Barbecue Chicken Pizza

I nab every chance I get to play around making different pizzas.  This one was a huge success with my teens.  It involved a tomato-based barbecue sauce, chicken, veggies, mozzarella cheese, and bacon.

Pizza Dough:
1 cup warm water
2 tsp. yeast
2 tsp. sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 - 2 cups unbleached flour (I used 2 1/2 cups of unbleached bread flour)

Add yeast to warm water with a pinch of sugar until it bubbles. Add remaining ingredients with the first cup of flour and mix for at least a minute. Add more flour until the dough forms a smooth, soft ball, not too sticky, but not firm. Allow dough to rise until double. Stretch or roll dough to form a medium size pizza.  This dough is very soft, so if you use a pizza stone, you may want to pre-bake it for 5 minutes at 450ºF before adding toppings for easier handling as you transfer it to the stone.   If you bake it in a pan, there isn't a problem.  

Toppings:
Barbecue Sauce (your favorite homemade recipe or from a bottle)
8 baby carrots, finely diced
2 slices onion, finely diced
1/4 green pepper, finely diced
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 Tbsp olive oil
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
3 strips extra-thick (good quality) bacon

In a large frying pan, cook chicken pieces until done (don't overcook).  Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Saute carrots, onion, and pepper in the same oil until tender. 


Preheat oven (and pizza stone, if you have one) to 450ºF.  Spread barbecue sauce over pizza dough.  Top with veggies.  Top with chicken.  Sprinkle with desired amount of mozzarella cheese.   Transfer to stone or pizza pan and cook until dough is done and cheese is melted (about 10 - 15 minutes).  In the meantime, cook the bacon strips in the frying pan.  Serve fresh, hot pizza with bacon sprinkled over the top.