Cast Iron Fried Chicken Pizza

Serves: 4

Hands On Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

12 ounces pre-made pizza dough

All-purpose flour, for dusting

Yellow cornmeal, for dusting

1 1/4 cups sausage gravy

1 cup cooked collard greens, chopped and thoroughly dried

2 cups roughly chopped fried chicken

1 1/2 cups shredded low-moisture mozzarella cheese

3 tablespoons shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Hot sauce, for serving (see note)

Instructions

Heat the oven to 525 degrees, or as hot as it will go. Place a 12-inch cast iron skillet in the oven to heat for 20 minutes.

Lightly dust a work surface and rolling pin with flour and roll out the pizza dough into a 12-inch disk.

Remove the skillet from the oven and lightly dust the bottom with cornmeal and flour. Carefully press the dough into the bottom of the skillet.

Working quickly, spread the top of the dough with sausage gravy, then sprinkle with the collards, followed by the fried chicken. Cover the top with both cheeses and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly, 12 to 15 minutes.

Carefully slide the pizza out onto a cutting board, cut into wedges and serve with the hot sauce.

About the recipe

There are quite a few recipes for fried chicken pizzas that basically amount to glorified chicken Parmesan. While there’s nothing wrong with chicken parm, we feel an obligation to bring you the most Southern version of a fried chicken pizza we could conceive.

Feel free to use store-bought fried chicken and pizza dough here; there’s no need to make those from scratch. Crank the oven up to its highest temperature — but not broil, lest the cheese burn to a crisp. Make sure to squeeze out all of the liquid from the collards before adding them to the pizzas. Get all of your toppings ready to go before heating the skillet; the process moves quickly once you add the dough to the skillet. We like to use Texas Pete hot sauce in this recipe.