Barbecue Chicken Pizza (+ How to Prep for a Week's Worth of Meals)

Sunday Dinners comes to us from our own chef/photojournalist/farmer/father figure Tom Hirschfeld, featuring his stunning photography and Indiana farmhouse family meals.

Today: We're eating barbecue chicken pizza like it's 1999 -- plus, Tom shares his secret to saving time in the kitchen all week long.

This recipe is a throwback. It was extremely popular in the 1990s -- along with duck confit and tuna steaks, seared rare. I still see it now and again on menus, but it has largely disappeared due to overexposure; we became bored with it simply because it was everywhere.

But, it's been long enough. Let's dust off the recipe for barbecue chicken pizza and give it another taste. I can practically make this pizza in my sleep -- it was a bar special at a restaurant I worked in, and I made so many of them that I still have dreams about it.

  

I also realize that I no longer cook like I did at the restaurant. I only have four mouths to feed at home, and the prep for any given dish needs to be relatively quick.

More: Here's how to make pizza dough like a pro.

As such, I'm a firm believer in this theory: If you are going to take the time to make one of something, you might as well make two or more. This belief holds water especially when it comes to baked potatoes, doughs, and most of all, whole chickens. 

 

To save time, it also helps to organize and think like a chef -- this involves weekly menu planning and daily ingredient prep. These simple steps help me to run an efficient home kitchen, reduce overall waste, and improve time management. Before I adopted this philosophy, I wasted an awful lot of time.

I still cook what I want, but I make those decisions on Monday when I menu plan. Ultimately, I aim to complete the prep work for five meals while cooking the first three dinners of the week. That means that planning ahead can be a lesson in patience: If I want to eat this pizza, I have to wait until the end of the week when most of the prep is done. But once you are in the habit of planning ahead, you'll find yourself with more time -- and better dinners.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

3/4 cup warm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon whole milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
2 1/2 to 3 cups mixed onions, sliced
2 cups shredded chicken
1 1/2 cups Gouda (some people like smoked Gouda, but I find it too strong)
4 ounces fresh mozzarella
1 to 2 serrano peppers, sliced into thin rounds
1/2 cup Memphis-style barbecue sauce
Olive oil, for sautéeing the onions
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photos by Tom Hirschfeld