Homemade BBQ Pizza With Pepper Jack Cheese & Chicken Sausage

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Making a zesty BBQ pizza had been on my mind for some time and today it finally became a reality. Not only that but it turned out super nice and zesty just like I had imagined for which I couldn't of been happier. Yes, this was a happy BBQ pizza made with pepper jack cheese in place of mozzarella, sausage in place of pepperoni, and BBQ sauce in place of tomato sauce on top of a homemade crispy crust. Talk about gourmet and something entirely different from your everyday pizza.

Ingredients for the toppings:

• Aidelles Pineapple & Bacon Smoked Chicken Sausage
• Sargento Pepper Jack Shredded Cheese
• Stubb's Hickory Bourbon BBQ Sauce

Ingredients for the crust:

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast 
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (I use organic, it gives it a super light and crispiness)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Steps for making the home made crust:

Pour the warm water into a small bowl, and add the sugar and yeast.

Let the mixture sit until foamy.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

After the yeast mixture is ready, mix with flour, olive oil, Italian seasoning and salt.

Combine well.  This can be done with a wooden spoon, however I chose to use my hands.  If mixture is looking too sticky, add a little bit of flour.

When everything is mixed well, knead the dough for 5 minutes.  The dough will be wet, but that is how you want it.

Cover dough with a warm, damp towel, and let rest for 20 minutes.

Grease pizza pan (I would suggest a pan that has large holes in the bottom, this makes the crust crispier) by brushing it with olive oil. Generously sprinkle greased pan with cornmeal.

After dough has rested, use your fingers to spread dough onto the greased pizza pan.

Bake the dough in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Let crust cool completely (20-30 minutes).

Spread the BBQ sauce onto the baked crust.  Be sure to use a good amount of sauce.

Before this BBQ delight became the melted cheesy greatness that it was

Sprinkle the pepper jack cheese onto sauce, and top with your sausage cut into thin slices.

Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

What a pizza! Something that made it even better was the fact that I used Aidelles Pineapple & Bacon Chicken Sausage instead of your run of the mill ordinary beef, turkey, or pork sausage. There is just something about Aidelles sausage that makes a gourmet creation taste even better. Take for example my Onion Ring Sausage Dogs where I used Aidelles Sausage. I digress, using the right ingredients for this is important though and that's why I also used Stubb's BBQ sauce. It's some of the best and one of the few BBQ sauces on store shelves that don't have HFCS in the ingredients. Gotta like that.

Like everything I make on this blog, it's hard to describe how this tasted. I for one thought that this  (probably because I made it) tasted like the best BBQ pizza I've ever had. I know that you can find BBQ pizza at that gourmet pizza chain that was popular in the 90's (which a lot of you might know what I'm talking about). Nothing wrong with scoring a gourmet pizza there (I still would) however, the freshness of homemade crust just seals the deal when it comes to pizza. That's exactly how it was with this one, the crispiness of the homemade crust complimented the zestiness of the BBQ sauce and spiciness of the pepper jack cheese and formed a perfect storm of BBQ pizza heaven. It goes without saying that this gourmet pizza comes very highly recommended.