I don’t know about you, but I usually think of pizza as a Friday night food.

By Friday you’re tired from the week and don’t feel like cooking or even going out to dinner.

And by Friday you’ve certainly earned a treat. What better end-of-week reward is there than having a stranger bring a delicious, cheesy supper to your front door?

However, if you make it yourself…

… and put a vegetable on it…

… I say you can eat pizza any night of the week.

And you can use several store-bought shortcuts, make a minimal mess, and hooray! Pizza dinner.

Now that’s amore.

BARBECUE CHICKEN PIZZA
1 small container mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1 bunch broccolini, rinsed and chopped
1 store-bought roast chicken
Store-bought barbecue sauce
1 Boboli pizza crust (I used whole wheat thin crust)
Butter and/or olive oil (I used all butter this time)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 C shredded mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
Red pepper flakes

Saute mushrooms in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat in butter or olive oil until tender. {If you happen to have some cooking wine, such as Madeira or Sherry, you could throw a dash of that in there too and cook until there is no liquid left in the pan.} Lightly salt & pepper. Set aside.

Using the same pan with fresh butter or olive oil, saute onions over medium heat until softened and slightly caramelized. Set aside.

Steam broccolini just until it turns bright green, then transfer to a hot skillet with butter or olive oil, cooking over high heat for about 5 minutes. Salt & pepper to taste. Add 1 clove of chopped garlic and cook about 1-2 more minutes. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes if you like a little heat. Set aside.

Cut roast chicken into bite-size pieces, then toss with barbecue sauce to coat. (If you bought your chicken earlier and refrigerated it, you may want to microwave it after cutting it up and tossing it with bbq sauce just to warm it up.)

Melt 1-2 tablespoons butter in the microwave (about 20 seconds). Add 1 clove of chopped garlic and stir to infuse the butter with the garlic flavor.

Preheat oven according to package directions on pizza crust. Place crust on a foil-lined baking sheet. Brush generously with the garlic butter over entire surface because I’m pretty sure this is what they do at Papa John’s. Then brush with a generous amount of barbecue sauce.

Arrange chicken, mushrooms, onions, and broccolini onto pizza. {You will probably have toppings leftover. Save them for an omelet or a fancy grilled cheese.} Sprinkle generously with mozzarella cheese. Bake according to package directions until cheese is melted, bubbly, and beginning to brown around the edges. Slice and serve with parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes.

Now you can certainly be fancier if you want. You can make your own pizza dough. You can make your own barbecue sauce and grill your own chicken. But why? 🙂 And of course you can add or omit any ingredients you like. It’s your pizza.

Ciao,