GrillinFools
We marinate chicken thighs in hot sauce overnight then grill the chicken before topping a pizza crust with the sliced chicken and fresh mozzarella in this buffalo chicken pizza recipe. Before cooking the pizza in a kamado grill made into a pizza oven we add purple onion, buffalo wing sauce and a homemade ranch dressing before grating fresh asiago over the top. And don’t forget that crispy pizza crust hack that is worth the scroll.
It’s obvious you dig pizza, probably as much as we do here at GrillinFools.com.
Please, take a couple minutes and peruse some of our other pizza recipes:
Pulled Pork Pizza (with pickles on top – highly recommended)
Pulled Pork Pizza sans pickles
And if you are slightly more daring, Grilled Pear and Prosciutto Pizza
Before we get started, some are going to wonder if you can cook this inside in the oven? Yes. But it won’t be as good. There’s just something magical about open fire and kiln-like temps for the perfect pizza.
Set the oven to 450F, place the pizza stone inside and wait for the oven to preheat. Then follow the instructions below exactly the same as with the pizza oven.
Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup your favorite hot sauce
- 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 2 fresh dough balls
- 1/4 cup corn meal, divided
- Vegetable oil
- 16 ounces, fresh mozzarella
- Purple onion
- 1/4 cup Buffalo wing sauce
- 1/4 cup Ranch dressing **
- Celery, optional
Makes two pizzas
** You can buy ranch dressing for this, or you can make your own.
Normally, I’m all for saving some time and going store bought, but this was ridiculously good.
** Home Made Ranch Dressing Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/8-1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon dried dill
- 1/8-1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
- 1/2 ounce ranch seasoning (1/2 pouch)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1-3 teaspoon(s) fresh lemon juice
Brine the boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the hot sauce in a resealable plastic bag for a minimum of 4 hours and up to 12 hours.
The hot sauce has plenty of salt in it which will brine the chicken and thus make it more juicy, tender and flavorful.
What is the difference between brining and marinating?
Salt. Brining infuses meat with flavor and makes it juicier and more tender. Marinating makes meat more flavorful but does not tenderize or make it juicier. The salt tenderizes the meat, and also forces liquid out of the brine and into the meat.
Pull the fresh dough ball out of the fridge and let it warm up a bit on the counter and go light the grill
Homemade Ranch Dressing
Now would be a good idea to make the homemade Ranch dressing if you are so inclined. At the bottom of this post there is a link to a video that shows me making the Ranch and how absolutely simple it is. Took me about 2 minutes tops.
Prepare the grill/pizza oven with a good size load of charcoal. We want this sucker HOT:
Before we get the pizza oven going, grill the chicken:
Check out this buffalo chicken dip slider recipe
Then, remove the chicken from the grill.
Once the chicken cools, slice into skinny strips
Kamado Grill Converted to a Pizza Oven
Honestly, you don’t need this extra door thing to go between the lid and the base to cook pizzas in a kamado. Just put the baking stone in the middle of the grill and close the lid. That’s it.
I almost forgot, you will also need a pizza stone.
Set a pizza stone in the cooking chamber and let it heat up.
We need that stone north of 400F before we slide the pizza crust in.
Notice I said pizza crust, not pizza. We are going to toast that crust before we add toppings.
Crispy Pizza Crust Hack
The trick to this is to cook the pizza crust on both sides. Oil the crust and lay that down on the hot pizza stone, oiled side down. Toast the crust. Oil the top of the crust while the bottom toasts. Once the bottom toasts, remove the crust form the oven, flip it over and load the toppings on the toasted side and then cook the pizza as normal. Both sides of the crust will be toasted at this point and be nice and crispy.
The crispy pizza crust hack works with premade dough as well.
Step by Step Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe Instructions
On a cutting board, spread half the corn meal and lay down one of the dough balls. Flip the dough ball over a couple times to get a bunch of the corn meal stuck to both sides as this will also make for a crispy crust and make it easier to handle
Roll the dough out with a rolling pin to flatten it out. The rolling pin will only get you so far.
Get those knuckles working and spread that dough:
Then, either with an oil atomizer or with a bowl and a brush, coat the top of the dough with oil:
Place the pizza crust on the pizza stone, oiled side down
Do not attempt this with the pizza peel or giant spatula. Place it on the stone from above.
Even with the fancy pizza oven insert, I wound up having to just open the lid. Skip the fancy insert. It’s not needed:
Wait for the bottom to toast and get crispy.
