Eight ingredients and thirty-one minutes. The base is half a cup of whole-milk ricotta loosened with a teaspoon of oil and a finely grated garlic clove, spread thinly.
There is no red sauce and no ranch. This pizza is built on ricotta, and the recipe rules out both alternatives in the same step.
Why This Recipe Works
- A preheated stone or sheet pan at 475 degrees gives the base heat from below and a puffed crust.
- Ricotta thinned with oil spreads without tearing the dough.
- Grated rather than chopped garlic dissolves into the ricotta instead of sitting in pieces.
- Spreading the base thinly keeps the dough from steaming under a wet layer.
- Coriander added after the oven stays green rather than blackening.
Ingredient Notes
- Whole-milk ricotta
- Half a cup, with a grated garlic clove and a teaspoon of oil. This is the white base — not ranch dressing.
- Pickled jalapeños
- Half a cup of drained rounds. Pickled rather than fresh, and rounds rather than strips: both are what the finished pizza shows.
- Cooked chicken
- Two cups in pieces, already cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. The bake is timed for the crust and the cheese.
- Fresh cilantro
- A third of a cup of leaves, added after the oven. Twelve to sixteen minutes at 475 would destroy them.
How to Make It
Hot oven, stone inside
Heat oven with a pizza stone or sheet pan to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.
Garlic ricotta base — not ranch, not red
Stretch dough into a round. Mix ricotta, garlic, and olive oil and spread it thinly as the white base; do not use ranch or red tomato sauce.
Mozzarella, chicken, pickled rounds
Top with mozzarella, chicken, and drained pickled jalapeño rounds.
Twelve to sixteen minutes
Bake 12 to 16 minutes until the crust is puffed and golden and the cheese melts.
Coriander after the oven
Finish with fresh cilantro after baking.
The Round, Bottom to Top
On a chicken pizza the base is the recipe, so the second layer below is where this pizza is actually decided.
Coriander, after the oven
1/3 cup of fresh leaves added once it is out. The only thing on this pizza that never bakes - at 475F for a quarter of an hour it would be gone.
Pickled jalapeño rounds - drained
1/2 cup, and every word matters: PICKLED rather than fresh, ROUNDS rather than strips, and DRAINED so their brine does not wet the base. They are the heat and the acidity of this pizza in one component.
The chicken
2 cups of pieces, already cooked to 165F before they arrive. Nothing in a twelve-to-sixteen-minute bake at 475F is timed for raw meat.
Mozzarella
1 1/2 cups shredded, over the ricotta. Two cheeses in two layers - one spread, one scattered - and between them they are the whole white surface the toppings sit on.
The white base - RICOTTA, not ranch
1/2 cup of whole-milk ricotta mixed with 1 finely grated garlic clove and 1 tsp of olive oil, spread THINLY. This is the whole identity of the pizza, and the recipe defines it by two refusals in the same breath: do not use ranch, and do not use red tomato sauce. The oil is what lets it spread without tearing the dough, and thin is what stops it steaming the base.
The crust - real, raised, baked
1 lb of prepared pizza dough stretched into a round - a real raised baked pizza crust, not a flatbread and not a focaccia.
The hot surface
A pizza stone or sheet pan preheated inside a 475F oven. Heat from below is what puffs a crust in twelve to sixteen minutes; a cold pan gives a pale, dense base however long it bakes.
Success Tips
- Preheat the stone with the oven rather than putting it in cold.
- Spread the ricotta thin — a thick wet layer steams the dough beneath it.
- Drain the jalapeños properly; the brine on them would wet the base.
Serving Ideas
Eight slices on white plates, the puffed golden crust with its white garlic-ricotta base under melted mozzarella, chicken pieces and whole pickled jalapeño rounds, finished with fresh coriander leaves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the white base ranch?
No. It is whole-milk ricotta with grated garlic and a little olive oil, and step 2 leaves ranch out by name.
Can I use fresh jalapeños?
This recipe calls for drained pickled rounds. They bring acidity as well as heat, and the rounds are what you see on the finished pizza.
How is this different from the Thai chicken pizza?
Both are white-base chicken pizzas. That one carries a sweet chilli, soy, lime and sesame drizzle with red chilli and raw onion; this one has pickled jalapeño and coriander.
