Barbecue Chicken Pizza

This is our low sodium (but very tasty) version of Mellow Mushroom's "Funky-Q" pizza (with jalapeno, because that's the way we roll). We started by making homemade barbecue sauce and simmering it for hours, made our own dough for the crust, cooked the meat and onion, and then assembled and baked. This makes six generous slices with less than 200mg sodium per slice. We ate three each and were pleasantly stuffed afterward. And did I say it was delicious? Just making sure.

Barbecue sauce

1/4 cup minced onion
2 T vegetable oil
1 14-oz can no salt added diced tomatoes, pulsed in food processor
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup molasses
3 T brown sugar
2 T OJ
2 t chile powder
1 t mustard powder
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/2 t garlic powder
1 t liquid smoke
1/2 t black pepper

Saute onion in oil until golden (about 8-10 minutes). Add remaining ingredients, turn heat to low and simmer about 2 hrs, stirring occasionally. Blend with immersible blender. Keep warm until ready to spread over pizza.

Dough/Crust

This herbed pizza crust recipe is from Dick Logue's 500 Low Sodium Recipes book, page 442. The only changes I made were to increase the water to 7/8 cup and I add 1/8 t salt. Process in bread machine on dough cycle. Preheat oven to 500F. Roll out flat on a lightly floured, large piece of parchment paper over a cold pizza stone. Prick surface with a fork as shown and let rest for a few minutes.

Prepare Toppings

For pizza toppings, caramelize a sliced onion in butter over low heat until very soft and browned. Cook 2 slices of low sodium bacon, reserving the drippings. Chop or crumble bacon into small pieces and set aside. Cook two diced chicken breasts in the reserved bacon grease until browned on the outside and cooked through. Drain and combine with enough barbeque sauce to coat. Coarsely chop a few pickled jalapeno rings. Grate 1 ounce of low sodium cheddar cheese and 1.5 ounces of fresh mozzarella (it helps if you freeze the mozzarella first).

Final Assembly and Bake

When the oven reaches 500F, place the pizza dough (on stone with parchment) in the oven. Bake 4-5 minutes, until top is dry but not golden brown. Remove from oven and place on heat-safe surface. Top the crust with the remaining barbecue sauce, then add the chicken, bacon, jalapeno, caramelized onion, and cheeses. Return pizza to oven and bake until cheese melts and just starts to turn spotty brown. Slice and serve, baby!