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    You are here: Home » Food » BBQ » BBQ Chicken Pizza (in the oven or grill)

    BBQ Chicken Pizza (in the oven or grill)

    April 2, 2020 By Mary 15 Comments

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    BBQ Chicken Pizza

    This homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza beats the pants off any restaurant version. This easy pizza is made with smoked chicken (or any leftover chicken), red onions, tomatoes, cheese, with has a secret sauce that brings everything together, and topped with fresh cilantro.

    BBQ Chicken can be grilled or cooked in the oven, and is perfect for Friday night Pizza Night!

    BBQ Chicken Pizza cut into slices

    Friday nights in our house mean pizza night! We live in the country, far from any restaurants, so we’re rarely going out for pizza. That means we’ve had to perfect our pizza game.

    We cook our pizzas two ways around here, either in the oven on high heat using a pizza stone, or on our grill, using a high heat and a stone. This BBQ Chicken Pizza can be successfully cooked on either.

    The inspiration for our pizza came from a restaurant I worked at in college. They used a mix of cheeses, including cotija, scallions, and cilantro, onions, and tomatoes. It was so good. Though we usually sub feta for the cotija. I love the sharpness and saltiness that the feta gives, but we also make it with mozzarella when we don’t have feta on hand. The mozz works great too and provides a nice oozy cheesy texture and a much milder flavor. Choose whichever you prefer.

    This version also starts with a whole smoked chicken. We like to smoke a whole chicken, and use it in meals throughout the week, saving a good couple cups for our BBQ Chicken Pizza. If you don’t have smoked chicken, any shredded chicken works well too.

    Chef Tip: you can also buy a pre-cooked store-bought rotisserie chicken from your supermarket, and just shred up that meat! It won’t have that same smoky flavor, but will work in a pinch.

    A Whole Roaster Chicken cooked on a Smoker

    A Note On The Sauce for The Pizza

    I’m not a fan of using 100% BBQ sauce as the base. I find most BBQ sauces have so much sugar in them that when you bake at a high heat the sauce starts to caramelize before the pizza is done cooking, and the end result is more like candy then a nice rich sauce. So I like to mix ½ BBQ sauce with ½ regular pizza sauce (or just regular tomato sauce). It provides a richness and saucy texture that I’m going for, but you still get the BBQ flavor. We use the same ½ and ½ sauce technique with this killer Buffalo Chicken Pizza. Mmmmm.

    Best Cheeses to use

    The restaurant version this pizza was inspired by used a 4 cheese blend. We’ve found it works best with a combination of cheeses. My favorite is a combination of shredded cheese (both cheddar and smoked cheddar), feta or cotija, and some mozzarella cheese.

    Feel free to use any combination, or just stick with the traditional mozzarella.

    Smoked BBQ Chicken Pizza

    How to Make BBQ Chicken Pizza

    1. Preheat Oven: to 475 degrees, with a pizza stone (or pizza steel) in the center of the oven. See notes for grilling your pizza.
    2. Prepare Pizza Dough: we absolutely love Ken’s Artisan Pizza dough for our pizzas. But feel free to use your favorite pizza dough. Roll it out to 12″.
    3. BBQ Pizza Sauce: we combine equal parts BBQ Sauce and traditional pizza sauce. We’ve learned through experience that 100% BBQ sauce will start to burn before the pizza is done cooking. That’s because most BBQ sauces contain a high amount of sugar, and sugar cooked at a high heat will burn quickly. So we mix in some traditional tomato sauce to reduce that risk. Plus the combination tastes great. Spoon your sauce evenly throughout your dough.
    4. Toppings: layer your pizza with shredded chicken, sliced red onions, diced tomatoes, and a combination of cheeses (we use a combination of cheddar cheeses, feta, and mozzarella.
    5. Cook Pizza: Gently slide the pizza onto the pizza stone, and cook until the crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly (about 10-12 minutes).
    6. Garnish Pizza with fresh chopped cilantro, slice, and serve.
    Smoked BBQ Chicken Pizza drizzled with bbq sauce

    Wine Pairing for BBQ Chicken Pizza

    You have lots of options here. You’ve got some smoky components from both the meat and the BBQ sauce, but you also have some sharp flavors from the onions and feta, and some herbal cilantro. If you go red this is where a low tannic fruity wine is great, like Zinfandel, Syrah, or Grenache.

    But I also love it with a bolder style Rosé. Rosés will have lots of fresh acidity and bright fruit flavors that will balance well with the multitude of flavors going on in the BBQ Chicken Pizza. They are very versatile and also super refreshing.

    BBQ Chicken Pizza and Wine Pairing

    More Pizza Recipes:

    • How to Grill Pizza
    • Smoked Buffalo Chicken Pizza
    • Smoked Brisket Pizza
    • Grilled Pizza with Pear and Prosciutto

    Note: This post was originally published April of 2016 and updated April of 2020.

