One twelve-inch round, nine ingredients, thirty-five minutes including the time the oven takes to get properly hot.
The whole character of this pizza is decided in step two, when half a cup of ranch dressing is stirred with one finely grated garlic clove. That is the sauce. Nothing red goes anywhere near it.
Why This Recipe Works
- A stone or an inverted sheet pan preheated at 475 degrees Fahrenheit gives the base its heat from below, which is what browns a crust in fifteen minutes.
- Grated garlic dissolves into the ranch instead of sitting on top of it in pieces.
- Leaving a border un-sauced gives the crust edge somewhere to puff and brown.
- Oil on that edge and dried herbs over the top are added before the bake, so both are set into the finished pizza rather than dusted on afterwards.
Ingredient Notes
- Ranch dressing
- Half a cup, and it is the sauce rather than a drizzle. Stirred with one finely grated garlic clove before it touches the dough.
- Cooked chicken
- A cup and a half, chopped and already cooked. If it starts raw, it reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit before it becomes a topping.
- Dried Italian herbs
- A teaspoon, sprinkled before the bake. Heavy enough to be visible on the finished slices, which is how the pizza looks in the photograph.
How to Make It
Get the oven properly hot
Heat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit with a pizza stone or inverted sheet pan inside.
Make the white base
Stir ranch dressing with grated garlic. Stretch dough into a 12-inch round on parchment.
Sauce, cheese, chicken
Spread the white garlic-ranch sauce over the dough, leaving a border. Top with mozzarella and cooked chicken; do not add tomato sauce.
Oil the edge, herb the top
Drizzle the crust edge with olive oil and sprinkle the pizza with dried herbs.
Bake it hard and fast
Bake 11 to 15 minutes until the crust is browned and the mozzarella is bubbling.
Parmesan and parsley
Finish with Parmesan and parsley, then slice.
The Round, Bottom to Top
A pizza is one of the few dishes whose whole method is visible in a cross-section. Read from the hot surface upward, and note what is not in the list.
Parmesan and parsley, after
2 tbsp of grated Parmesan and 1 tbsp of chopped parsley added once it is out of the oven. The only two things that go on after the bake, and the last thing before it is sliced.
Herbs, before the heat
1 tsp of dried Italian herbs sprinkled over the whole pizza before it bakes, so they toast into the cheese instead of sitting loose on top.
The chicken
1 1/2 cups of cooked chicken, chopped. Already cooked before it arrives - it is a topping, and the bake is timed for the crust.
Mozzarella
1 1/2 cups shredded, over the sauce rather than under it, so it bubbles at the surface where it can be seen.
The white base - and no red one
1/2 cup of ranch dressing stirred with 1 finely grated garlic clove, spread to a border. This is where a tomato sauce would go on almost any other pizza, and the recipe states in the step that none is added here.
The crust
1 lb of pizza dough stretched into a 12-inch round on parchment, with its edge drizzled with 1 tbsp of olive oil. A real baked crust - not a flatbread, not a base assembled and warmed through.
The hot surface
A pizza stone or inverted sheet pan preheated inside a 475F oven. It is in the ingredient list only by implication, but it is the first layer: without heat from below, eleven to fifteen minutes gives a pale, soft base.
Success Tips
- Give the stone or pan a real preheat; a cold surface is the usual reason a home pizza base stays pale.
- Stretch on parchment so the loaded round can go onto the hot surface without collapsing.
- Keep the border clear of sauce so the edge can brown and puff.
Serving Ideas
Four servings from one twelve-inch round, sliced onto white plates, the white garlic-ranch base visible under the chicken and bubbling mozzarella with dried herbs across the top and Parmesan and parsley over that.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add tomato sauce as well?
No. This is a white pizza and the recipe says so in the step itself. A red sauce would make a different pizza.
How is this different from the BBQ chicken pizza?
The base. That one is built on BBQ sauce with red onion; this one on garlic-ranch with Parmesan and dried herbs. On a chicken pizza the sauce is the recipe.
Can I use raw chicken as a topping?
Cook it to 165 degrees Fahrenheit first. Eleven to fifteen minutes of bake time is set by the crust and the cheese, not by the chicken.
