Back in my college days, I was the biggest fan of buffalo chicken pizza. It became my go-to food order on Tuesdays when my friends would drag me to the nearest local bar in Ann Arbor for dollar burgers. I’ve never been a huge fan of burgers. There I said it. My friends, however, craved large, juicy burgers quite often. Tuesdays though are the days where their cravings kicked into high gear because of the low prices. Dollar burgers aren’t actually dollar burgers when you start adding on the cheese, onion, pickles, tomato, lettuce, and any other toppings you can think of. After you account for these additional add-ins, the burger costs as much as a burger on any other day. My favorite part of dollar burger Tuesdays was being able to connect with friends, catch up on the week, and bond over great food. The buffalo chicken pizzas I remember eating in my college days were always brimming over with pulled chicken, blue cheese crumbles, and buffalo sauce. The flavor profile was hard to beat. The buffalo sauce gave the pizza a tanginess. The carrot, celery, and red onion added a crunchiness. The blue cheese and mozzarella blend gave the pizza an unbeatable creaminess. The pizzas were so good, I can’t believe it’s been seven years since I last had a buffalo chicken pizza. It seems like after I graduated from college, I forgot all about the buffalo chicken pizza until this past weekend. Over the weekend, I had a sudden craving for buffalo chicken pizza. I cannot tell you why. I just craved it. I purposely purchased some blue cheese and Frank’s RedHot sauce to add to my buffalo chicken pizza. I wanted my buffalo chicken pizza to have chicken tossed in buffalo sauce, crunchy vegetables (carrot, celery, and red onion), and blue cheese. These items were a must as they formed the basic foundation for buffalo wings. If you ordered buffalo wings at most restaurants, you typically get a serving of blue cheese or ranch dip, carrot sticks, and celery sticks. When making my buffalo chicken pizza, I knew I had to have all of these ingredients. Instead of the usual tomato sauce base, I used a homemade buffalo sauce as the base for my pizza. I loaded all of these ingredients on my no-fail, trusted pizza dough and had the most wonderful, warm, and melty pizza straight out of my home oven in less than 20 minutes. The buffalo chicken pizza was perfect, except I wished I had a side of ranch or blue cheese dip with my pizza.
Buffalo Chicken Pizza:
· 1 tablespoon butter, melted
· 3 tablespoons Frank’s RedHot Sauce or hot sauce of your choice
· 2 ounce chicken breast, cooked and shredded
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· 1-2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
· 2 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, torn
· 1 small carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
· 1 stalk celery, ends trimmed and thinly sliced
· ¼ of a small red onion, thinly sliced
Directions:
1) Prepare the pizza dough the evening before following my pizza dough recipe here.
2) In the morning, place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat oven to 500°F. Line a pizza peel with a sheet of parchment paper. Set aside. Divide the dough in half. Reshape both halves into a ball. Place one of the balls of dough on the pizza peel. Save the other ball of dough to use later. Using both hands, stretch the dough on the parchment lined pizza peel. Keep stretching the dough with both hands until you form a circle. Leave the edges of the circle slightly raised for the pizza crust.
3) In a small bowl, combine the melted butter and hot sauce to make your buffalo sauce. Pour half of the sauce on the pizza dough and use a spoon to spread out the sauce until it is evenly distributed on the pizza dough. Add the shredded chicken to the remaining sauce. Toss to coat the chicken in the sauce.
4) Sprinkle the salt and pepper all over the pizza. Evenly distribute the blue cheese, mozzarella cheese, carrot, celery, and red onion all over the pizza.
5) Gently guide the pizza and parchment paper from the pizza peel to the pizza stone. Place the pizza in the oven for 11-13 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven once the crust is golden brown.
Takeaways: The buffalo chicken pizza paired with the crunchy vegetables made for the perfect textural balance on the pizza. You can add additional crunchy vegetables to the pizza if you prefer. If you want a more decadent pizza, you can toss crispy chicken in buffalo sauce prior to topping the pizza. I would have definitely taken this extra step if I had more time to make some crispy chicken.