BBQ Chicken and Collard Green Pizza

I had made a lot of BBQ chicken and a huge pot of braised collard greens cooked in chicken stock, vinegar, and sugar and had way more left over than I anticipated. I hate wasting leftovers, but I don’t want to just eat the same meals over again until it’s all gone. I turned to my favorite solution for repurposing leftovers: pizza. How can you say no to anything on a crispy crust topped with melted cheese? This recipe would also be great to use up leftover pork chops or ribs, or any other braised greens such as kale.

Ingredients

For the pizza dough:

2 cups all-purpose flour (substitute up to 1 cup of whole wheat flour)
2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup hot water
1 Tbs. olive oil
Cornmeal (for dusting)

For the topping:

1/2 cup of BBQ sauce of your choice
1/2 cup cooked, chopped chicken meat (leftover or from a rotisserie chicken)
1/2 cup cooked collard greens, drained (other leftover braised greens would also work, such as kale)
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup shredded cheese

Directions

1. Make the pizza dough. Combine the dough ingredients from flour through salt thoroughly in a bowl. Add hot water and the olive oil and mix. Knead the dough for 5 minutes until it comes together into a large ball. Mixture should be moist but not sticky, add extra flour to get the right consistency. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until the dough is doubled in size, about 2 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 500 F. To assemble pizza, roll out the pizza dough on a floured surface. Sprinkle the bottom with olive oil and cornmeal to ensure a cripsy crust. Put dough on a pizza stone or baking sheet and cook in the oven on the lowest rack for 5 minutes or until dough is slightly puffed. Take out of the oven. Top dough with BBQ sauce, onion, collard greens, chicken, and onion. Return pizza to the oven and cook for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the crust is fully cooked.