The Best Chicken Pizza Recipe

This Chicken Pizza is made with cooked chicken (you can use rotisserie chicken!), roasted garlic and lots of gooey mozzarella cheese. Recipe includes step-by-step instructions to make it either on the grill or in the oven.

I think pizza is one of those true year-around foods. A cheeseburger pizza can be warm and comforting in the winter, but a few slices with lighter toppings in the summer won’t weigh you down.

And since my thoughts are starting to turn to summer, I also have grilled pizza on the brain. Along with root beer ribs, grilled pizza is one of our go-to meals in the summer.

Rather than heating up the house with the oven in the summer, it’s just as easy and fast to cook a pizza on a grill.

While I grilled this particular pizza, you don’t have to. Just like my gyro pizza and roasted cauliflower pizza, this chicken pizza with roasted garlic can be made in the oven if you prefer. Totally up to you!

The ingredients you’ll need for this garlic chicken pizza recipe:

• pizza dough – you can make my homemade pizza dough, or buy a refrigerated version. You will need 1 pound of dough for this pizza with chicken.
• pizza sauce – again, feel free to make your own tomato sauce to use here, but pre-made pizza sauce is a shortcut I’m comfortable with taking. There’s some really good ones at the grocery store these days (I like San Marzano and Rao’s brands, and I use them on my crostini pizza bar, too).
• roasted garlic – I roasted my own garlic (instructions in recipe card below) because it’s easy and cheap. However, it DOES require turning on the oven (although you can make it a few days in advance if you want). But, if you are grilling pizza and don’t want to heat up the house with the oven, you can buy roasted garlic from the olive bar at your store. Roasted garlic lovers – don’t miss my garlic dip recipe!
• chicken – you will need 1-1/2 cups chopped or pulled cooked chicken for this chicken pizza recipe. More on this below!
• mozzarella – with a fresh, milky flavor and super creamy texture, fresh mozzarella cheese is what I keep on hand for fancy toast and homemade pizza (if I don’t “snack” until it all disappears before I make the pizza). Save the dryer deli slices for lasagna with cottage cheese, vegetable lasagna or vegetarian quiche, and use the fresh stuff for this pizza (you can see the type of package to look for in the photo below).
• spinach – I had spinach on hand from salmon spaghetti, so I used that for some leafy freshness, but arugula or kale would be great as well. I’ve also used leftover fajita veggies to add a little vegetable action to this pizza!
• seasoning – You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten a pizza sprinkled with everything bagel seasoning.

How to precook chicken for pizza:

You MUST precook chicken before you put chicken on pizza. The pizza won’t cook long enough for raw chicken to cook all the way through on top of the pizza.

You have an option here – you can either precook the chicken yourself or buy it. I’ll be honest and say that a lot of times, I buy a rotisserie chicken to use for this chicken pizza recipe (and sometimes for my healthy buffalo chicken dip).

If I want to cook chicken at home for this pizza with chicken, I follow a classic recipe for baked chicken breasts or buttermilk marinated grilled chicken, allow it to cool, and then pull or chop it.

Or, if I’ve done a really good job of meal planning, I’ll cook an extra chicken breast as I’m prepping for my Greek rice recipe for another meal, and use the extra breast for this garlic chicken pizza.

It’s not traditional, but you can even use leftovers from orange glazed chicken or almond crusted chicken on this chicken pizza!

How to make grilled chicken pizza:

Unlike my grilled sockeye salmon and salmon sandwich, where you use direct heat the entire time, grilled pizzas like this chicken pizza recipe require both direct and indirect heat.

So, the first step to grilling a pizza is to preheat your grill for two-zone grilling, which means half of the grill should be set to medium-high (this is your direct heat side), and the other half should be off (this is your indirect heat side).

Stretch and shape your pizza dough into a large circle and place it on a pizza pan. Brush one side of the dough with oil and place the dough, oiled side down on the grill. Cook the dough for 2 minutes or until it releases itself from the grates.

Brush the top of the dough with oil and then use tongs to flip the dough. Continue cooking the dough until the dough is firm and grill-marked in all areas.

At this point, transfer the dough back to your pizza pan and spread the dough with pizza sauce. Then, top with the chicken, cheese, roasted garlic and everything bagel seasoning.

This is where you’ll use the indirect heat side of the grill (which basically just functions like an oven). Place the pizza on the indirect side, close the grill, and cook 8 to 10 minutes or until the crust is fully cooked and the toppings are warmed through.

Remove pizza from grill and sprinkle with spinach. Time to eat!

The cheater’s way to make a grilled garlic chicken pizza:

If you want a grilled pizza, but you’re not confident about your dough grilling skills, take an easy shortcut and use naan bread, like I did for my cobb pizza! This is also the FASTEST way to make this grilled chicken pizza recipe.

How to make chicken roasted garlic pizza in the oven:

Don’t have a grill? Or is it winter and you don’t want to stand outside in the cold?

I totally get it, and you can definitely make this chicken pizza recipe in the oven.

If you decide to go with this approach, I highly recommend a pizza stone. Pizza stones are a wonderful tool to have if you’re a pizza lover because they help to achieve a crispy crust on this garlic chicken pizza without shelling out a few thousand dollars for an actual pizza oven.

I especially love a crispy crust on a pizza with brussels sprouts and shrimp pizza.

You simply throw the pizza stone in the oven as it preheats, and once the oven comes up to temp, you put the freshly stretched dough down on the stone and stick the stone back in the oven to crisp up the crust for awhile before adding toppings.

Then, top the crust with sauce, chicken, cheese, roasted garlic and everything bagel seasoning and transfer it back to the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Top with spinach, cut and serve.

P.S. Make sure you brush up on how to clean a pizza stone to ensure it lasts a long time!

What to serve with pizza:

My favorite side dish for this grilled chicken pizza recipe is a nice fresh salad, like fresh greens with miso salad dressing or feta dressing, or even my summer beet salad recipe.

The only other thing you need is a cocktail! I think that either a White Claw cocktail or a brandy old fashioned would be a perfect pairing with this roasted garlic pizza with chicken.