Homemade Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe with Ranch
Buffalo chicken pizza is what happens when your favorite bar food stops apologizing and climbs onto pizza dough where it belongs. This buffalo chicken pizza recipe is tangy, creamy, aggressively spiced, and just what you were craving. The best buffalo chicken pizza balances heat from the sauce, richness from cheese, and a cool, ranch based finish that keeps you reaching for another slice. When it’s done right, it tastes better than any takeout delivery. So if you like buffalo wings, stay with me here because everything has the potential to be a pizza 😉 Full recipe card below.
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What is buffalo chicken?
In short, buffalo chicken is an American staple! Often considered bar food and the food of choice during football season, buffalo wings are said to have been invented sometime in the 1960s in Buffalo, New York, hence the name.
Buffalo chicken is traditionally made by deep frying un-breaded chicken wings and tossing them in a spicy vinegar based sauce made from cayenne pepper sauce, butter, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder. They are often served with ranch dressing, blue cheese dressing, and celery sticks.
Buffalo chicken recipes have gained in popularity and now have many iterations including boneless chicken wings, buffalo chicken nuggets, buffalo chicken salad, and of course buffalo chicken dip.
Ingredients
Most pizza recipes have a few basic ingredients that are fairly common and consistent. Let me break down what I use and why and give you a few alternatives for all you home cooks.
- Pizza Dough – Nothing beats fresh pizza dough. I am telling you, homemade dough is 100% worth it! This is my favorite homemade pizza dough recipe. Ever since we got a backyard pizza oven, I have been a sucker for homemade pizza crust. Simply put, it just tastes better. If you have never made pizza dough before, it can be a little nerve racking at first, but I promise it is very easy! There are only a few extra steps and most recipes are a simple yeast mixture, warm water, salt and flour. I made this pizza in our pizza oven and have included the recipe for dough I use in a high temperature pizza oven. If you are not ready for homemade dough, don’t worry, you can definitely make this with store-bought dough or try my pizza dough hack!
- Pizza Sauce – For this recipe I use a combination of ranch and buffalo wing sauce. I keep both Buffalo Wild Wings medium sauce and Frank’s Red Hot sauce on hand and both are great options. If you like a lot of heat on your wings, you can skip the ranch if you want. You can also use blue cheese dressing mixed with your spicy buffalo sauce. I normally use a few tablespoons of buffalo sauce and a tablespoon of ranch and spread it around my dough with the back of a spoon.
- Chicken – I actually use chicken on a lot of my pizzas and I think the most efficient option is to either use canned chicken or pressure cook a chicken breast. Did you know you can toss a frozen chicken breast in the Instant Pot and it will be done in 20 min? True story. In both cases I shred the chicken with a fork once it’s cooked before adding it to the pizza. Either way the chicken needs to be cooked prior to using on your pizza. You can even use leftover rotisserie chicken if you want.
- Buffalo vs Traditional Sauce – Many recipes out there use a tomato sauce as the base and only coat the chicken in buffalo sauce. I highly disagree with this method. I think buffalo chicken pizza is much better with the buffalo sauce as the base. Otherwise the two sauces are competing and the taste is confusing, in my opinion.
- Cheese – A lot of pizza recipes call for mozzarella cheese, but yet again I dare to be different! My go to combination is sharp cheddar cheese and Monterey Jack or Colby Jack cheese. The cheddar gives an extra bit of flavor and the Monterey or Colby have a lighter flavor and a better melting consistency, think gooey cheese. I also normally shred my own cheese since we bake pizza in the high heat pizza oven often. Because it cooks at high heat shredding real cheese gives better results because the melting point of bagged cheese is different. If you have a stand mixer you can use this cheese grater attachment to shred your cheese in seconds! This pizza is also really good with blue cheese crumbles if you are into blue cheese. But feel free to use any cheese you want, this is just what I do 😉
- Additional Toppings – While chicken is the main ingredient on this pizza, I almost always add onions and jalapeno to my pizzas. I think red onion or white onion work best on this pizza because they have a stronger flavor. You can even add some bell peppers if you want. Pro Tip: To speed up the chopping process on veggies and onions, I use this slicer. It is truly a game changer when it comes to prep work!
- Dipping – Next to eating the pizza itself, dipping the crust is my favorite! If you haven’t tried it yet, try dipping your pizza crust in Mike’s Hot Honey! It is spicy but oh SO good! Dipping pizza crust in honey is a Colorado thing but I promise it’s not as weird as it sounds. And if honey isn’t for you, creamy ranch dressing or creamy blue cheese dressing are great dippers too!
- Pizza Equipment – Being pizza aficionados, we own a lot of tools and gadgets for pizza making. You definitely don’t need anything more than a pizza stone, pizza pan, or sheet pan to make this pizza, but if you have a pizza oven, you will probably want a pizza peel too. These work well to slide pizza into the oven.
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Homemade Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe with Ranch
- Total Time: 20 minutes
Description
Love buffalo chicken wings and pizza? Why not make a buffalo chicken pizza? This pizza twist combines two fan favorites for the best pizza! This easy recipe is a great dinner option or a game day appetizer!
Ingredients
- Pizza Crust (homemade or store-bought pizza crust)
- 1 Cooked Shredded Chicken Breast (canned or fresh)
- 3 tbsp Buffalo Wing Sauce
- 1 tbsp Ranch Dressing
- 1 cup Shredded Cheese
- 1/2 Onion (sliced)
- 1 Jalapeno (sliced)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven according to pizza dough instructions.
- Cook 1 chicken breast or open a can of cooked chicken. I think shredded chicken works best.
- Chop all veggies and onions.
- Roll out the pizza dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a circle.
- Spoon buffalo sauce and ranch onto pizza dough and use the back of the spoon to spread it evenly on the pizza crust leaving about an inch of dough exposed along the edges.
- Sprinkle chicken, veggies, and cheese onto pizza crust.
- Bake pizza in the preheated oven and bake according to pizza dough instructions or until golden brown and cheese is melted.
Notes
- Cooked leftover pizza can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Category: entrees, Main Course, Pizza
- Cuisine: American, Italian
More Buffalo Chicken Recipes to Try
- Buffalo Chicken Smash Burger Tacos
- Easy Buffalo Chicken Bites Game Day Appetizer
- Ground Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Blue Cheese
More Pizza Recipes to Try
- Cheesy Mexican Chicken Enchilada Pizza
- Homemade Basil Pesto Chicken Pizza
- Hawaiian Pepperoni and Pineapple Pizza
- Homemade Asian Kung Pao Chicken Pizza Recipe
- Spicy Caribbean Jerk Chicken Pizza
- Cajun Chicken Alfredo Pizza
- Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe with Tomato Paste
Storage
In the event you have leftover pizza, you can store it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. If you try my homemade dough, make sure you follow my instructions for how long it keeps.
So what type of pizza are you making on your next pizza night?
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