bbq onion pizza

Gettin’ saucy and snazzy for Pizza Friday.

Guys, it’s been a fucklong time since I’ve made a pizza. As strange as it sounds, I often find pizza daunting. Pushing dough is actually pretty annoying to me since I always get the weirdest shapes and while I love rustic, only a certain level of rustic feels appropriate. And I cut them like a douche.

Basically, I avoid pizza for prideful reasons. With the Super Bowl upcoming, though, and my apparent recent obsession with barbecue sauce (seriously, three recipes I tested this week involved my homemade bbq sauce), a good ole simple bbq pizza felt like the right thing to do. Chicken renditions are pretty common in the pizza world, but since we don’t do chicken here, I thought the next best thing might be onions because caramelized onions are godly and deserve a place on any good pie.

Lo and behold, BBQ Onion Pizza. So stupidly simple, with a delicious saucy pool of awesome for the onions to bathe in. A bit of ranch and lots of cheese finish off the dish, thus, we’re talking minimal ingredients and nothing complex or exotic. Make shit even easier on yourself with storebought pizza dough – which I do quite often, because I’m a lazy ass – and feel good about a tasty slice of comfort in less than an hour.

Share some with me, please?

Don’t Get Saucy with Me

These aren’t true caramelized onions, but they are truly magical. Most of the cooking happens within the bbq sauce mixture, so you’re not looking at hours of slow-simmering on the stove. Good news if your have fierce cravings that need attention ASAP.

First soften the onions a bit on their own, then add a good splash of bourbon. By “splash” I mean 1/2 cup’s worth. Much of the alcohol burns off and you’re left with a woodsy, smoky undertone in the eventual bbq sauce. If you don’t like to cook with alcohol, you can use vegetable broth or, if you have some lying around, apple cider. Beer works, too, if you’re just not a bourbon lover.

Then, the holy bbq sauce. This mixture is tried and true and features similarly in my Crispy BBQ Pinto Bean Tacos. I always use smoked paprika and chili powder to some degree, oftentimes chipotle chili if I’m doing tacos or a more southwest-inspired dish, as well as ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire (for a certain “meatiness”) and molasses. Pour everything over the onions and let the mix simmer for at least 10 minutes. If you have longer, go for it; this will just make the onions even more flavorful, though you may need to add a touch of broth or water to prevent shit from drying out.

Crusty

There I go again with the word crust. Yuck.

But it’s okay here, cos it’s pizza.

I got over my chickenshit nature and baked up my pizza at a whopping 500 degrees. I really recommend this if you have a pan or stone that can handle that temperature. The crust is so much crisper. I usually preheat my oven for at least 30 minutes, an hour or more is even better. So get it going before you even start the onions, and if you’re using a stone, set it inside first.

If you have a tried and true pizza dough recipe, go ahead and use that. Otherwise, any option from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, or pretty much any store, is just fine. Ensure the dough is at room temperature before you try to work it, though, else the dough will just spring back in your face and become a very frustrating venture.

Press out the dough into your desired shape and size. I usually get a good thin-crust 12 inch pie from 1/2 pound of dough, but you can use 3/4-1 pound if you want a bigger pizza or a thicker crust. Spread a little ranch on the bottom, then throw on your onions. I like to reserve a few to put on top once I add the cheese. For the cheese, speaking of, I use a mix of mozzarella and fontina for the creamiest finish and the best cheese pull. Mmm.

Pop the pizza in the screaming hot oven until the cheese is gooey and the crust nice and golden. If your oven is actually screaming, you may have thrown something alive in there rather than your pizza. Please get your eyes checked.

To serve the pizza, I love some extra ranch, fresh herbs like oregano or basil, and a shitload of red pepper flakes. I like it spicay. This recipe doubles really nicely if you need to make multiple pies for a party, and if you happen to have some onions leftover that wouldn’t quite fit on your pizza, they’re dope in a salad. Just saying.

Tried this recipe out? Leave a rating and comment below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to come say hi on Instagram and show me what you made!

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