My bread maker has been the catalyst for my absolute obsession with making homemade pizza lately. Like at least once every single week. Though my husband and son prefer it, I can only do so many pepperoni and cheese pizzas before I need a little change-up. One of my first out of the ordinary pizza experiments was my seasonal and fresh Peach, Basil, and Caramelized Onion Homemade Pizza. But now with football season upon us, I think this calls for the combination of two of everyone's favorite tailgate foods into one delicious creation- a Buffalo Chicken Pizza.
This recipe is incredibly easy. I let my Crock Pot and my bread maker do ALL the heavy lifting for this one. Yes, for most of the actual cook time of this recipe I sat on my butt playing on Pinterest or chasing my daughter around the living room. Note: I was NOT in the kitchen. ;)
If you plan on making this for game day, I would suggest making the chicken in the Crock Pot the day before. You can cut up the chicken the evening before game day morning, and store it in the fridge. Or, you could go the SUPER easy route and just pick up a rotisserie chicken from the store, but by making your own in the Crock Pot you can save money (and salt, and preservatives, and calories ;) ).
For my quick recipe for "roasted" chicken in the Crock Pot, CLICK HERE.
What you will need:
For the crust-
1 cup of warm water
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of honey
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups white flour
1 cup wheat flour
2 tsp active dry yeast
1-2 tbsp of cornmeal for dusting
* I adapted my pizza dough recipe from the one found HERE.
About 1 lb (one large breast) of chicken, chopped
1 cup (maybe a bit more depending on your preference) of prepared Buffalo sauce
1/2 cup of blue cheese crumbles
1 cup of shredded mozzarella
1/2 of red onion, thinly sliced (optional)
1 jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced (optional)
After your chicken is finished roasting and as you are allowing it to cool before chopping, go ahead and start your pizza dough in your bread maker. Add wet ingredients and then dry ingredients in the order I have them listed above. Set your bread maker to the Dough setting and then just walk away. My bread maker takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to mix, knead, and raise the dough.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Once your pizza dough is finished in the bread maker, take it out and dust it lightly with cornmeal. Spread out the dough in a pan or on a pizza stone. I usually lightly grease my pan to prevent any sticking. In a small bowl, mix together your chopped chicken and Buffalo sauce. We use an already prepared sauce that is made by a local vendor. You can use your favorite wing sauce, or make your own. I am using jarred because, A. This is No Effort Buffalo Chicken pizza. and B. We love this locally made wing sauce.
Spread the chicken and sauce mixture evenly over your crust. If you have opted to add the red onions and/or jalapeno, toss those on now. Now sprinkle on the mozzarella and blue cheese. Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes. I suggest that at 10 minutes you rotate the pan. When the crust is slightly golden and the cheese is all bubbly, your pizza is probably ready to take out of the oven. Let it cool slightly before cutting and serving.
I serve our Buffalo Chicken Pizza with a side of Ranch. You could also serve it along side some blue cheese dressing and celery sticks. This recipe makes six very large slices or 8 medium sized slices.
