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Our homemade Buffalo Chicken Pizza is full of spicy buffalo sauce, tender chicken, and it’s all drizzled with a creamy ranch dressing. Use my easy homemade pizza dough or start with a store bought crust.
Alright, let’s talk homemade pizza.
I feel like there are people who LOVE making pizza at home and then there are people who are like, but it’s so easy to just have it delivered straight to your door!
I’m very much right smack in the middle of those two groups.
I LOVE homemade pizza and I also LOVE delivery.
What I really like about homemade pizza is the ability to get creative. Buffalo Chicken Pizza? Yes, please. Breakfast pizza? You bet. Pizza bread? Now we’re talking. Pizza rolls? This might be my love language.
You can make as many small pizzas as you want so everyone has their own perfect pizza and you don’t break the bank doing it. Or you can go all out and make one big pizza for everyone with all the crazy toppings you like.
This buffalo chicken pizza starts with an EASY homemade pizza crust, but you can totally use store bought if you’re not feeling all Betty Crocker about it.
The topping is super simple, loaded with flavor, and easy to make more mild or spicy.
Keep on reading for all my tips and tricks or scroll down past the photos to the recipe card!
Ingredients Notes:
Pizza Dough – We start with a standard wheat pizza dough that bakes up soft and chewy. You can use store bought pizza crust to make things go faster, but we love our homemade dough.
Chicken – This recipe was made for that leftover chicken! You can also grab a rotisserie chicken the next time you’re at the store.
Sauce: Rather than a traditional sauce, we’re using a mixture of cream cheese and ranch seasoning as the base for our pizza.
Drizzle: We drizzle our buffalo chicken pizza with ranch dressing, but blue cheese is a solid choice as well.
Variations
Swap the cream cheese and ranch mixture for blue cheese dressing.
Sprinkle blue cheese over the pizza before baking.
Use canned chicken in place of leftover cooked chicken.
Reduce the buffalo sauce to make this more mild.
Use Frank’s Red Hot instead of buffalo sauce to make it spicier. Add ground cayenne to the mix if you really like it hot or slice some jalapenos over the top.
Step by Step Instructions:
Crust: Combine the warm water, yeast, and sugar to a bowl and let it activate and get foamy – this takes about 10 minutes. Then you just mix in the flour, oil, and salt. We use a stand mixer for this and let the mixer knead the dough for a few minutes to get it nice and smooth.
This dough takes one hour to rise and then you’ll punch it down, shape it on a pizza pan, and start with the toppings. In a rush? Skip the dough and try making our buffalo chicken flatbread.
Preheat: We want a screaming hot oven when it’s time to bake the pizza. Once the dough has risen for about 40 minutes, go ahead and turn your oven to 500 degrees. We want it to be at temperature for about 20 minutes before you put the oven in, just to be sure it’s good and hot.
Sauce: Rather than a traditional red pizza sauce, we’re using a mixture of cream cheese and ranch seasoning. Spread this mixture over the pizza crust. Top with mozzarella.
Helpful Tip!
We use Hidden Valley Ranch in our house. Be sure to look at the packets closely. You’ll find both ranch seasoning and ranch dressing mix in the little packets. The seasoning is what you want, as it has quite a bit less sodium than the dressing. You can use the dressing mix, if that’s what you have on hand, but your final result will be quite a bit saltier.
Topping: This recipe is the perfect use for leftover rotisserie chicken. You can also use my crockpot shredded chicken or Instant Pot whole chicken for this one.
Toss the chicken in buffalo sauce and sprinkle it over the pizza. This homemade buffalo sauce is always a good option, but store bought works just fine too.
Bake: Your oven should be good and hot at this point. Pop the pizza in and let it bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese is all melty and gooey.
Homemade Pizza Dough Tips:
Working with yeast can be a bit intimidating at first, but it’s actually quite simple and really forgiving!
Start with water that’s right around 110 degrees. This will allow the yeast a warm place to activate. If the water is too cold, your dough won’t rise. If the water is too hot, it’ll kill the yeast.
Don’t be scared to add more flour. Some days you’ll need more and some days you’ll need less – it depends on the humidity! Just add more in a bit at a time until the dough is smooth and pliable. It should have a bit of stick when you touch it, but your fingers should come away mostly clean.
Keeping the dough in a warm place, such as the oven with the light on or in a cozy, draft-free corner, will help the dough to rise more quickly.
When it’s time to shape the dough, don’t be afraid to manhandle it a bit. Get in there and have fun punching it down and shaping it. This is my favorite part!
Recipe FAQs:
You’ll want to be sure that your yeast isn’t old and that your water is the right temperature. Right around 110 degrees is perfect for yeast…too cold and it won’t bloom, too hot and it will die.
Keeping your dough in a warm spot will help it to rise a bit more quickly. We use the proof function on our oven and keep the bowl in there. It still takes awhile, but it’s quicker than letting it sit on a cool countertop.
We tend to use all purpose flour because that’s what we always have on hand. If you have bread flour or want to purchase some, that will create a chewier crust due to the higher gluten content in bread flour.
More buffalo chicken recipes:
- Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
- Buffalo Chicken Salad
- Buffalo Chicken Flautas
- Buffalo Chicken Sliders
- Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Dip
Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 3/4 cup warm water around 110 degrees
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 cups flour all-purpose or bread flour
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Toppings:
- 4 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 teaspoon ranch seasoning mix
- 1 cup chopped cooked chicken
- 1/2 cup buffalo sauce
- 8 ounces mozzarella shredded
- 1 tablespoon chopped green onions
- ranch dressing or blue cheese for serving
Instructions
- To make the dough, place the warm water and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let bloom, about 10 minutes.
- Add the flour, olive oil, and salt to the yeast mixture and turn the mixer (fitted with the dough hook) to medium. Knead until the dough comes together to form a smooth dough. You may need to add more flour, a few tablespoons at a time, until the dough comes together. Remove dough to an oiled bowl and place in the oven with the light turned on.
- Let rise for one hour, or until doubled in bulk.
- Set the oven to 500 degrees after the dough has risen for about 30 minutes.
- When the dough has doubled, punch it down.
- Roll the dough out on a well floured surface to a 12 inch circle and place on a pizza stone or pan.
- Microwave the cream cheese until very soft and melty. Stir the ranch seasoning into the cream cheese to combine.
- Spread the cream cheese mixture over the crust evenly.
- Sprinkle all but 1/4 cup of the cheese over the crust.
- Toss the chicken with the hot sauce to coat and spread the chicken evenly over the cheese.
- Top with the remaining cheese.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the dough is golden and the cheese has melted.
- Sprinkle with green onions and drizzle ranch or blue cheese dressing over the pizza before serving, if desired.
Drew Modic says
Holy Frejoli, This pizza was nothing short of awesome! I made a 16″ extra large pizza so I ended up useing 2 cups of chicken and an entire 8oz package of cream cheese. I used your pizza dough recipe and I am blown away. What an absolutely wonderful recipe. I will be making this again. Thank you
Karly Campbell says
Yay!! I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for the review!
Jeff Hernandez says
Great dough and pizza! Thanks for sharing the recipe! I added some jalapeƱo and cilantro. I also drizzled some extra hot sauce on top as well as the ranch dressing.
Karly says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Carol Sweet says
I used ready made pizza crust, and made it square. Loved this pizza it was delicious.
Karly says
So glad you gave it a try! š