    BBQ Chicken Pizza Recipe

    BBQ Chicken Pizza

    An easy Smoked BBQ Chicken Pizza, made with smoked chicken, a blend of cheeses, and our favorite toppings. Perfect for Pizza Night!!!
    5 from 1 vote
    Print Pin Rate Save Saved!
    Prep Time: 15 minutes
    Cook Time: 15 minutes
    Total Time: 30 minutes
    Servings: 4 servings
    Author: Mary Cressler | Vindulge
    Cost: $14.00

    Ingredients

    • Pizza dough your favorite homemade or store-bought dough (enough for one 12″ pizza)
    • ¼ cup bbq sauce (your favorite homemade or store-bought)
    • ¼ cup pizza sauce (or tomato sauce)
    • 1 cup smoked chicken, shredded (or the equivalent of other cuts of chicken, shredded)
    • ¼ medium red onion, sliced into thin strips (approx ½ cup)
    • 1 medium tomato, diced (about ½ cup)
    • ½ cup shredded cheese (my favorite combo is ½ cheddar, ½ smoked cheddar, more or less depending on how cheesy you want your pizza)
    • ¼ cup feta or mozzarella cheese (or a combination of both)
    • Diced cilantro, for garnish
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • Preheat oven to 475 degrees (see notes for alternative methods), with a pizza stone in the center of the oven.
    • Slice and prep all of your ingredients in advance and mix the BBQ sauce and tomato sauce in a small bowl.
    • Roll out the pizza dough to about 12” circle onto a slide-able pizza peel (or onto a round pizza pan).
    • Layer the dough with the BBQ/pizza sauce mixture, shredded chicken, onion, tomato, and cheeses.
    • Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone, and cook until the crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly (about 10-12 minutes).
    • Top pizza with fresh chopped cilantro, slice, and serve.

    Notes

    This pizza is also fantastic grilled. For instructions on how to grill pizzas, start with a high heat in the grill. Ideally 425 – 450 degrees. As the grill warms up, be sure the pizza stone or steel is on the grill at the same time also heating up.
    For a Big Green Egg: We use the convEGGtor plate, the grill grate, and a pizza stone in that order. 
    For a Kettle Grill, We use a pizza steel, a typical pizza stone can crack over direct heat.
    When grilling, place the pizza onto the steel or the pizza stone. After 5 minutes, rotate the pizza 90 degrees. This helps to distribute the heat if any hot spots and make an evenly cooked crust.
    Remove the pizza after an additional 5 minutes or the bottom of the crust has a golden color and the cheese is melted.
    Find the perfect wine pairing at the Vindulge Wine Shop
    Tried this recipe? We would love to see!Mention @vindulge or use the hashtag #vindulge
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Arpit Agarwal says

      August 09, 2016 at 3:40 am

      5 stars
      Hey Mary,

      Great job with the images and the description and the recipe (of course!)
      I really enjoyed looking at the pictures, and would like to use one of them in a small mobile app-project of mine.. is that okay with you?

      Please keep writing such beautiful blogs with these colorful images. Makes me go hungry!

      Reply
      • Mary says

        September 02, 2016 at 5:02 pm

        Thanks! And yes, you’re welcome to use photos as long as there is proper photo credit and linking back to this site.

        Reply
    2. Penny Sadler says

      June 02, 2016 at 10:40 pm

      Great photos and recipes. Good work!

      Reply
    3. Lindsay Ingalls says

      May 02, 2016 at 6:57 pm

      I love that you got your kids involved in the cooking process! So much fun!

      Reply
      • Mary says

        May 05, 2016 at 11:40 am

        Thanks! They love getting messy in the kitchen (or outside!). I think they see both of us cooking so often that they like to get involved 🙂

        Reply
    4. grace says

      May 02, 2016 at 12:30 pm

      ugh–it’s not friday, it’s monday, and that sucks! this pizza doesn’t suck, though, and it would be perfect for any night!

      Reply
      • Mary says

        May 05, 2016 at 11:40 am

        Ha! Very true! And it would make any Monday so much easier to tackle 😉

        Reply
    5. Marlynn @ UrbanBlissLife says

      May 02, 2016 at 4:07 am

      Friday night is our pizza and movie family night too! BBQ chicken pizza is hands down my fave and my husband’s fave, and I might need to use my real-cheese-hall-pass for this one (I normally use Daiya because I’m 90% dairy free, but I think this recipe calls for the real thing!). Looks delicious!

      Reply
    6. Jenni says

      April 30, 2016 at 12:05 am

      That is a beautiful pizza. I love the idea of a traditional meal. We used to do Pancake Saturdays at our house, but having an infant has made us not be very consistent. Pizza Friday sounds wonderful.

      Reply
      • Mary says

        May 05, 2016 at 11:43 am

        That sounds like us! So hard to be consistent with the kiddos.
        MMM Pancake Sunday sounds glorious. We love those around here.

        Reply
    7. Catherine says

      April 29, 2016 at 10:40 pm

      Happy Friday! When my husband and I met, he worked at a pizza place that made an incredible BBQ chicken pizza. We should make this as a little reminder of that time! <3

      Reply
      • Mary says

        May 05, 2016 at 11:43 am

        I love it! And yes I agree, it would be a great reminder of those days 🙂

        Reply
    8. Mary Burris says

      April 29, 2016 at 8:15 pm

      I have yet to try the BBQ Chicken Pizza. It sounds delicious, but I always end up going for a regular meat lovers instead. One day, I will give it a try.

      Reply
    9. Katy M. says

      April 29, 2016 at 3:27 pm

      Pizza Night!! I promise we will build that oven!! Until then, it’s Friday Night Lights at your place 🙂 Yum!

      Reply
      • Mary says

        April 29, 2016 at 5:44 pm

        Deal!!!

        Reply

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    Mary-Cressler-Sept-2015-smI'm Mary, a wine/food/travel writer, Certified Sommelier, mom of twins, former vegetarian turned BBQ fanatic, runner, and founder of Vindulge and author of Fire + Wine cookbook.  Thanks for stopping by!

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