Hawaiian Pizza

A year ago, I cracked the homemade pizza code and eventually wrote the amazing 40 minute homemade pizza guide.  Then I discovered improvements by allowing the dough to rise and using a pizza stone.  And now it's time to progress onto something a little more complicated, but oh so delicious, Hawaiian pizza.  Aloha!

Ingredients
(Sauce and toppings from Devin Alexander's Fast Food Fix)

• Pizza dough (the old standby or your favorite)
• BBQ Sauce (yes, homemade)
•  2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons molasses
• 2 teaspoons liquid smoke
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• 4 slices bacon
• ½ chicken breast
• ¼ chopped onion
• 6 oz can pineapple tidbits, drained
• 6 oz cheese (I use a mozzarella - muenster mix)

Method

Start by making the dough.  Click here for my recipe.  If you're rushed, you can do the 10 minute version in my original post, but for best results let the dough rise.  Your options are to make it a few hours ahead and let it rise covered at room temperature.  Or make it up to two days ahead of time and let it rise in the refrigerator.  Let it sit at room temperature while you prep the bacon and chicken.

Cook up the mmm...bacon and drain on paper towels.  Wipe out the pan with a paper towel to get it ready for the chicken.

Trim the chicken breast and cover in plastic.  Grab a meat mallet...

And pound the chicken out flat.  Season with salt and pepper.

Brown the chicken.  Cook it until the inside is no longer pink, about 5 minutes per side.

Preheat the oven to 425°.  Place the dough on a unheated pizza stone.

Roll it out.  If the dough is still cold, it may fight you a little.  Just walk away for a minute and it will relax and let you roll it out.

Shape the edge and bake for 10 minutes.

Drain the pineapple.

Chop up the onion, chicken, and bacon into small pizza appropriate bites.

Now let's talk sauce.  If you're like me, you think that BBQ sauce comes in a bottle and it tastes pretty great.  So why are we going to all the trouble to make sauce?

The ingredients are all staples in my kitchen, but seldom used.  It is a lot of trouble to reach up to that top shelf.

Measure everything out.

And mix it together.  Easy, see?  But it's also easy to pour it out of the bottle, so I think I should explain why we made the sauce.  If you use regular BBQ sauce, the sweetness in the sauce and the sweetness in the pineapple are going to gang up and take over the whole pizza.  As much as I love sweet, it's not a good attribute for pizza.

OK, end of lecture.  Lightly spray the prebaked crust with oil and season with salt and pepper.

Spread out the sauce.

Add the toppings!  I usually use about ½ the chicken breast.

Add the cheese.  Normally I urge you to go light on cheese, but this is a decadent pizza so it's OK to live a little and cheese it up.  Well, within reason.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and browned to your taste.  Step away from the pizza and let it cool down for 10-20 minutes, about the normal time it takes for delivery pizza to make it from the oven to your house.

Carve it up!