Buffalo chicken pizza
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
For a super-speedy weeknight meal, use a prebaked pizza crust and shredded chicken from your deli.
Author:
Recipe type: main course, appetizer, pizza,
Serves: 6 pizzas
Ingredients
For the Pizza crust: (recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice )
  • 4½ cups (20.25 ounces/ 574 grams) unbleached high-gluten, bread, or all-purpose flour, chilled
  • 1¾ teaspoons teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon instant yeast
  • ¼ cup (2 ounces/57 grams) olive oil (optional)
  • 1¾ cups (14 ounces/400 grams) water, ice cold (40°F)
  • Semolina flour OR cornmeal for dusting
For the topping:
  • 3 boneless chicken breasts (I used boneless breast strips, total weighing 852gms)
  • buffalo rub (recipe follows)
  • 14 ounce jar (1½ cups) pizza sauce (you can use homemade - I have a recipe for roasted tomato pizza sauce on the blog- that works great)
  • 5 tbsp butter
  • 6-8 tbsp Frank's Red Hot, buffalo-style ( you can make your own with some cayenne pepper, vinegar, garlic, salt and butter, and while sriracha is not the prefect substitute if thats what you have you can use that)
  • Ranch or blue cheese dressing to spread on pizza (for each pizza I used about 4 tbsp ranch dressing)
  • Mozzarella cheese, you can put as much or as little as you want
  • green onions, thinly sliced (you can also used red onions- I like to use a mix of both)
For the buffalo rub: (the ingredient list is long but it takes only a minute to put together- you could also use store bought steak seasoning or like Ashley Pampered chef's buffalo rub)
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp roasted ground cumin
  • ½ tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp ground mustard powder ( I used 1 tsp yellow mustard as I didn't have ground mustard powder)
  • 2 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • ½ tsp sage
  • ¼ tsp parsley
  • ¼ tsp thyme
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp fresh garlic clives, minced
  • 1 tbsp habanero peppers, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp oil
Instructions
To make the Dough:
  1. Stir together the flour with the water. Mix it well till combined and leave covered for 30 minutes. This is called an autolyse, and helps in kneading later.
  2. Add in the yeast and knead the dough to get it well incorporated. Add in the yeast and again knead to get it well incorporated.
  3. Stir in the oil until it is all absorbed (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment, switching to the dough hook once ingredients are evenly distributed). Knead for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet and doesn't come off the sides of the bowl, sprinkle in some more flour just until it clears the sides. If it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a tea- spoon or two of cold water. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50 to 55F.
  4. Sprinkle flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Prepare a sheet pan by lining it with baking parchment and misting the parchment with spray oil (or lightly oil the parchment). Using a metal dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces of about 6 ounce (150 grams) each or larger if you are comfortable shaping large pizzas. You can dip the scraper into the water between cuts to keep the dough from sticking to it. Sprinkle flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Lift each piece and gently round it into a ball. If the dough sticks to your hands, dip your hands into the flour again. Transfer the dough balls to the sheet pan. Mist the dough generously with spray oil and slip the pan into a food-grade plastic bag.
  5. Put the pan into the refrigerator overnight to rest the dough, or keep for up to 3 days. (Note: If you want to save some of the dough for future baking, you can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag. Dip each dough ball into a bowl that has a few tablespoons of oil in it, rolling the dough in the oil, and then put each ball into a separate bag. You can place the bags into the freezer for up to 3 months. Transfer them to the refrigerator the day before you plan to make pizza.)
  6. On the day you plan to make the pizza, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator 2 hours before making the pizza. Before letting the dough rest at room temperature for 2 hours, dust the counter with flour, and then mist the counter with spray oil. Place the dough balls on top of the floured counter and sprinkle them with flour; dust your hands with flour. Gently press the dough into flat disks about ½ inch thick and 5 inches in diameter. Sprinkle the dough with flour, mist it again with spray oil, and cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap or a food-grade plastic bag. Now let rest for 2 hours. Marinate the chicken while the dough is resting.
For the topping:
  1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the buffalo rub. Add in the chicken strips and coat all over. Let sit in the refrigerator for and hour. You can do this when you take the pizza dough out of the refrigerator and let sit on the counter for 2 hours.
  2. Grill chicken over medium heat for 4 to 7 minutes, or until temperature reaches 170 degrees. I broiled the chicken for 4-6 minutes on each side. Allow to cool slightly and chop into cubes.
  3. In a small saucepan, combine pizza sauce, butter and Frank's Red Hot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for approximately 15 minutes, or until sauce thickens slightly. Add in 1 tsp each onion and garlic powder. Add chicken and heat through.
To make the Pizza:
  1. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone either on the floor of the oven (for gas ovens), or on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven as hot as possible, up to 800F (most home ovens will go only to 500 to 550F/ 250 C, but some will go higher). If you do not have a baking stone, you can use the back of a sheet pan, and preheat the pan.
  2. Generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal. Make the pizzas one at a time. Dip your hands, including the backs of your hands and knuckles, and very gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands, carefully giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Or if you don't feel confident enough to do that, just lay it down on the floured counter and stretch it outwards with your hands. If the dough keeps springing back, let it rest for 5 to 20 minutes so the gluten can relax, and try again. You can also resort to using a rolling pin, though this isn't as effective as the toss method.
  3. When the dough is stretched out to your satisfaction (about 9 to 12 inches in diameter for a 6-ounce piece of dough), lay it on the peel or pan, making sure there is enough semolina flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide. I find putting it on a parchment paper makes it easier to transfer the pizza and remove it from the oven when ready.
  4. Spread Ranch/blue cheese dressing over the shaped pizza crust and top with chicken mixture, cheese and onions, remembering that the best pizzas are topped with a less-is-more philosophy.
  5. Slide the topped pizza onto the stone (or bake directly on the sheet pan) and close the door. Wait 2 minutes, then take a peek. If it needs to be rotated 180 degrees for even baking, do so. The pizza should take about 5 to 8 minutes to bake (mine took about 8-10 minutes to bake in a 550F preheated oven). If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone to a lower shelf before the next round. If the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone for subsequent bakes.
  6. Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Sprinkle with some dried parsley on top. Wait 3 to 5 minutes before slicing and serving, to allow the cheese to set slightly.
Recipe by The Novice Housewife at https://novicehousewife.com/2012/09/10/buffalo-chicken-pizza-from-scratch/