Equal parts smokey, spicy, and sweet
To be honest, I never saw the allure of BBQ Chicken Pizza until I started making my own. Most takeaway versions were just too sweet for my taste and missing that element of smoky, spicy flavor to balance. At my favorite fella’s eager prompting, I decided to put together my own version and it’s SO GOOD! This BBQ Chicken Pizza starts with a base of smokey bbq sauce and is topped with melty Colby jack cheese, savory sliced bbq chicken, red onion, spicy pickled jalapenos, and sweet pineapple chunks. It’s equal parts smokey, spicy, and sweet and makes for a well-balanced BBQ Chicken Pizza that has now become one of my absolute favorites!
What toppings should I use for a BBQ Chicken Pizza?
- Your favorite Smokey BBQ Sauce: If you’d like to make your own, this Spicy Red BBQ Sauce is super tasty with a kick of spice. For bottled BBQ Sauce I recommend Stubb’s Smokey Mesquite or Lillie’s Q Smoky.
- Shredded cheese: I used Colby-jack cheese for this, but feel free to use cheddar, mozzarella, or whatever meltable cheese you like best
- Pickled jalapenos: I love the spicy nacho variety best
- Onion: I generally use red onion, but sweet yellow would be nice too
- Pineapple: To balance the heat and add a bit of sweetness
- Chicken: Sliced BBQ chicken or lightly seasoned leftover chicken are my go-to’s, but rotisserie chicken also works great too
- Optional: Ranch dressing to drizzle on top — Try this Buttermilk Jalapeno Ranch Dressing for a spicy, creamy kick!
My favorite shortcut for BBQ Chicken Pizza
Though you can certainly grill chicken specifically for this pizza, I prefer to use leftover chicken for this pizza from a previous night’s dinner to make things super easy. Grilled chicken breasts often show up on our weekly menu during the summer for dinner, with leftovers used to top salads and stick in sandwich wraps during the week. You can also repurpose those leftovers for this pizza and cut your cooking time down substantially. If you don’t have leftover chicken in hand and still don’t feel like cooking chicken, a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken makes a great substitute as well!
WHAT ABOUT THE PIZZA CRUST?
I prefer to use this Easy Same-Day Pizza Dough recipe to make this BBQ Chicken Pizza, but if you have a preferred pizza crust recipe of your own or want to grab some pre-made dough from the store, feel free to use those as well.
WHAT TEMPERATURE IS BEST TO BAKE PIZZA AT?
Your aim is a perfectly golden crust and nicely caramelized toppings, so the hotter the better. Many professional pizzerias keep their ovens heated to 800 degrees F or higher, but most home ovens only reach temperatures between 500-550 degrees F so this recipe is created with those constraints in mind. I bake my pizzas at 500 degrees F / 260 degrees C and get wonderful results. If your oven tops out at 450 degrees F / 232 degrees C, I have tested that temp many times over as well and it works well, though you’ll want to plan on a few extra minutes in the oven, especially if your pie is piled high with toppings.
REHEATING PIZZA LEFTOVERS
It would be cliche if I made a joke about leftovers and pizza right now, so we’ll just skip that and assume you didn’t eat the entire pie for a moment. My two favorite methods for reheating pizza so it retains its crisp crust while remelting the cheese is in the oven or in a cast-iron pan on top of the stove.
Oven method: Bake on a sheet pan at 350 F / 175 C for 10 minutes or until pizza has reached your desired level of warmth and crispness.
Stovetop method: Set pizza in a cast-iron pan over medium-low heat. Allow to cook until the crust has reached your desired level of crispness. If the cheese isn’t melted enough for your taste you can add a few drops of water to the pan (away from the pizza) and cover the pan for a minute or two to allow the steam to melt the cheese further.
WHAT TOOLS DO I NEED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE?
- A kitchen scale or measuring cups (for less precise measurements)
- Measuring spoons
- A cutting board
- A chef’s knife
- A cheese grater
- A rolling pin (only if you prefer an evenly thick pie) otherwise your hands are your best tool
- A spoon or spatula (to spread the BBQ sauce)
- A pizza wheel
Are you looking to upgrade to your cooking tools or replenish your pantry? Check out my kitchen tools shop page and pantry staples shop page to find my must-have kitchen tools, pantry items, and other Whip & Wander favorites.
LOOKING FOR MORE PIZZA INSPIRATION?
