Name: California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken Pizza {Copycat Recipe}
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts; Salt and pepper; 1 cup + 2 Tbsp BBQ sauce, (divided); Pizza Dough ((recipe below or 2 lbs. store-bought)); Olive oil, (to drizzle); 12 oz. sliced fresh mozzarella cheese; 1 cup shredded smoked gouda cheese; 1 small red onion, (thinly sliced); Chopped cilantro, (for garnish); 3/4 Tbsp active dry yeast; 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water; 3/4 Tbsp salt; 1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar; 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

This BBQ Chicken Pizza is inspired by a menu favorite from California Pizza Kitchen. With simple ingredients and a homemade crust (or store-bought if you want!), it can easily be made and enjoyed at home.

Bird's eye view of BBQ chicken pizza cut into squares with cheese, chicken, BBQ sauce, red onion, and cilantro as toppings and "BBQ Chicken Pizza (California Pizza Kitchen Copycat)" text at the top.

Jump to:

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
🗒 Ingredients
👩‍🍳 How to make your own dough
🍕 How to make California Pizza Kitchen BBQ chicken pizza
⏲️ How to store
🥗 What to serve with
🎉 Variations on recipe
🍽️ More easy pizza recipes
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

First, let me start off by saying that once upon a time, I adored California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ Chicken Pizza. CPK is one of those places I would eat at after as a broke just-out-of-college girl after a busy day of "window shopping" at Copley Plaza in Boston.

I still think about their pizza on occasion and get all kinds of nostalgic for it. So, I did what any pizza obsessed blogger would do, I made my own California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken Pizza at home!

Though the ingredients seemed pretty obvious, I originally based the recipe off The Pioneer Women's CPK BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe (and through her commenters, learned that smoke gouda is the magic ingredient!).

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

There will likely be two groups of people who love this copycat CPK pizza: those who are a big fan of the BBQ chicken pizza at California Pizza Kitchen and those who just plain love BBQ chicken pizza.

Because this is a really delicious pizza, whether you've had the one this copycat recipe is based on or not. Plus it's easy!

I recommend making your own dough from scratch, but you don't have to and can absolutely feel free to buy store-bought dough instead.

🗒 Ingredients

You don't need too many ingredients to make this pizza and you can, of course, feel free to switch things up depending on your own tastes. But this is the combination I think is the closest to the CPK's pizza.

Note that this recipe makes 2 large pizzas. You can half the ingredients to make just one (and can refrigerate or freeze half the dough), but trust me when I say you're going to want two of them!

Here's everything you need, but be sure to check out the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions:

Boneless skinless chicken breasts: You can substitute with thighs, but I like using white meat chicken
Salt & pepper
BBQ sauce: I recommend your favorite store-bought tangy BBQ sauce, though you can certainly make your own if you want
Pizza Dough: You can make homemade dough with the recipe I share below or you can use store-bought
Olive oil
Sliced fresh mozzarella cheese
Shredded smoked gouda cheese
Thinly sliced red onions
Cilantro: for garnish

If you want to make my homemade dough recipe, here's what you'll need:

Active dry yeast
Lukewarm water
Salt
Granulated sugar
Extra-virgin olive oil
All-purpose flour

👩‍🍳 How to make your own dough

A lot of people don't realize how easy it is to make your own pizza dough from scratch! You can certainly buy dough for this recipe, but if you have the ingredients and just a little bit of time, I recommend making your own.

Just mix yeast and water in a large bowl and let rest for 2 minutes.

Stir salt, sugar, and extra-virgin olive oil into the mixture.

With a wooden spoon, mix the flour into the mixture. Gently knead the dough with your hands a few times.

Cover bowl with a kitchen towel and let rest in a warm spot for about 2 hours, so dough can rise.

When you check on the dough after 2 hours, it should be risen!

Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge if you're not planning to use it right away.

🍕 How to make California Pizza Kitchen BBQ chicken pizza

Once the dough is made, you're ready to prep the toppings and get the pizza in the oven!

Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees.

Lightly sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of chicken breasts and place in an oven-safe baking dish. Smother the chicken in BBQ sauce, making sure to coat both sides.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and registers at 165 degrees.

BBQ chicken breast cooked and ready to be chopped.

Remove chicken from the oven and increase oven temperature to 500 degrees. Let chicken cool slightly and dice into small cubes.

