Detroit BBQ Chicken
BBQ sauce replaces tomato, with roasted chicken, red onion, and cilantro. Insane crispy BBQ cheese edge.
Recipe by ThePizzaPlanet.com · Published
Essential tool for this bake
BBQ chicken pizza done badly tastes like a sad menu add-on. Done well, it's one of the most addictive pizzas you can make at home. Two tricks. First: split the BBQ sauce — toss the chicken in half, then drizzle the rest on top after baking. BBQ sauce baked at 260°C (500°F) caramelizes into something acrid. Second: red onion goes on raw; it cooks just enough in the residual heat to soften without losing bite. Fresh cilantro at the end cuts the sweetness. Sauce-logged chicken is the other trap — wet shreds will leave the middle soggy no matter how dark the frico gets.
Flour: King Arthur Bread Flour (12.7% protein) — read the review
Dough Formula
| Ingredient | Grams | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour (12.7% protein) | 232 g | 100.0% |
| Water | 163 g | 70.3% |
| Salt | 5.8 g | 2.5% |
| Yeast | 1.6 g | 0.7% |
| Oil | 9 g | 3.9% |
| Sugar | 3 g | 1.3% |
Makes 1 ball of ≈415 g
Ingredients
Dough
- Pizza dough (see formula above)1 ball
Toppings
- Brick cheese or mozz mix250g
- Cooked chicken breast200g, shredded
- BBQ sauce100ml
- Red onion75 g, thinly sliced (about half a red onion)
- Fresh cilantrohandful
Instructions
- 1
Make the dough: mix per the formula above, then follow the calculator schedule for Detroit — 26 h bulk/cold ferment before shaping (hands-on 20 min).
- 2
Toss shredded chicken with half the BBQ sauce.
- 3
Press dough into pan, let rise, add cheese to edges.
- 4
Distribute BBQ chicken and red onion slices.
- 5
Bake at 260-290°C (500-550°F) for 12-15 minutes.
- 6
Drizzle remaining BBQ sauce in stripes and top with cilantro.
Tips
- →Hands-on time is about 35 minutes; allow the dough its full ferment — see the calculator schedule
- →Rotisserie chicken is the time-saving shortcut
- →BBQ sauce burns easily — don't go heavy before baking
- →Fresh cilantro after baking cuts through the richness
Video by Trice’s Tasty Eats · 406 views · 7 min · on YouTube
Shop this bake
Flour
King Arthur Bread Flour
The first bag to buy if you bake in a domestic oven. At 12.7% protein with added amylase on the label it gives you chew and colour at 250 °C, which is exactly what an unmalted 00 will not.
$13.42· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Ingredient
SAF Instant Yeast
Instant, so it goes in dry with the flour: no warm-water step means no step at which the yeast can be cooked, which is where an active-dry dough most often dies.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Equipment
Original Baking Steel
6.4 mm is the home compromise: enough stored heat to bake two pies back to back, in a slab that will never crack the way a cordierite stone eventually does.
$139.00· as of Nov 5, 2026, 03:49 UTCCheck price on Amazon →Read the review →i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
If this goes wrong
Pizza base is soggy in the middle
Not enough heat is reaching the centre of the base fast enough to drive the water out before the crust sets. Bake on a fully preheated steel or stone rather than a tray, give it 45–60 minutes at maximum, and cut the water you put on top.
Cheese burns before the base cooks
The top of your oven is running far ahead of the bottom. Get the slab hotter so the base needs less time, move the pizza down away from the grill element, and use a whole-milk low-moisture mozzarella — it carries more fat and browns more slowly than part-skim.
Pizza dough didn't rise
Either the yeast is dead, it was killed by hot water or direct salt contact, or your kitchen is simply too cold for the amount of yeast you used. Proof the yeast to find out which, then match the dose to your temperature and timeline.
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