A local pizza place does a great buffalo chicken pizza so I decided to try my hand at it. I decided to go with pulled chicken because this was a saturday and I had plenty of time for slow cooking. The plan was to make two pizzas and have one with a tomato sauce and the other with more of a ranch sauce. So after swimming in the morning I started the 4 chicken breasts in the slow cooker with buffalo sauce, some garlic, butter and a package of dry ranch dressing:
The cooking times I found from different recipes varied from 3 hours to 7 hours on low or high. I was a bit worried because the last time I tried pulled pork I cooked it for 6 or 7 hours on low and that wasn’t enough time. I ended up doing about 2 hours on low, then about 2 on high and then another 3 on low while I went for a bike ride (I turned it down because I didn’t want to overcook the chicken). It worked out pretty well, when I got back from my bike ride the apartment smelled amazing and the chicken was tender and cooked perfectly:
They looked amazing, and pulling it apart with the two forks was real easy.
After pulling, I put it back into the slow cooker and started to work on the pizza. I was rushing a bit at this part because I was starving so I didn’t get the pizza dough as thin as I would have liked, but it still worked out.
And because my oven doesn’t get hot enough, I have to cook the dough for about 4-5mins first and then add the toppings:
So I ended up just putting a whole layer of pulled chicken down and it was liquidy enough to not need any sauce so my plan of comparing a tomato and ranch pizza didn’t work out. I topped it with frozen mozzarella cheese and back into the oven until cheese melts.
I then made and cooked the second pizza and was finally ready to eat. After over 7 hours of cooking and 50 miles of biking, I was really ready to eat. Usually after that kind of bike ride I can easily eat a whole pizza so I went ahead and started:
The pizza turned out to be delicious. Maybe a bit on the spicy side because of the buffalo chicken, although I think not having a whole layer – only clumps of it would have solved this problem. I ended up only finishing 5 of the 6 slices because I’m pretty sure there was almost a whole pound of chicken on each pizza. This was the first time I haven’t been able to finish a pizza after a long bike ride that I can remember. The good news is I have about another pound or so left of pulled chicken for leftover meals!
Recipe:
-4 chicken breasts (2-3lbs ish)
-1 bottle of buffalo bbq sauce
-2tbsp garlic
-4tbsp butter
-1 package (1.5oz) dry ranch dressing mix
-pizza dough
-pizza toppings
Cook chicken in slow cooker with buffalo sauce, garlic, butter and ranch mix for 6-7hrs. After chicken is cooked, pull with 2 forks and add back to slowcooker on warm setting. Shape pizza and add buffalo chicken/toppings as desired. Cook until cheese melts or crust is golden brown.