit crispier. Lately my crusts have had a little "mush" layer just beneath the toppings, and although it does not ruin the meal it certainly causes a distraction. To eliminate the mush layer, simply bake your crust for 3 to 4 minutes before putting the toppings on, then remove it from the oven, top it with all the good stuff, and bake it again until it's done. Just that one extra step is completely worth the work.

Toppings you'll need:

• About 1 cup pizza sauce
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup barbecue sauce, more or less depending on your preference
• 1 chicken breast, cooked and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 red onion, sliced and cooked
• 2-3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled into bits
• 1/2 can (about 1/2 cup) pineapple chunks
• Handful of jalapeños, to taste
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

If you don't have your chicken and onions all ready to go, cooking these is very simple.

• All I did for mine was slice the onion and chicken breast very thin, place the onions onto an oiled baking sheet, and place the chicken on top of the onions. That goes into the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. The only thing I would have done differently is use more red onions. I only used half of a medium red onion, but using the whole thing would have satisfied me even more. But that's purely a matter of taste - use the amount of onion that makes you happy.

• When the chicken is cooked, remove the baking sheet from the oven and chop everything that was on it into bite-sized pieces. Set it aside while you prepare the rest, or put it in the fridge if it's going to be more than a few minutes before you start the rest of the za making.

Let us now start with the real business we came here for: to make an epic pizza.

• Preheat the oven to 500, making sure your pizza stone is inside.
• Gather everything you plan to put on the pizza (cooked chicken and onions, crumbled bacon, drained pineapple chunks, sauces, and shredded cheeses). Once you have your dough ready, you need to work with the swiftness. 

• If you want to do the crispy crust thing like I did, make sure your dough is ready to go (prepped and cut just smaller then the pizza stone). When the oven reached 500, take the pizza stone out and put just the dough for the crust on it - no toppings just yet. (Or if you're really crafty, slide the dough right onto the stone without removing it from the oven at all. 
• Now you're going to have to keep an eye on it so it doesn't cook too much, but generally it should take no more than 4 minutes to crisp it up a little bit. 
• Remove the stone with the dough on top from the oven and get ready to place your toppings on it next. 

It may be a little bit lumpy or bubbly looking if you're doing this step, but don't worry, it will all be just fine. Generally, kneading and rolling out your dough gets rid of the air bubbles within it, but obviously I don't have that art down to perfection just yet. If your crust begins to look like this, simply press down the bubbly parts with a spatula (not your hand 'cause it's freakin' hot!), or pop them with a knife to deflate them a bit. 

• Working with your pizza stone on a stable surface, evenly spread your pizza sauce onto the crust.
• Spread (or squeeze from a bottle) about half of your barbecue sauce onto the crust next. If you like your barbecue sauce more than pizza sauce, you can adjust the ratios of those. But don't worry - you will be adding more barbecue sauce in the last step. 
• Sprinkle on all the rest of the toppings (onions, chicken, pineapples, jalapeños, and bacon). Make sure they are evenly distributed around the pizza. You may prefer more or less jalapeños depending on your tolerance of hot and spicy things. 
• Sprinkle on the cheeses last (you can mix them or just sprinkle on one after the other) and carefully place the whole thing back into the oven.
• Now if you did the pre-bake on your crust, you won't need it in the oven very long before it's done. Perhaps 5 or 6 minutes should do it. If you didn't pre-bake, then this will take about 10 minutes until it is complete. My best advice is to keep an eye on it and take it out when it's as done as you like it. (Golden edges on the crust and melted cheese on top can usually indicate a done pizza.)

Golden and melty and DONE!

• Remove the pizza from the oven and spread or squeeze the remainder of your barbecue sauce on top. Let it cool for a few minutes (the pineapple pieces get hot in a 500-degree oven and they stay hot the longest). 

Mmm. Get into ma belly.

So, so, so good. Typically I do add-ons to my slices…nothing unusual - maybe just some red pepper flakes or a side of sauce for dipping. But I can say with confidence that this pizza needed nothing! It was a stand-alone winner and a Friday night delight. 

