Country Chicken Girl: BBQ Chicken Pizza and Getting Your Picky Kids to Eat!

Here's another recipe for ya!

Do you like pizza? How about BBQ chicken?

I adore both so why not combine them?

BBQ CHICKEN PIZZA

(aka BBQ Whitey Pizza or There Once Was a Rooster Named Whitey! Just joking, just joking, settle down, Whitey is still among us. Note: If this makes no sense to you, you need to read the last post.)

Okay, here is another recipe that proves "Sauce is Boss"! You can be lazy and use store bought BBQ Sauce and cheat your family from delicious homemade sauce that says "I love you guys" or you can make this homemade sauce and have your children giving you foot rubs because they love you so much! LOL that would be the day, right! But I'm getting ahead of my self. We need to talk crust first.

I also make my own pizza crust, it is so easy, there is not an excuse not to, unless you simply don't have time. But there is no excuse for not making the BBQ Sauce. It's easy and you can make it way ahead of time. Like on the weekend, if you work during the week. If you work during the week, this is a perfect recipe for a Saturday afternoon.

This might get lengthy so hold on.

Pizza Dough

I make mine in the bread machine on the dough cycle.

6 ounces water (80 degrees F)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons yeast

Put ingredients in the bread pan in the order they are given. Program your bread machine for the dough cycle. When the dough is done, turn it out on a floured surface and knead it about 1 minute or so, then let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll dough out in a 12 to 14 inch crust. Place on a pizza pan or pizza stone (that's what I use) and bake in a 400 degree oven for 8 minutes.

Now while the crust is rising in the bread machine, you can make the BBQ Sauce. I like this one which is a smokey, sweetish and a little hot. I modified a BBQ sauce I got out of this cookbook that I have and adore called "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes" by Todd Wilbur. The sauce is from Tony Roma's.

Smokey Honey BBQ Sauce

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup garlic flavored red wine vinegar

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup honey

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

2 tablespoon Franks Red Hot sauce (more or less depending on how hot you like it)

Combine all the ingredients for the barbecue sauce in a saucepan over high heat. Blend the ingredients with a whisk until smooth.
When the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer uncovered.
In 30 to 45 minutes, when the mixture thickens, remove it from the heat. If you overcook it and make the sauce too think, thin it with more vinegar.

This makes more than you'll need for the pizza. You can keep the extra in the refrigerator and use it for another meal. I used mine with left over roast and made BBQ Beef Sandwiches. Oh la, la... so good!

Okay, we've got our crust and our sauce, now it time to make the pizza.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1/2 cup BBQ Sauce

1/2 cup pizza sauce (someday I'll share the recipe for my homemade pizza sauce!)

1 cup cooked chicken, shredded (farm fresh of course)

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Shredded Cheddar cheese

1 thinly sliced onion

2 tablespoons butter

And any other toppings you want like black olives, green pepper, diced green chiles...

Spread the combined sauces over the crust. Add as much cheese as you feel you need, use 1/2 mozzarella and 1/2 cheddar. Spread chicken and onions on top of cheese. Then sprinkle, (sprinkle? sounds like we're making sugar cookies!) a little more BBQ sauce over the chicken and top off with a little sprinkle of cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the pizza is hot and bubbling.

Here's a great tip for those of you who have children to feed. This is especially helpful if your little darlings are picky eaters!

When making homemade pizza, divide your dough into four pieces and allow your children to make their own personal pizzas! Kids love to eat what they make and also you need to be teaching them how to prepare meals for themselves or they may never leave the home. Or if you never take the time to teach them any cooking skills, they will live on Kraft Easy Mac and Ramen Noodles for the rest of their lives. Not healthy at all.

I think it is extremely important to teach your kids to cook. If you start young enough, they think it is something fun to do, but if you wait too long, they won't want to do it simply because it is something that you want them to do. So the earlier you start the better!

You do need to set a few rules with these personal pizzas. This also discourages kids from becoming picky eaters.

Rule #1: Do not use more than what is required. Set limits on the cheese and sauce. You want to teach them what is appropriate! Don't let them be wasteful. As my mom use to say, "There are thousands of starving children in this world..."

Rule #2: You have to eat what you make. This discourages them from experiments that they won't eat when it turns out to be a bad idea, like Captain Crunch and Sausage!

Rule #3: They get to clean up their own mess while the pizza is cooking! This teaches them wise time-management and encourages cleanliness in the kitchen.

You can also try this with calzones. Give it a try and let me know what your kids think about it!