This weekend, I made the most amazing pizza topped with barbecue sauce, homemade crispy hot chicken, Gorgonzola cheese, and pickles. I was first introduced to hot chicken several years ago when I moved to Ohio. Shortly after moving to Ohio, I spent one weekend exploring the area and traveled to the North Market on Spruce Street for some grocery shopping at the farmer’s market there. While browsing through the nifty shops both inside and outside of North Market, I wandered upstairs to a restaurant on the second floor with a long line of people waiting to purchase hot chicken. My curiosity got the better of me and I quickly googled the restaurant, Hot Chicken Takeover, on my phone. When I saw all of the positive reviews, I decided to join the line and give the place a try. Despite the amount of people, the line moved quickly. When it was my turn to order, I ordered some chicken breasts with a medium spice level and got my first introduction to hot chicken. The chicken was spicy, but not too spicy and the pickles added a nice contrast to the chicken. Each order came with a Styrofoam box filled with hot chicken, pickles, and white bread. The establishment also served free unsweetened and sweetened tea. I grabbed a cup, filled it almost to the rim with some unsweetened tea and sat on the tables on the second level to enjoy my lunch. The chicken along with the pickles and white bread made for the most satisfying hot chicken experience. Fast forward to this weekend, I suddenly had cravings for hot chicken and pickles. I was nowhere near Hot Chicken Takeover and instead of trekking all the way to get some hot chicken, I decided to make my own version of hot chicken at home. To accompany the hot chicken, I cut up some pickles, paired the combination with some barbecue sauce and Gorgonzola cheese and placed all of the ingredients on my homemade pizza dough. I popped the pizza on a sheet of parchment paper and placed the pizza on top of a pizza stone in my home oven. In thirteen minutes, I had the most amazing BBQ hot chicken, pickles, and Gorgonzola pizza. The pizza turned out fantastic. The hot chicken added a crispiness and spiciness. The pickles added a wonderful tangy crunch. The barbecue sauce added a sweetness and smokiness. The Gorgonzola cheese added a creaminess and bite. I didn’t want to skip out on greens, so I topped my pizza with some fresh arugula (not pictured above) because I needed some greens in my life. With all of the ingredients combined altogether, the pizza was divine. As if I didn’t have enough carbs, I also made some tomato basil pasta salad for a side dish and classic s’mores for dessert. The pizza, pasta salad, and s’mores made for the perfect summer lunch for two. What more could a girl ask for?
For the crispy hot chicken strips*:
*I made extra hot chicken strips for snacking. If you want to have just enough for the pizza, reduce the ingredients listed under for the crispy hot chicken section in half.
· ½ tablespoon chili powder
· ½ tablespoon cayenne powder
· ½ tablespoon paprika
· ½ tablespoon smoked paprika
· 1 tablespoon garlic powder
· 2 teaspoons of your favorite hot sauce
· 2 chicken breasts, cut into strips
· 1½ cups vegetable oil
· 1 cup all-purpose flour
· 1 teaspoon kosher salt
· ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· 2 teaspoons of your favorite hot sauce
· 2 large eggs, lightly whisked
For the rest of the pizza:
· 1 ball of homemade or store-bought pizza dough
· 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
· 1 ounce Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
· 2-3 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
· 2 spears of pickles, diced
Directions:
1) In a shallow dish, combine the chili powder, cayenne powder, paprika, smoked paprika, garlic powder, and hot sauce. Add the strips of chicken breasts and toss to coat in the spice mixture. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and place the dish in the refrigerator for an hour.
2) After an hour, preheat oven to 350°F. Place a wire rack over a baking sheet. Set aside.
3) Heat a small Dutch oven pot on medium heat. Add the vegetable oil. Let the vegetable oil heat up before frying the chicken. The oil is ready when you see waves form in the oil.
4) In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Use a fork to combine the ingredients. Set aside.
5) In another bowl, add the lightly whisked eggs. Set aside.
6) Use tongs (or chopsticks) to pick up one piece of chicken. Dip the chicken in the first bowl. Turn the chicken to coat in the flour mixture. Dip the chicken in the second bowl and turn to coat the chicken in the whisked eggs. Dip the chicken back into the first bowl to thoroughly coat the chicken. Remove the coated chicken to a plate. Continue this process with the rest of the chicken until all of the chicken strips are coated.
7) Fry the chicken in the Dutch oven pot 2-3 pieces at a time for about 1-2 minutes per side until the chicken strips are golden brown. Rest each strip of fried chicken over the wire rack to prevent the chicken from becoming soggy at the bottom. Continue the process with the rest of the chicken strips until all pieces are fried.
8) Place the fried chicken strips resting on top of the wire rack into the preheated oven for 15 minutes to further crisp up the chicken strips. Once time is up, remove the chicken strips from the oven. Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes. Cut a couple strips of chicken into small pieces to use for topping the pizza. Reserve the rest of the chicken strips for snacking.
9) Place a pizza stone onto the middle rack of the oven. Preheat oven to 500°F.
10) Roll out the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface. Use your hands to stretch out the pizza dough. Transfer the pizza dough onto a sheet of parchment paper. Top the pizza dough with barbecue sauce, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Gorgonzola cheese, pickles, and pieces of hot chicken. Use a pizza peel or inverted baking sheet to transfer the pizza and parchment paper onto the pizza stone in the oven. Bake pizza for 11-13 minutes, until the pizza crust is golden brown.
Takeaways: The pizza can be served as is or with some additional hot sauce. If you want a quicker version of hot chicken pizza, you can use store-bought pizza dough and premade crispy hot chicken. For my pizza dough, instead of my usual all-purpose flour and bread flour combination, I used double zero flour I had purchased from Jungle Jim’s International Market for my pizza dough. If you can’t find double zero flour, using the all-purpose flour and bread flour combination works just as well. If you like, you can also add in some arugula to the pizza when serving.