My new favourite pizza recipe – soft, yet crispy pizza dough topped with tomato sauce with a hint of barbecue flavour, chicken, smoked bacon and melted cheese.
A couple of weeks ago I shared my recipe for barbecue chicken and bacon pasta. I had some sauce left over, but not enough to make pasta for the four of us so I decided to use it for pizza instead. It turns out that what made a great pasta dish, makes an even better pizza. The tomato sauce with a hint of barbecue flavour packs in so much more flavour that simply using passata or tomato purée, and the chicken and bacon top it off perfectly.
I’ve chosen to use a mix of mozzarella and cheddar but you could use one or the other if that’s what you’ve got at home. For simplicity I used ready-grated mozzarella as I find it much easier to spread evenly on a pizza.
How to make pizza dough
I prefer to make my own pizza dough using my basic pizza dough recipe. It’s really straightforward and fun to make, and if you’re frustrated about something it’s great to take it out on the dough when you’re kneading. However, it does need a bit of planning ahead as the dough needs an hour or so to prove before it can be used (I recently experimented with making pizza dough without proving it and it was a disaster – flat, stodgy and undercooked). Fortunately you can make it ahead of time and freeze it for when it’s needed, just make sure you give it time to defrost thoroughly in the fridge before you use it.
The sauce can also be made in advance and frozen to use later, so if you need a quick mid-week dinner then get everything ready at the weekend and it’s there ready to go when you need it.
If making pizza dough isn’t for you then this recipe would also work well with a ready-made pizza base, tortilla, or other flat bread.
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Barbecue Chicken and Bacon Pizza
INGREDIENTS
- A double batch of pizza dough - enough for 2 x 10" pizzas
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ onion
- 400 g can chopped tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 1½ tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
- Salt and pepper
- 1 chicken breast - roughly 200g - can be already cooked
- 4 rashers smoked streaky bacon - can be already cooked
- 50 g cheddar cheese
- 50 g mozzarella - I prefer to use ready-grated for simplicity
INSTRUCTIONS
- Make the pizza dough.
While the dough is proving make the tomato sauce.
- finely chop the onion (½ onion) and crush the garlic (1 clove).
- Heat half of the olive oil (½ tbsp) in a saucepan and add the chopped onion. Cook on a low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent it burning.
- After 5 minutes, add the garlic, chopped tomatoes (400g can), Worcestershire sauce (2 tbsp), white wine vinegar (1½ tbsp) and soft brown sugar (1 tbsp) and cook on a low heat for about 20 minutes until all of the liquid has reduced, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Season with salt and pepper.
- While the sauce is reducing, pre-heat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan. Place two baking trays to heat in the oven.
- While the sauce is reducing you'll also need to cook the chicken and bacon (unless already cooked). Cut the chicken (1 breast) and bacon (4 rashers) into bitesized pieces.
- Heat the remaining olive oil (½ tbsp) in a frying pan and add the chicken. Brown for a minute and then add the bacon. Cook the chicken and bacon for a further 5 minutes until cooked through.
Now it's time to build you pizza
- Grate your cheese (50g cheddar, 50g mozzarella) unless using ready-grated.
- Knock the air out of your pizza dough and roll it out onto two sheets of greaseproof paper or silicon baking sheet.
- Thinly spread the tomato sauce over the two pizzas.
- Sprinkle over the cooked chicken and bacon.
- Sprinkle over the grated cheese.
- Remove the baking trays from the oven and carefully transfer the pizzas (on the greaseproof paper) onto the hot trays.
- Put the pizzas into the oven and cook for 12 minutes until golden brown (you may need to swap the pizzas around during cooking to ensure they cook evenly, and you may find that they take a little longer than 12 minutes depending on where they are in the oven).
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For…
The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.
- Egg-Free
- Tree Nut-Free
- Peanut-Free
- Sesame-Free
- Soya-Free
- Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
- Crustacean-Free
- Mollusc-Free
- Celery-Free
- Mustard-Free
- Lupin-Free
Katy | Her Cup of Joy says
I love pizza! The dough looks so soft and fluffy, my kind of pizza!
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Katy. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said it was my new favourite pizza, it’s really yummy (and yes the dough is lovely and soft and fluffy).