BBQ Chicken and Onions Pizza

 Everyone should be making their own pizza!  It's MUCH MUCH cheaper than deliver, MUCH MUCH MUCH tastier than frozen.  And last but not least, a spectacular way to use up any leftovers.

Pizza dough is easy to make, but most larger grocery stores and many neighborhood pizzerias will sell you a ball of dough for just a buck.

Me, I make my own...

Pizza Dough...

4 1/2 cups chilled Flour

1 3/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp instant Yeast
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 3/4 cups COLD Water (40 degrees)

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Makes 4 pizzas

OK, did you read the 2 cold ingredients. Takes an extra hour or two of planning, I measure the water and the flour and pop them in the fridge for a couple hours to get cold. The small amount of yeast, relative to the amount of flour and the cold will make for a flat bread, almost no fermentation (rise). Just enough to soften the taste, but not make a big rise.

In my pre Kitchenaid days, I mixed and kneaded this recipe in a gallon size ziplock bag. Worked great, largely I believe because of the oil in the recipe. Without that, the dough would be too sticky to mix in a bag. But this sure made clean up easy.

Here's what I did...

• Mix the dry ingredients first
• add the water and oil about a fourth of each at a time
• mix well until all the flour is hydrated and you form a large dough ball in your bag 
• continue kneading for about 10 minutes, or if you use your kitchenaid, use the dough hook attachment, and allow the machine to knead for 7 minutes
• And now, time to divide... Generously sprinkle a work surface with flour. Also, prepare 4 ziplock sandwich size bags (bigger works fine as well) by spraying the insides of them with spray canola oil.
• Plop the dough ball into the flour and coat well. Divide into 4 equal parts (or fewer if you know you are making larger pizzas). Put each dough ball into a prepared ziplock bag and refrigerate at least 6 hours, and preferably overnight.

 Since this recipe makes 4 balls of dough, I usually have one laying around the fridge to make a quick and easy lunch.

Like the dough, any store bought pizza sauce will do.  Again... Pretty easy to make your own, but for now... let's just say you have a cup of sauce.

Once you have the dough and sauce, all you need is to remove the meat from a chicken leg and thigh quarter of a beloved Rotisserie Chicken.  Dice this meat up, and coat in whatever BBQ sauce you like.

Preheat the oven and a pizza stone to 450 degrees.
If you do not have a pizza stone, you can use a cookie sheet.  Go ahead and preheat it as well.

Roll out the dough flat and round.
Brush a tsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil around the edges of the dough, making sure the edges that might not end up being covered in sauce are moist.
Salt and pepper the dough.
Spread 1 cup of pizza sauce evenly around the dough
Spread the diced up chicken around... at least a cup.
Spread shredded mozzarella cheese around... at least a cup (by covering the chicken with the cheese, you are less likely to get burnt edges on the chicken).
Top with a few slices of red onions

transfer to the pizza stone (or cookie sheet)

Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until the cheese begins to toast and the edges of the dough are cooked and slightly char.  Since you are using a preheated stone or at worst a preheated cookie sheet, the bottom of the pizza will crust nicely as well!

And fast as you can say "Bob's your Uncle", you have a $20 gourmet pizza made with less than $5 worth of ingredients!

And another GREAT use for a beloved Rotisserie Chicken!

And once again, one of the INSANELY GOOD "52 Uses For a Rotisserie Chicken"!!!

As always, if this is a dish you think you might want to make yourself, please take a second and "pin" this to your Pinterest boards. And if you love the idea of cooking with a store bought, fully cooked, fully seasoned Rotisserie Chicken, Follow my "52 Uses For a Rotisserie Chicken" to see what I post next!