Who doesn’t like Pizza? Honestly. Who doesn’t like it? It’s so versatile, you can literally put anything you want on it. Sure, there are classic toppings like the cheese, tomato, olives, mushrooms, pepperoni, anchovies, and so on and so forth, but the only thing that limits you with pizza is your imagination, and people will use things like pineapple (rightly or wrongly), fried eggs, goats cheese, minced beef, blue cheese, and beyond!
But, for me, one of my favourite combinations is Chicken, Chillies, Red Onions with a BBQ sauce base, so I’m going to share my recipe for this combination with you, and also how to make your own dough! The secret for great dough, like anything worth waiting for, is time and ideally you should make the dough on the morning that you want to have the pizza, and leave it to prove throughout the whole day. Also, if you can get it, try to use the Tipo ’00’ Flour, which is pasta flour, it’s a lot stronger flour and makes for a stretchier dough that’ll be much better for shaping. But if you can’t get hold of it, strong white bread flour will work perfectly well.
As well as the dough, we’re also going to make our own peri-peri seasoning for the chicken from a variety of spices, but if you’re strapped for time you can pick up pre-made peri-peri seasonings from pretty much any supermarket. For the BBQ sauce, I used the sauce from my recipe here, however you can use any BBQ sauce you fancy and a Jack Daniels BBQ sauce does work very nicely for this pizza.
If you’ve never made pizza at home before, do give this a try. I swear you won’t look at takeaway pizza in the same way again!
Peri-Peri Chicken BBQ Pizza
Print RecipeIngredients
- For the toppings:
- 2 x Chicken Breasts
- 2tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1tsp Chilli Powder
- 1tsp Garlic Powder
- 1tsp Onion Powder
- 1/2tsp Cayenne
- 1tsp Salt
- 1tsp Black Pepper
- 1tsp White Pepper
- 1tsp Dried Chilli Flakes
- 1tbsp Olive Oil
- 3 Jalapeno Chillies
- ½ Red Onion
- 120g Grated Cheese
- Your Favourite BBQ Sauce
- For the dough:
- 250g '00' Strong Pasta Flour or Strong White Bread Flour
- 160ml Water
- 20ml Olive Oil
- 10g Fast Action Yeast
- 10g Salt
- Semolina, for dusting
Instructions
Add the flour into a mixing bowl, or stand mixer, and put the yeast on one side of the bowl, and the salt on the other. Next add the olive oil, and then slowly add the water and begin mixing the dough until it all comes together into a dough. You don't want it too wet or too dry.
If you're kneading by hand, remove from the bowl and place onto a lightly oiled surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough becomes soft and smooth. If you're using a stand mixer, then leave it to knead on a medium-slow speed for 5 - 10 minutes.
Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film and leave to prove preferably for 8 hours, but if you're strapped for time 2 - 4 hours will do just fine.
While the dough rises, place all of the spices for the peri-peri seasoning, plus the tablespoon of oil, into a bowl and make sure they're all mixed together throughly. Now add your chicken breasts into the bowl and rub the seasoning onto the breasts, making sure they're completely coated in the spices, making sure to get into any nooks or folds. Now place the chicken into a plastic bag, put it into the fridge and leave to marinade in the spices while the dough is proving.
Preheat an oven to 200°C (180°C Fan)/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
Just before your dough is reaching the end of it's proving time, remove the chicken from the fridge and take a griddle pan - if you have one, otherwise a normal frying pan will work too- and place it on the hob over a very high heat until it's smoking hot.
Cook the chicken on both sides for a couple of minutes on the high heat until you get a lovely char on the spices, then place them onto a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 10 - 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 - 15 minutes.
Turn the oven up oven to 240°C (220°C Fan)/475°F/Gas Mark 9. Place a baking sheet or, preferably, baking stone into the oven to get very hot.
Once your dough has finished proving, remove from the bowl and knock all of the air out. If you're making one large 12" pizza, then you don't need to do anything, but if you're making two smaller 7" pizzas, then divide it into two equal pieces.
Add a light dusting of semolina to a work surface and place the pizza dough onto the surface. Using a rolling pin, roll your dough out to your desired size and thickness. It's really up to you how you want your base, if you want a crust then leave the dough slightly thicker all away around the edge. If you want an italian-style base, then roll it out into a thin, equal base. Do what you're most comfortable with.
Once your dough is rolled out to your desired size and shape, spread a thin, equal layer of BBQ sauce over the base, leaving as much edge as you desire for the crust. You don't want too much otherwise your base will get soggy.
Add the grated cheese over the pizza base so it's nice and even. You can use your favourite cheese(s) here - I like to use a combination of cheddar and mozzarella.
Cut the half an onion into thin slices, and spread evenly over the base, then do the same to the jalapenos.
Slice the fully rested chicken into 1cm strips and distribute over the pizza.
Now, very carefully transfer the pizza onto the hot baking sheet. If you have a pizza paddle, then use one of these. However, if you're not confident of transferring the pizza onto the baking sheet intact, then it's okay to construct the pizza on the baking sheet and put that straight into the oven. You won't get quite as crispy base, but it won't impact your enjoyment at all.
Bake the pizza in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes or until the pizza base is lovely and golden and your toppings are cooked. Remove from the oven, leave to cool for a few minutes, and then slice and serve!