While it crisps, oil the top:
The top is going to bubble while the bottom toasts:
Don’t sweat the bubbling. Even if the bubbles get huge.
This bubble did not impact the pizza at all:
Spread a little more corn meal down on the cutting board and place the pizza crust toasted side up.
Give it a little spritz of oil here:
Then lay down 8 ounces of the fresh mozzarella:
Then top with half of the buffalo chicken and some slivered purple onion:
But, where’s the sauce?
The sauce goes on top. Don’t bust my balls on that one. Chicago pizza has the sauce on top.
Also, you might need some extra corn meal to get the pizza to slide off the peel.
Insert the Buffalo Chicken Pizza into the pizza oven:
This will only take a couple minutes, so don’t go anywhere.
Also, you might want to rotate the pizza 180 degrees after about 2 minutes for even cooking.
Once the cheese is melted and toppings are hot, the bottom will be toasted and ready to go.
Remove the grilled Buffalo Chicken Pizza from the grill and get those sauces out:
And here’s the bottom:
Then, apply the buffalo wing sauce in a spiral fashion:
Wait? Homemade ranch but store bought Buffalo wing sauce?
When filming something like this, everything takes four times as long as it would take someone just cooking this Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe.
Melted butter and hot sauce will only stay liquid for so long before the butter congeals. That and I needed to save some time in general.
Feel free to make your own buffalo wing sauce.
Add the homemade Ranch dressing in a similar spiral manner:
Finally, grate some fresh asiago over the top:
Ready to serve:
Slice the pizza:
Summary of this Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe:
This is a classic flavor combo, buffalo chicken and ranch dressing on a pizza. It’s absolute heaven. That added crunch form the double toasted pizza crust makes for an amazing mouthfeel. Also, it’s not all that spicy. The crust and the ranch offset the zing from the Buffalo wing sauce. Scroll down to see me taking a couple bites of this perfect pie.
If you have any questions or comments about this Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.
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Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe Card:
Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Pizza stone
- 1 Oil atomizer
- 1 Pizza peel
Ingredients
- ¼ cup Your favorite hot sauce
- 6 Boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 2 Fresh dough balls Premade pizza dough works too, but isn't as good
- ¼ cup Corn meal divided
- Vegetable oil
- 16 ounces Fresh mozzarella
- Purple onion
- ¼ cup Buffalo wing sauce
- ¼ cup Ranch dressing
- Celery Optional
Homemade Ranch Dressing
- ½ cup Mayonnaise
- ½ cup Sour cream
- 1/8-1/4 teaspoon Salt
- ½ cup Milk
- ½ teaspoon Dried dill
- 1/8-1/4 teaspoon Fresh cracked black pepper
- ½ ounce Ranch dressing seasoning
- ½ teaspoon Dried parsley
- 1-3 teaspoon(s) Fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Place chicken and hot sauce in a resealable plastic bag. Smoosh the chicken around until the hot sauce coats all the meat. Place the bag in the fridge for 4-12 hours.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and allow it to come up to room temperature
- Light the grill and cook the chicken over the hot coals. Remove the chicken from the grill and allow to cool. Slice into thin strips and set aside
- Place a pizza stone in the pizza oven and allow heat up to north of 400F+ degrees
- Layer a cutting board with some of the corn meal and place a dough ball on the cutting board. Work the corn meal around the dough ball to make it easier to work with
- Knead the dough into a pizza crust and oil the crust.
- When the pizza stone exceeds 400F+ degrees, place the dough, oiled side down, on the pizza stone. Oil the top of the pizza crust. Once the bottom is toasted, remove the pizza dough from the pizza oven and set on the cutting board, toasted side up.
- Spritz the top of the crust with a little more oil. Layer the fresh mozzarella, half the grilled chicken, and slivers of purple onion on the pizza dough. Sprinkle corn meal on the pizza peel and slide the buffalo chicken pizza into the pizza oven
- Once the cheese has melted and the toppings are hot, the bottom of the pizza will be perfectly toasted. Remove the pizza from the pizza oven.
- Squirt the Buffalo wing sauce in a spiral pattern on the pizza. Repeat with the homemade ** Ranch dressing. Grate Asiago cheese on top and serve.
** Homemade Ranch Dressing
- Combine all the Ranch dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk until combined. Transfer to a condiment bottle and refrigerate.
Video
More Pics of the Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe:
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