This recipe if far better than most frozen BBQ chicken pizza. It has a crispy crunchy, tavern style crust. It requires no fancy equipment, just a 550F oven and a regular pizza pan.
1/4cupFavorite BBQ Sauce ideally Blue Hogs Smokey Mountain
3cupsCheap Shredded Mozzarella
1largeVidalia onion
Instructions
Brine the Chicken
I used chicken breast trimmings from my freezer. If you're using a whole chicken breast, slice in half and then put in a bowl - this is plenty of meat for 2 pizzas.
Submerge with water, counting how many cups it takes to do so.
Use my calculator (linked in notes) to determine the amount of salt to use. I used a 3% brine, with 8 cups of water, and 6 tbsp of Diamond Crystal kosher salt.Brine for at least 6 hours, or overnight. I did 7 hours.
Rinse the Chicken, Pat Dry with Paper Towel, Apply Dry Rub
Toss the chicken in EVOO or similar neutral oil and apply dry rub OR use your favorite BBQ rub.
1/2 tsp sweet paprika, 1/2 tsp granulated garlic, 1/2 tsp granulated onion, 1/4 tsp chipotle powder, 1/2 tsp dark brown sugar, EVOO as a binder
I grilled these on my pellet grill @ 400F for ~15 minutes until I was happy with the color OR go to ~165F.
Take off and allow to rest/cool before using on the pizza.
Make the Pizza Dough
Grab a gram scale and to a food processor add the 360g of bread flour.
In 2 separate bowls weigh out 90g of water. To one add the 5g of instant yeast or active yeast and to the other add 7g of salt.Ensure the salt is dissolved and allow the yeast to bloom.
To the food processor add 30g of cold, unsalted butter. Pulse the food processor until the butter is well dispersed and has a sandy texture (~10 seconds).
To the food processor add the yeast+water and salt+water mixtures. Combine in the food processor processor until the dough takes shape.
Take out of the food processor and form into a ball. Put into a bowl on the counter for ~2 hours, covered.
After 2 hours, separate into 2 equal sized dough balls. Form into ball shapes and allow to rest for ~20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, take a plate or pan and flatten the dough.Then use a rolling pin to evenly stretch the dough out until it's a ruler's length in diameter all the way around.
Use a fork to poke shallow holes into the dough to prevent bubbles from rising when you bake.
Put the flattened dough on a piece of parchment paper and into your refrigerator for ~4 hours or overnight.
Prep Other Toppings
For veggies, use a mandolin to cut thin and then salt liberally. Allow to brine for ~15 minutes then dump the purged water and rinse the veggies and pat dry.
If using pre-shredded cheese - take 2-3 handfuls and soak in a bowl of water for ~10 minutes. Then strain the water.
Set Oven to 550F or Highest Temperature Setting
Grease a Pizza pan with ~1-2 tsp of vegetable oil.
Take your dough and place onto the pan. Stretch as needed to be 12" all around. If necessary too, redo the small shallow holes.
Take ~1/4 cup of sauce and spread out all around in an even layer all the way to the edges.
Take ~2 handfuls of cheese and spread evenly. Add your other toppings, and then add your sliced chicken.
Bake for ~5 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for another ~5 minutes. Depending on your oven it may take ~2 more minutes, for me 10 minutes is perfect. Then allow to cool for ~2-3 minutes then cut into tavern-style square slices.