Love this BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe? Here are some additional favorites for your next pizza night:
- Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza
- Taco Pizza
- Meatball and Ricotta Pizza
- Eggs Benedict Pizza
- Sausage, Fennel, and Calabrian Chili Pizza
- Pizza Quattro Stagioni
- Canadian Bacon, Pineapple, and Sauerkraut Pizza
BBQ Chicken Pizza
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 14 minutes
- Total Time: 24 minutes
- Yield: 1 large pizza 1x
- Category: Pizza, Mains
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This BBQ Chicken Pizza starts with a base of smokey bbq sauce and is topped with melty Colby jack cheese, savory sliced bbq chicken, red onion, spicy pickled jalapenos, and sweet pineapple chunks. It’s equal parts smokey, spicy, and sweet and makes for a well-balanced BBQ Chicken Pizza that is one of my favorites!
Ingredients
- 1/2 recipe Easy Same-Day Pizza Dough
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 8 oz (about 1 cup) Smoky BBQ Sauce (If you’d like to make your own, this Spicy Red BBQ Sauce is super tasty with a kick of spice. For bottled BBQ Sauce I recommend Stubb’s Smokey Mesquite or Lillie’s Q Smoky).
- 6 oz (about 1 1/2 cups) Colby jack cheese, shredded
- 60 g (about 1/2 cup) pickled jalapenos (I prefer the hot ones!)
- 40 g (about 3 slices) red onion
- 8 oz can pineapple chunks, drained of juice
- 125 g (about 1 cup) pre-cooked chicken breast, sliced (leftover grilled BBQ or lightly seasoned chicken or rotisserie chicken)
- Optional: Serve with this Buttermilk Jalapeno Ranch Dressing for a spicy creamy kick
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F / 260 degrees C and set a baker’s half sheet to the side.
- If you are hand-stretching your dough:
- I like to rub a small amount of olive oil into my hands first; this allows me to shape the dough easier without it ripping accidentally from friction.
- Press the dough down with the palm of your hand into a disk shape, then use your fingertips to gently press down on the dough disk, further flattening it.
- To further extend the dough, I prefer to press one palm on top of one side of the dough and with the other hand lift the alternative side of the dough and gently work the dough outward, pulling very gently with the tips of my oiled fingers (like a very discrete “come hither” motion) to slowly stretch the dough out. Rotate slightly and repeat until the dough is shaped and stretched to your liking. If you find that the dough starts to snap back or is beginning to tear, allow the dough to relax for a minute or two before proceeding again. Transfer your stretched dough to a sheet of parchment paper.
- If you are using a rolling pin
- I prefer to place my dough between two sheets of parchment paper to avoid the dough sticking to my rolling pin, but if you prefer you can also sprinkle a bit of flour over the dough ball as well as wiping some over your rolling pin by hand to prevent sticking instead. Once the dough has been rolled to your preferred size and shape, peel the top layer of parchment paper off (if using). The bottom layer that the dough is resting on can be utilized for your baking sheet. If you find that the dough starts to snap back or is beginning to tear, allow the dough to relax for a minute or two before proceeding again. Shape your dough. If you prefer a classic pie-shape with a thicker crust compared to the center of your dough, I suggest hand-stretching your dough. If you prefer your pizza to be an even thickness, I suggest rolling your dough out with a rolling pin.
- If you are hand-stretching your dough:
- Transfer your shaped dough to the reserved baking sheet.
- Brush olive oil onto the pizza dough lightly and evenly. This can be done with a pastry brush or the back of a spoon
- Pour BBQ sauce over the top of the pizza dough and using the back of a spoon spread the sauce out evenly over the dough.
- Top the pizza with shredded Colby jack cheese, sprinkling evenly across the top of the pizza dough. Then top with pickled jalapenos, red onion slices, pineapple chunks, and sliced chicken.
- Bake for 14-20 minutes or until the crust has reached your preferred level of crispness and the cheese is fully melted. I find that pizzas that have a thinner topping layer take less time to bake and heavier-topped pizzas generally take a bit longer to bake so watch your pizza closely after the 14-minute mark and adjust as desired.
Notes
Nutritional information on Whip & Wander is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4th of the pizza
- Calories: 604
- Sugar: 25 g
- Sodium: 1408 g
- Fat: 20 g
- Saturated Fat: 8 g
- Carbohydrates: 78 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 24 g
- Cholesterol: 63 mg
Keywords: BBQ chicken, Pizza, Pineapple
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