BBQ Chicken & Pineapple Pizza with Sharp Cheddar and a Southwestern Spiced Crust

This is one hell-a exciting pizza. Just look at it! So mesmerizing. All those flavors and seasonings, but nothing so weird that you wouldn't want to try it. 

I'll admit, I was a huge skeptic of pineapple on pizza for the longest time. You could not pay me a king's fortune to try a bite of "Hawaiian" pizza. In my mind, there was no way I was going to enjoy that. I knew a lot of people that ate it and loved it, but I don't know...I never saw myself as one of those people. 

But then suddenly, I was. The sweetness of the fruit and the way it compliments the the smokiness of the barbecue sauce and other spices on here is one that really satisfies all your tastes at once. You will keep coming back for more until there's none left. 

You could do this pizza on a plain crust, but I wouldn't recommend it. All you have to do to make it "southwestern" is add 1 tablespoon of garlic powder, 1 tablespoon of onion powder, and 2 tablespoons of southwestern seasonings to my usual pizza crust recipe. For the southwestern seasonings, just a spice blend from your local grocer will do. Or taco seasoning would probably work as well. Or if you want to get really fancy and do your own reduced-sodium, extra-spicy, outer space blend, then Pinterest and the internet in general are going to be useful to find whats suits your tastes. 

Pizza toppings:

• 1-2 cups pizza sauce
• Your favorite barbecue sauce, about 1/2 cup (Sweet Baby Ray's is delicoius)
• 1 or 2 chicken breasts
• 1/2 Tbsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 Tbsp. onion powder
• 1/2 Tbsp. southwestern spices
• 1 red onion
• 1 20-oz. can of pineapple chunks
• 3/4 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
• 1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded

Chicken chunks are chunky and yummy.

Make it already:

• Preheat the oven to 350. Dice the chicken into cubes that are about 1 inch in size. Toss it with the garlic powder, onion powder, and southwest seasonings and bake it in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Mine was done in 22 minutes on the dot. 
• Preheat a pan on the stovetop with a bit of olive oil in it. Dice your red onion, and sauté it until tender, about 8-10 minutes. 
• Grate your cheese if you haven't already bought a bag of pre-shedded cheese. Any sort of cheddar will do. I do enjoy the taste of a sharp white cheddar but an orange cheese is fine also.
• When all your toppings are prepared, place the pizza stone in the oven and preheat it to 500 degrees. 
• Take it out when it's reached that temperature, place it on your work surface and place your prepared pizza dough on top. Add the sauce on top of that and be sure to spread it evenly all the way around and to the edges.
• The barbecue sauce goes on next. Mine comes in a squeeze bottle so I just drizzled it around in a spiral working from the outside in.
• Top with onions, chicken, then pineapples. Sprinkle the cheeses on top of that. Then add one more spiral of barbecue sauce on top and get that epic pizza to the oven. 
• Set a timer for 10-12 minutes. 11 was the perfect time for me on this one. 

The only request from the husband about this pizza was "more barbecue sauce." As in, replace all of the pizza sauce with barbecue sauce. Now that's just a little bit too barbecue-y for me. Plus I really like tomato sauce. I like it on pizzas, pastas, or even just by itself. But if you are infatuated with barbecue sauce then go ahead and load it up on your za. 

Also, this was a fork-and-knife sort of pizza. Part of the reason for that is because we wanted to eat it as soon as it came out of the oven, which is probably when pizza is most likely to fall apart in your hand and the toppings will slide off, avalanche-style. To me, eating pizza with a fork takes away the pizza-eating experience that I so look forward to. I just want to pick up my slice and tear off a huge chunk with my teeth as soon as I can, repeatedly. But this za has left me with no choice. But actually, I was okay with that. 

Individual bites can be arranged so toppings are distributed equally between bites, and the cooling process occurs much more quickly. But don't be fooled...when it cools some more and when it comes time for leftovers, you better believe I'll be shoving whole pieces at my face.