BBQ Chicken Pizza

See, Renée said that she loves it when I post about cooking, so here I am again. You can blame it on her, okay? Because as long as I know I've got one entertained reader, you won't ever get me to shut up.

Today we are going to be talking about What I Made For Dinner Last Night, or OMG Neither Kid Complained About Supper At All Not Even Once. To wit: BBQ Chicken Pizza. Capital Letters.

BBQ Chicken Pizza is one of my favorite things to eat, but I don't make it very often, and I don't really know why that is. It's not like it's hard, or takes a lot of obscure ostrich egg-type ingredients, because it's actually pretty darn easy. So, onward!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

All photos can be clicked to embiggen

• Pizza dough, well-rested (I buy this pre-made from Publix. Do what you will.)
• Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Barbecue Sauce. This is my favorite.
• 1 bag of shredded Italian style cheese (2 cups)
• 1 Green bell pepper
• 1 Red onion (I only used one half, because I suffer for the happiness of my children.)
• 3 Roma tomatoes
• Pre-cooked refrigerated grilled chicken breast strips, chopped
  
  

Set your oven to stun (or 450) and begin working with your dough. I'm not going to explain how, because I mostly follow His Majesty Alton Brown's instructions, so I'll just let him tell you his own self.

Once you've got the dough prepared and on whatever surface you have selected (I've got a standard half sheet pan in use, but if you've got a pizza stone, knock yourself out), sauce it. Here we're using barbecue sauce instead of the traditional marina-type sauce. Squirt it on. Spread it out.

Now turn your attention to the vegetable matter. What you see below is one entire green bell pepper, one half of a red onion, and yield from three Roma tomatoes, seeded.

While you weren't looking, I chopped up the chicken and sprinkled it evenly over the sauced dough, then topped it with the entire bag of cheese. I love cheese. Sometimes we invite friends over just so we can eat cheese together. True story.

You'll note I put the chicken under the cheese. This is how I've always done it, for no special reason other than I like it that way, and it's my pizza, so that's how I make it. Follow the cheese layer with your vegetables, like so:

Notice anything there? That's right, there's more sauce, this time on top of the vegetables. Again, because that's the way (uh huh, uh huh) I like it. Now your pizza is ready for the oven: 20 minutes at 450, or until the crust is GBD and the sauce and cheese are burbling. I do love a good burble.

See? That wasn't a hardcore cooking experience at all. You could even add all sorts of different topping variations to make this how you might like it. Jalapeños might be good. Maybe some mushrooms, or an olive or three. I'm pretty sure that the original pizza that inspired this recipe (from a delivery joint in Tigard, OR, nigh 20 years ago) included kidney beans. That's a bit cowboy for my taste, but who am I to judge?