Buffalo Chicken Pizza

I can honestly say that this is one of the best tasting recipes I have ever made. I loved it.

Of course, Buffalo chicken wings and pizza are two of my favorite foods in the world, so why wouldn’t I love Buffalo chicken pizza?

I can remember a time when chicken wings were a garbage peice of the bird, something you either threw away or saved for chicken stock.

But in the 1970s, an enterprising cook named Teressa Bellisimo — who owned the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York — scrambled to feed a bunch of hungry college students her son Domonic brought home unexpectedly. Using whatever was at hand, she threw a bunch of wings in a deep fryer then tossed them in a mixture of cayenne pepper sauce and butter, then served them up with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks. The rest is history.

Today, Buffalo chicken wings, also known as hot wings, are a multi-million dollar industry and are sold in bars and restaurants from coast to coast. These inexpensive appetizers remain a crowd-pleasing favorite.

This recipe keeps the great flavor of Buffalo chicken but disposes of the dish’s worst elements — namley the fat and tendons of the chicken wings and the deep frying. I won’t claim that this pizza is any less fattening than a plate of wings, but it definitely is lower in cholesterol.

If you are fan of Buffalo wings and pizza, I guarantee you are going to love this as much as I do.

I’ve given the recipe for my pizza crust before, so I won’t repeat it here.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

1 TBS EVOO

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (About 1-1/2 lbs)

Salt and pepper

1/3 cup Franks Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce

1/2 cup reduced fat blue cheese dressing (or ranch)

1/3 cup blue cheese crumbles

8 oz shredded fresh mozzarella

1/3 cup scallions, sliced

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Put your cast iron pan on the fire. When hot, add EVOO. When smoking, season both sides of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, then carefully place the chicken breasts skin side down in the pan. Cook until lightly browned. Use a tongs to flip over, then place the whole pan in the oven and cook until breasts are cooked through, about 15 minutes. Dice chicken into large chunks then place in bowl with the hot sauce. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. This can be done well ahead of time.

2. Roll out pizza dough crust to a circle slightly larger than your pizza pan, then transfer it to the pan using your rolling pin. Crimp the edges all the way around between your thumb and forefinger, like you would a pie. Use a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the crust. This is called “docking” the crust and prevents big air bubbles from forming while it cooks. Spray crust with pan spray then cook for 20 minutes, turning the pan once midway through to cook evenly.

3. Use a spatula to spread the blue cheese dressing evenly on the bottom of the crust. Distribute the chicken throughout the pie, then sprinkle with the blue cheese crumbles. Cover the pie with the mozzarella, then arrange the scallions over the top. Bake until the top just starts to get brown and bubbly, about 20 minutes, again turning the pan once midway through to cook evenly.

What recipes do you break out when you want to please a crowd? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

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