Combine a whole wheat pizza crust, homemade clean BBQ sauce, shredded chicken, sliced red onions, and fresh cilantro for the Best BBQ Chicken Pizza ever!
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t like pizza?
Is there...really? If so, I’ve certainly never met that person.
Pizza is simply the best. There are so many different styles, from Neapolitan, thin-crusted, deep dish, and so on. I love that, when it comes to toppings, you can put WHATEVER you want: meats, veggies, fruits, seafood... and your favorite cheese and sauce!
If you like BBQ Chicken Pizza, you’ll like Healthy Homemade Margherita Pizza for its smoky crust and rich tomato sauce.
By now, you probably already know that I love combining two (or more) of my favorite things into one flavorful combo. Duh.
So, I decided to give it a go one more time. What better way to do it than to experiment with pizza toppings, right? I learned how much I love italian sausage and pepperoni sausage pizza that way, too.
I've always really liked the combo of chicken and barbecue sauce so I figured I'd try it out on my own homemade pizza recipe and make a barbecue chicken pizza using homemade clean barbecue sauce. Problem with most store-bought barbecue sauces is they all have TONS of sugar and unnecessary processed ingredients -- I'm looking at you, high fructose corn syrup. Sigh.
Is Pizza Crust Bad For You?
It's probably not a surprise that the most unhealthy part of most pizzas is the crust. That's because most pizza crust is made from refined flour so you're really just eating a bunch of highly refined, low protein, low fiber, high carb flour. No thanks.
Now, you could make your own cauliflower pizza crust if you'd like, but I also love a wheat crust. I made this super simple whole wheat pizza crust using Bob's Red Mill's Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. More on this later in this post!
Guys, this homemade pizza crust is redonk easy -- it just takes about 15 minutes to prep and doesn't require any yeast. Just add all the ingredients together and bake to pizza crust perfection.
I said all of that to now say this: Get ready for the best BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe everrrr! It's such a great variation for chicken pizza, just like my chicken alfredo pizza.
What Goes on a BBQ Chicken Pizza?
Looking for what the heck goes on a BBQ chicken pizza? The answer is quite simple, really. Let's go over the pieces:
- Your favorite BBQ sauce (thank me later for the homemade clean BBQ sauce in this recipe) <-- seriously this is seriously the best BBQ sauce for a BBQ chicken pizza
- Chicken (I like mine shredded, but any chicken will do)
- Cheese (you can make a combo of two (or more) different types of cheese, but I prefer just fresh mozzarella - if going non-dairy, you can leave the cheese out easily)
- Thinly sliced red onions (for texture, flavor, and color)
- Chopped cilantro (for a little bit of freshness)
If you want to spice things up a bit, add some jalapeños as well!
How To Make Healthy Pizza Crust
To make a healthy pizza crust, you can make it out of cauliflower rice like this cauliflower pizza crust or you can choose higher nutrient value flour, like whole wheat pastry flour.
Whole wheat pastry flour is high in fiber, unrefined, and has a lighter texture than whole wheat flour so it’s perfect for this pizza crust. Plus there's no need to use yeast with this easy pizza crust recipe so you can make it within less than 20 minutes - no excuses! You can grab a bag and see for yourself here.
Do You Have to Cook Chicken Before Putting it on a Pizza?
I strongly recommend you cook your meats before putting them on the pizza. The time the pizza is in the oven isn't typically enough time for the chicken to become fully cooked on its own so it's a good idea to cook it through before adding it to the pizza. This also avoids cross contamination of raw meat with the other ingredients. I season and cook my chicken and then shred it before adding to the BBQ chicken pizza - it doesn't taste tough at all and works perfectly on this pizza.
What's The Best Cheese For BBQ Chicken Pizza?
Your favorite one, of course! Duh. That's the whole point of making your own pizza, right?
If you're looking for the common cheese options for BBQ chicken pizza, one is always gonna be mozzarella. Mozzarella is the perfect cheese for pizza. Its high water content allows the proteins to break apart in the short amount while the pizza is cooking which results in stretchy, gooey deliciousness that we all love so much. Mozzarella melts, bubbles and browns better than any other cheese out there and adding it on top of your pizza is a must. P.S. Have you tried fresh mozzarella - try it and you'll never go back to the other stuff. It's amazingly good.
If you'd like to mix the mozzarella with a different cheese, you could also try cheddar to give your homemade pizza a tasty kick.
Best BBQ Chicken Pizza
Best BBQ Chicken Pizza
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
*This post may contain affiliate links for products I use often and highly recommend.
Ingredients
For the Easy Whole Wheat Pizza Crust:
- 2 ½ cups Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
For the Clean Barbecue Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
- ½ teaspoon granulated onion
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 tablespoon molasses
- 1 ½ tablespoon raw honey
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
For the Best BBQ Chicken Pizza:
- ½ lb boneless, skinless chicken breast (1 large chicken breast)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoon olive oil, to coat the dough
- 6 oz fresh mozzarella, grated/chopped/sliced
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Line either a baking sheet or prep your pizza stone and start pre-heating your oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine Bob's Red Mill whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder and sea salt, and whisk together until thoroughly combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine water and olive oil in and stir to combine.
- Slowly add water mixture to the flour mixture, stirring to incorporate.
- Slowly mix together until a dough forms. The dough should be soft, but not sticky. You can add a little more water if it's too dry, a tablespoon at a time. If it's too sticky, just add a little more flour.
- Once the dough has formed into a ball, knead the dough for 5 minutes.
- Roll the dough out into a large circle using a rolling pin, and then place onto your prepared baking dish or pizza stone.
- Lightly brush the dough with olive oil, and then transfer it to the oven for 10 minutes, or until very lightly browned.
- While the crust is in the oven, we can prep our chicken and bbq sauce.
- To cook the chicken, heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a skillet and add the boneless, skinless chicken breasts,
- Season the chicken breasts with a little sea salt, ground black pepper, and granulated garlic.
- Cook the chicken for 4-6 minutes per side, until cooked through and browned on both sides. Then, remove from heat and shred into small, bite-size pieces. Then, set aside.
- To make our homemade BBQ sauce, heat some olive oil over medium-high heat in a sauce pan and then add a couple cloves of minced garlic. Cook for one minute, until the garlic is fragrant, then add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, molasses, raw honey, apple cider vinegar, granulated onion, sea salt, and black pepper, and stir to combine. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, until heated through.
- To assemble our bbq chicken pizza, spread out our homemade bbq sauce over the pre-baked whole wheat pizza crust, leaving about ½ an inch for the outer crust. Then, add our shredded chicken breast, followed by shredded fresh mozzarella cheese, and thinly sliced red onion.
- Place back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes, until the edges of the crust are golden brown, and the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Top with fresh chopped cilantro, slice, and serve.
Dustin
Great! I love BBQ Chicken Pizza.