Chicken Bacon Club Pizza

I can't believe it's taken me so long to share my no fail pizza dough with you. It is literally fool proof, and that's coming from a very bread-challenged me.

It takes 10 minutes to make, and only an hour to rise, and 0nly five very cheap ingredients! 

My sister gave me the recipe when we first got married, and it's my favorite to date. You can do anything with it. pizzas, breadsticks, flatbread, you name it.

So more about this pizza. There's a type of pizza at SLAB (can you tell it's like, my like favorite place, like ever?!) called the Chicken Club, and I order it almost every time. It's the perfect combination of ingredients. bacon and chicken, red onion and red sauce, topped with perfectly fresh and crisp romaine for an added crunch, with a tang of ranch dressing. It's like eating a salad. Except a really filling salad that's probably not very good for you.

So I decided to try and recreate it at home. And it was so easy! It obviously had a few different components (different sauce and dough), but this pizza is so good homemade.

 Pre-Oven

 Post oven. How good does that look?! I love crispy, bubbly cheese.

Whatever you do. Make this pizza. And if not the pizza, at least try the dough, it will change your life!

Chicken Bacon Club Pizza

For the No-Fail Pizza Dough:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 packet rapid-rise yeast (not active dry)

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. olive oil

1 cup water (microwaved for 30 seconds)

In the bowl of an electric mixer or a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast and salt. Pour in the olive oil and the warm water into the center of the flour mixture, then with a spatula, scrape down the sides to incorporate the flour with the wet ingredients slightly. 

If using an electric mixer, fit your mixer with the dough hook attachment, then put your mixer on medium-high speed. Let the dough come together, then knead in the mixer for 6-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth.

If using your hands to knead, mix the dough together in your large bowl with a wooden spoon, then put the dough onto a floured counter top and knead for 6-7 minutes.

Put kneaded dough into a clean greased bowl and cover with a towel. Place in a warm dry place (I use the microwave) for an hour.

While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. After the hour is up, take your risen dough and roll it out onto a floured counter and roll into a pizza circle as thin or thick as you like. Take your dough and place it onto a floured pizza stone or pan.

Let cook in the oven for 7-8 minutes, until slightly cooked but not browned yet.

For the toppings:

Pasta sauce (we like homemade, but Ragu or something similar is great!)

3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped

1/4-1/2 of a red onion, depending how much you like, chopped finely

1 chicken breast, cooked and diced finely

Mozzarella cheese, shredded

3/4 leaves romaine lettuce, chopped

ranch dressing for drizzling 

Once the pizza dough has been slightly cooked (see above), take it out of the oven and cover with pizza sauce, cheese, bacon, red onion, and the chicken. Put back into the oven on the top rack and let cook 10-15 minutes more (depending on how crispy you like your pizza). 

Remove the pizza from the oven, let sit for 3-4 minutes, then top with chopped romaine and drizzle with ranch. Cut, serve, enjoy!