Eleven ingredients and thirty-six minutes. The dough is brushed with oil rather than spread with a sauce, so the base under the cheese is bare.
Everything that gives this pizza its character is added once it is out of the oven: raw onion, red chilli, coriander and a four-ingredient drizzle whisked while it bakes.
Why This Recipe Works
- Oil rather than a wet sauce keeps the base crisp under mozzarella and chicken.
- 475 degrees for twelve to sixteen minutes browns a real crust while the cheese melts.
- Whisking the drizzle during the bake means it is ready the moment the pizza is.
- Raw onion and chilli added hot soften slightly without losing their bite.
- A light drizzle rather than a spread keeps the white cheese visible under it.
Ingredient Notes
- Sweet chili sauce
- Three tablespoons, the base of the drizzle. With soy, lime and sesame oil it is the whole sauce — there is no peanut butter in this recipe.
- Raw white onion
- A quarter of a small one, very thinly sliced and added after the oven. It stays sharp against the sweet drizzle.
- Red chile
- One, thinly sliced, raw. A visible component of the finished pizza rather than heat cooked into a sauce.
- Toasted sesame oil
- A teaspoon in the drizzle. Small and unmistakable, and it is added off the heat where its aroma survives.
How to Make It
Oiled dough, no red sauce
Heat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. Stretch dough into a round and brush lightly with olive oil; do not use red tomato sauce.
Cheese and chicken, then bake
Top with mozzarella and chicken. Bake 12 to 16 minutes until the crust is golden and cheese melts.
Whisk the drizzle — no peanut butter
Whisk sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, and sesame oil into a brown-red glossy drizzle with no peanut butter.
Raw toppings, then drizzle
Top the hot pizza with raw onion slivers, red chile, and cilantro, then drizzle lightly with the sauce.
The Drizzle, and What Is Not in It
A Thai-style chicken pizza might suggest a peanut sauce, and there is none here. The drizzle is four things - and one thing it explicitly is not. It is whisked cold while the pizza bakes and never sees the oven.
Sweetness and heat, together
3 tbsp sweet chili sauce
The largest component and the body of the drizzle. It carries both the sugar and a mild heat, which is why the recipe needs no separate sweetener.
Salt and colour
1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
What turns a red-orange chilli sauce into a BROWN-RED glossy drizzle, and the only salt in the sauce.
Acid
1 tbsp lime juice
Cuts three tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce. Added raw and never heated - simmered, it would lose exactly the sharpness it is there for.
Aroma
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
A teaspoon, and unmistakable. Toasted sesame oil is volatile: in a hot oven it would be gone, so it goes into a cold whisked sauce that is drizzled on afterwards.
And NOT this
No peanut butter, and no peanuts anywhere
Stated in step 3. A Thai-style chicken pizza is usually built on a peanut sauce; this one is not, and the absence is deliberate rather than an omission.
Then tasteDrizzled LIGHTLY over the hot pizza after 1/4 of a thinly sliced white onion, 1 sliced red chile and 1/3 cup of coriander have gone on raw - so the white mozzarella base still shows through, and the three raw toppings stay sharp against a sweet sauce.
Success Tips
- Brush the dough rather than saucing it; a wet base under cheese steams the crust.
- Whisk the drizzle while the pizza bakes so nothing waits.
- Drizzle lightly — the white cheese should still show through.
Serving Ideas
Eight slices from a round on a wooden board, the white melted cheese base with chicken pieces under raw onion slivers, thin red chilli and heavy coriander, finished with the brown-red glossy drizzle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should there be peanuts or peanut sauce?
No. Step 3 leaves out peanut butter and there are no peanuts. The sauce here is sweet chilli, soy, lime and sesame.
What goes under the cheese?
Only olive oil. There is no red tomato sauce and no spread base.
Can the drizzle go on before baking?
It would dull and darken in the oven. It goes on after, over the raw onion, chilli and coriander.