Divide pizza dough into two portions and roll and stretch one out to fit on a rimmed sheet pan sprinkled lightly with corn meal. Drizzle with a touch of olive oil and season lightly with salt.

Then brush BBQ sauce all over it. This is your pizza sauce!

Overhead of dough rolled out with BBQ sauce brushed on top.

Place half of the fresh mozzarella on dough, add half the chicken, sprinkle half the smoked gouda, and add half the sliced onion. Repeat with second portion of dough and all the toppings.

Have you ever seen a more beautiful sight?

Close-up of pizza dough rolled out with chicken, cheese, and red onion toppings before it goes into the oven.

Once you bake it for 13-15 minutes at 500 degrees, it will be perfectly golden with the toppings nice and bubbly.

But don't forget to add the cilantro. I'm not even the biggest cilantro fan, but it's SO good here.

Of course, if you're cilantro adverse (which many people are!), you can use parsley instead.

Bird's eye view of BBQ chicken pizza just out of the oven topped with BBQ sauce, chicken, cheese, red onion, and cilantro.

To serve the BBQ chicken pizza, cut it into square and serve nice and hot, fresh out of the oven.

I love this nice crispy thin pizza crust. Especially when packed with the very best ingredients an the most tender chicken.

Bird's eye view of BBQ chicken pizza cut into squares with cheese, chicken, BBQ sauce, red onion, and cilantro as toppings.

Did you know I am usually seriously anti-square pizza?? I have no idea why, but something about it brings back really bad memories for me (maybe school pizza??). If you take me out to a pizza shop or order me takeout and it's square pizza, I will not be a happy camper.

But when it comes to homemade, I love square pizza and make it often. I think I love that squares are generally smaller than normal pizza slices, which means you can eat more.

Pizza nights just got way more delicious in your house!

⏲️ How to store

Since this recipe makes 2 large pizza, you may have some leftovers. Don't worry because it's easy to store and enjoy for a quick meal later!

Either put leftover pizza in an airtight container or wrap the slices in aluminum foil. The pizza should stay fresh for for 3-5 days when stored properly.

To reheat, I recommend using either a toaster oven or a conventional. Preheat the oven to around 375 and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling.

If you microwave the leftover pizza, it won't be quite as crispy. And remember, cold pizza is also always delicious!

🥗 What to serve with

Pizza is one of the most versatile meals and goes with so many other foods. Here are some of my favorite things to serve this BBQ pizza with:

Close-up of BBQ chicken pizza cut into a square and topped with BBQ sauce, chicken, cheese, red onion, and cilantro.

This CPK BBQ chicken pizza did not last long in our house. I really love the BBQ sauce base over traditional tomato sauce and BBQ naturally goes superbly with chicken.

It's basically a no-fail recipe and an automatic people-pleasing pizza! It's especially perfect for a summer party and goes really well with beer. Trust me on this!

I'm just thrilled I can now have my California Pizza Kitchen BBQ chicken pizza without even leaving my house!

🎉 Variations on recipe

I made this copycat recipe as close to the California Pizza Kitchen version as possible. But you can also feel free to make any adjustments to it and to add more of your favorite toppings! Here are some ideas:

Some people aren't a fan of smoked gouda (or any gouda cheeses) and prefer other cheese options. You can use cheddar, provolone, Monterey Jack, or your favorite cheese!

If you like more vegetables on your pizza, feel free to add whatever you want. Bell peppers go well and mushrooms, fresh tomatoes (or sun-dried tomatoes), spinach, and jalapeños would also make the perfect addition.

If you're a meat lover, you can certainly add more meat! Along with the chicken, you can add sausage, pepperoni, steak, or ground beef. Shrimp would also make for a tasty pizza.

Some people add ranch dressing to every pizza they eat! Ranch is yummy with BBQ sauce. You can also use hot sauce or the additional sauce of your choice.

Add any spices or seasonings you want, including red pepper flakes, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, etc.

🍽️ More easy pizza recipes

I always say I could eat a different pizza every night of the week and be perfectly happy. In fact, I think I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for weeks at a time and be thrilled. Here are a few of my favorite pizza recipes:

Do you have a favorite restaurant pizza that you'd love to recreate at home? What's your favorite California Pizza Kitchen pizza?

📖 Recipe