Buffalo Ranch Chicken Pizza

Rachel’s Buffalo Ranch Chicken Pizza

My husband and I are in love with spicy flavors and hot sauce. I saw a recipe once where a restaurant used Cholula hot sauce as a way to marinate chicken for a pizza, which gave me a brilliant idea on how to make a delicious buffalo ranch chicken pizza. This is now officially our favorite pizza.. I made it last weekend, and yes, we will probably make it again this weekend because it was so good. My husband and I ate almost the entire large pizza ourselves.. I think there was two pieces leftover, which we devoured for breakfast the next morning. This pizza has just enough spice, but not so much as to overpower the flavor of the other ingredients.

Ingredients:

Yields 1 large pizza

1 package of homemade or store-bought pizza dough ( I highly recommend Trader Joe’s pizza crust if you are buying a store bought crust)
olive oil
Original flavor Cholula hot sauce
Hidden Valley ranch dressing ( I used light)
1 large garlic clove
1/2 lb. Mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb. Provolone cheese
1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
1/3 c. ground hot or sweet Italian sausage (optional)
1 jalapeno, sliced (de-seeded if desired)
Kosher salt
fresh cilantro for garnish

Step 1: 30 minutes before making the pizza, place the shredded rotisserie chicken in a bowl (you will probably only need about half of the shredded chicken for one pizza). Drizzle a generous amount of Cholula hot sauce over the chicken and toss to coat. Cover bowl of marinated chicken with plastic wrap and place in fridge to marinate for at least 30 minutes. Dust pizza dough with flour and set on counter to soften.

Step 2: Grate the mozzarella and provolone cheese and toss together in a large bowl to blend the cheeses together.

Step 3: Sprinkle a pinch of corn meal on the bottom of the baking stone or baking sheet to prevent dough from sticking. Once the dough is ready to be handled, stretch it out onto a large baking stone or baking sheet.

Step 4: Brush the dough and edges of the crust with olive oil. Crush one clove of garlic onto the crust and spread with your fingers evenly.

Step 5: Pour out some ranch dressing onto the pizza crust. Spread over crust with a pastry brush evenly. Then drizzle some hot sauce over the pizza crust and spread with a brush over the ranch dressing evenly.

Step 6: Sprinkle on the cheese blend evenly over the pizza crust.

Step 7: Remove marinated chicken from the refrigerator and spread evenly over the cheese.

Step 8: Sprinkle sauteed sausage over the top of the pizza (optional)

Step 9: Add sliced jalapenos evenly over the pizza.

Step 10: Sprinkle some chopped fresh cilantro leaves over the top of the pizza. (I found out it is best to do this after the pizza is baked as a garnish… the cilantro’s flavor will be better rather than cooking it! Oops!). Then sprinkle a pinch of kosher salt around the outer edge of the crust. Bake the pizza in the oven at 400° F for 18 – 20 minutes until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown and crispy. Serve hot off of the stone! Enjoy!!