This weather is unreal…mid 80s yesterday and today! And it sort’ve freaks me out, but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts 🙂 So yesterday, during the gorgeous day, I had all day to ponder what we should eat for dinner and decided upon BBQ chicken. I found this recipe in the magazine Shortcut Cooking, and I am SO glad I did! The thing that surprised me the most about the recipe was subbing personal-size pizza crusts for the bread. I was skeptical but I must say, it was an AWESOME touch, something I never would have thought of! Another key to this recipe? Really good BBQ and Ranch dressing…without it, you may not get the best results 🙂 Max’s friend makes homemade BBQ that is delicious, so we had an applewood-smoked BBQ in the fridge just begging us to use it. I found a good all-natural ranch, Briannas (I can’t stand Hidden Valley!), and it complemented the BBQ quite well if I do say so myself. Try this sandwich out for a nice summer meal (or spring if your weather is as nice as it is in Des Moines!).
The Ultimate BBQ Chicken Sandwich
Ingredients:
- 2 personal pizza crusts, we used Boboli (note, this is for two people)
- Reduced-fat colby-jack cheese blend
- 1 lb chicken, cooked and shredded (I shredded Smart Chicken tenderloin strips — they cook up quickly!)
- 3 T BBQ sauce (I prefer sweet, but you can sub whatever sauce you want in here)
- 4 strips cooked bacon
- Tomato, sliced
- Romaine lettuce, chopped
- 1 T ranch Briannas dressing
- Red onion, sliced (optional)
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Spray pizza crusts with nonstick olive oil and place on baking sheet. Cut crusts in half, leaving you with four pieces. Sprinkle cheese on all four halves of crust.
- In a medium-size bowl, mix shredded chicken with BBQ sauce. Add chicken to two of the pizza halves. Add two strips of bacon to the remaining two halves. Bake for 7-9 minutes, or until crust is crispy and cheese is melted.
- Meanwhile, toss lettuce with ranch dressing.
- When crust is crisped, remove from oven and add tomato and lettuce mixture to the halves with chicken. Top with bacon halves and serve!
Let Them Eat Cake 