Frugal Dinner: BBQ Chicken Pizza

My hubby LOVES this pizza. We actually fight over who gets to take the leftovers the next day to work for lunch. It can be a quick week-night meal, with items I already have on hand. I found this recipe ages ago on Foodnetwork.com and tweaked it a little to my own liking (so feel free to do the same!). It matches up with a great deal on chicken at Target this week, so I thought I'd share. Enjoy!


BBQ Chicken Pizza
1/2 lb Frozen Chicken Tenders
1 cup Barbecue Sauce + a few Tbsps
1 Pillsbury Refrigerated Pizza Dough
2 1/2 cups Shredded Cheese, any flavors desired
1/2 Medium Red Onion, thinly sliced
3 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Cilantro

Defrost the chicken tenders in the microwave enough to cut them into bite sized pieces. Toss them in a bowl with a few squirts of BBQ sauce (just enough to coat). Roll out the pizza dough on a greased sheet cake pan. Spread barbecue sauce evenly over dough. Top with chicken, cheese and onion as desired. Bake at 400-degrees for ~20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Top with cilantro and serve.



Notes: For the cheese, we use whatever Kraft shreds I have in the freezer from my latest stockup. I think it works well with some Mozzarella and Colby Jack. We also use whatever barbecue sauce we have on hand; last time I made it we used Jack Daniels and it was wonderful. We also sometimes leave off the cilantro (because my hubby doesn't like it for some reason!) or the onion (because it doesn't sit well with the nursing babe), and it's still surprisingly yummy.

Cost Breakdown:

• Tyson frozen chicken tenders - $4.49/bag (this week at Target), uses 1/3 bag
• Cheese - $0.88/bag (at last Smith's sale), uses 1 1/2 bags
• Barbecue Sauce - ~$0.70 (at last Smith's coupon rounding event), uses 1/2 bottle
• Pizza Dough - $2.29 (at Ream's, reg price) or $2.99 (this week at Smith's, after rounded coupon)
• Red Onion - ~$0.50 (Ream's)
• Cilantro - ~$0.50 (Ream's)

Total = $6.80