Amazingly delicious BBQ Chicken Pizza

After moving away from Michigan, home of Jet's Pizza, home of the most awesome BBQ chicken pizza EVER, I had to come up with something comparable to satisfy my cravings.  So this is it (in three parts, below):


Part 1)  The chicken


1.  First I marinate my chicken in buttermilk all day, or as long as I can if I'm short on time (if no buttermilk 1cup milk, 1tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice) this makes for some extra moist chicken.

2.  The best way I've found to pre-cook the chicken is to place the breasts in the center of a square piece of aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray, and sprinkle on both sides with salt (and pepper, if desired). Fold up the sides of the foil to form a sealed packet. Place the packets on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. The chicken will come out moist and delicious. Simply cube the chicken and it is ready to add to your recipes (chicken salad, chicken ala king, etc). 




Part 2) The dough
Pizza dough - My preference is to use a premade, uncooked pizza dough like they sell in the deli at Winco.  Or if you don't feel like going to the store, this is a good pizza dough recipe:


2 1/2 C. flour
1 Tbls. yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1 C. warm water
1/2 Tbls. salt
2 Tbls. olive oil


1.  Combine water, yeast, and sugar and let sit until foamy (while you mix the other ingredients)
2.  After combining flour, salt, and oil, add the yeast mixture and work into a ball (I use the hook attachment on my Kitchenaid)


Part 3) Putting it all together
Here's everything that you will put on your pizza.  My portions are in parenthesis, but use as much of each of these as your tastebuds tell you to:


Sweet Baby Ray's (yes, it has to be Sweet Baby Ray's) BBQ sauce.  I like it saucy, so I use quite a bit of sauce.
1/2-1 chopped red onion
1 lb. cooked, crumbled bacon
2-3 cooked, cubed/sliced chicken breasts
8-16 oz. mozzarella cheese


Preheat your oven to 425.


To assemble, grease a glass 9 x 13 pan and spread the dough in the bottom of it.  The dough may want  to kind of spring back, so you can either try to roll it out a little bit before you put it in the pan, or you can spread it / let it rest / spread it some more / let it rest / etc. until it covers the bottom of the pan.


Then spread it with a generous layer of sauce, followed by onion, bacon, and chicken, and then top it with cheese.


Lower your oven rack so that you're baking this a little closer to the bottom of the oven (this helps the dough to cook faster, and the cheese to cook slower so it doesn't get too crunchy).  I usually use the rack that is one or two below the middle slot, but it will just depend on your oven and how many slots you have.  You don't want it all the way at the bottom.


Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until you can look through the glass pan and see that the bottom of your pizza is darkening to a golden color.