Ed LaDou and California Pizza Kitchen made this famous. It is still one of the most-typed pizza recipes after pepperoni and Margherita.
Do not use a watery sauce. Reduce the barbecue. Leftover roast chicken is better than a rubber breast.
Ingredients
Pick one dough — homemade or a store-bought ball.
Homemade dough
- 500 g bread flour
- 325 ml water
- 12 g salt
- 4 g instant yeast
- 8 g olive oil
Premade dough
- 1 ball store-bought pizza dough (250–280 g), room temperature 1 hour
Sauce and toppings
- Thick barbecue sauce
- Mozzarella and a little smoked cheddar
- Cooked chicken, torn
- Red onion, thin
- Cilantro
- More barbecue to finish
Products & ingredients
What this pie actually wants. Flour, tomatoes, cheese, and tools — Amazon links, so this blog can keep going.
Store-Bought Pizza DoughCheck Amazon.comPremade Dough
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.com
Low-Moisture MozzarellaCheck Amazon.comToppings
Ooni Koda 16 Pizza OvenCheck Amazon.comPizza Oven
Ooni Pizza Oven GlovesCheck Amazon.comHeat Gloves
Check Amazon.com
Ateco Bench ScraperCheck Amazon.comBench Scraper
OXO Good Grips Pizza WheelCheck Amazon.comPizza Cutter
As an Amazon Associate, The Slice Guy earns from qualifying purchases. Prices and stock live on Amazon.
Nutrition
If you buy the kit on this page
- Serving
- 1/4 pizza
- Calories
- 250
- Protein
- 12 g
- Carbohydrates
- 33 g
- Fat
- 8 g
- Sodium
- 590 mg
Pack labels of those brands (or USDA where a brand does not print a panel), times the grams in this recipe. Drain the mozzarella, swap a tin, or skip the oil and they move.
Labels used: Caputo Pizzeria 00, Diamond Crystal kosher salt, Partanna extra-virgin olive oil, Cento San Marzano tomatoes, Low-moisture mozzarella.
How to make and cook it
Bought dough? Skip “Make the dough.” Let the ball sit out 1 hour, then start at “Cook the pie.”
Make the base
- 01Mix 500 g bread flour, 325 ml water, 12 g salt, 4 g yeast, and 8 g oil.
- 02Knead, ball, cold-proof overnight.
- 03Temper 1 hour.
Or use premade dough
- 01Let a store-bought ball sit out for 1 hour until it is relaxed.
- 02Flour the bench.
- 03Stretch it to size — from here it is the same as homemade.
Add sauce and toppings
- 01Stretch.
- 02Thin barbecue sauce, mozzarella, cooked chicken, thin red onion.
- 03Cilantro after.
Cook
Oven
- 01Steel at 290°C (550°F) for 45 minutes.
- 02Bake 7–8 minutes until the onion softens and the cheese browns.
- 03Cilantro after.
Gas pizza oven
- 01Preheat on high, 400–455°C (750–850°F).
- 0260–90 seconds, turning.
- 03Sauce sugars burn — keep it moving.
- 04Cilantro after.
Wood-fired oven
- 01Floor 425°C (800°F). 60–90 seconds, turning.
- 02Pull before the barbecue blackens.
- 03Herbs after the fire.
