Chicken, cranberry & Brie pizzas
As far as homemade pizzas go, this one is the business. It’s seriously good. The secret’s in my epic homemade pizza sauce, which I’ve blinged out with scrumptious cranberries. It’s tart, it’s tangy, it’s sweet, it’s ultra-tasty – and it’s the perfect partner to all that beautiful melty cheese and chicken. There’s not really much more to say here except enjoy, my friends!
Prep time – 20 minutes
Cooking time – 20 minutes
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
500g -700g chicken thighs, boneless & skinless
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 ½ – 2 cups grated mozzarella or cheddar
1 ½ cups freshly grated Parmesan
4 thin pizza bases (or use the pizza dough recipe from At My Table)
150g Brie or Camembert, chopped
½ cup Craisins or dried cranberries
Chopped fresh chives, for serving
Epic cranberry pizza sauce
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, very finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 stalks fresh rosemary, leaves finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano (or 2 tsp dried)
3/4 cup cranberry sauce
1 cup chicken stock (reduced salt)
4 tbsp tomato paste
Pinch chilli flakes
Zest of 1 lemon plus 2 tsp juice
Method
Preheat the oven to 220c fan bake and arrange either a metal baking tray, pizza stone or pizza tray in the lower half of the oven to heat up.
Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, brush with oil and season all over with salt and pepper. Heat a frying pan over a high heat. When hot, add a splash of oil, then the chicken. Fry until browned on one side, then turn over and fry the other side. Turn down the heat and cook for another 5 minutes until it’s cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Turn the heat down to medium. Add the olive oil, onion, garlic, rosemary and oregano to the same frying pan you cooked the chicken in. Cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes until very soft. Add the cranberry sauce, chicken stock, tomato paste and chilli flakes. Turn up the heat and simmer until reduced to a thickened sauce (it might take about 10 minutes). Don’t let it get to a very thick paste, or it will be too strong. Add the lemon juice and zest, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
To assemble the pizzas, spread some cranberry pizza sauce over the bases with a back of a spoon. Add some red onion, thyme, mozzarella, chicken pieces, Craisins and Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper all over.
Transfer carefully one or two pizzas to the hot tray in the oven and bake for 7 minutes. Add some chunks of brie on top and bake for another 3 minutes or until golden and bubbling.
To serve, sprinkle with chives or parsley (add an extra squeeze of lemon if you like).
Can you recommend an alternative to chicken for us vegetarians? The recipe sounds amazing and I’d love to try it sans meat.
I’d leave off the chicken and add mushrooms :)
Can I put kalamataives on this or no?
Black olives sorry!
Hey Chelsea,
I’d love to use fresh herbs but haven’t quite got the herb garden cranking yet & they are far too expensive to buy at the moment, can you tell me what quantity of dried herbs I’d need to use?
Thanks!
No worries! About 1/3 of the amount if dried :)
So, I never really understood why people had pizza recipes but then I actually followed one and wow! The sauce definately makes this pizza, and will be made over and over again. I also added some spinach and cauliflower florets that needing using up on mine it was delicious! So good, I will probably make it again tonight just so I can bring it to work for lunch tomorrow. Thanks Chelsea, another banger!
Yum! Made this last night and was super tasty! I saved a little of the plain cranberry sauce and added little dollops of it on top of the pizza :)
Chelsea, you’re as tasty as your recipes. Actually tastier!
Where do u insert the thyme? ;)
Hi Chelsea, I love all three of your cook books and recently made your bacon and chicken pizza. I was thinking to use your pizza dough recipe instead of the Turkish bases for the chicken cranberry and brie and the chicken and bacon. How many pizzas does this make and how many portions of dough would I have to use? I noticed that your dough recipe makes 5-6 pizzas, what would be the dimensions of each pizza? My pizza stone is extra large 38cm round so I am thinking one portion would would not cover the stone or may be not enough for a hungry family of 5. Would you suggest combining two portions of dough for a X L pizza stone or would this make it too thick a base? Many Thanks
Hi Chelsea, delicious recipe, the sauce is amazing – added some bacon to the topping as well which went down a treat with my meat loving family! Thanks
Had this pizza last night. Delicious! Could you freeze the sauce?
Yep!
Hi! am look fwd to try make ur pizza 2nite! just realize i brought wrong cranberry juice which should be sauce – would juice be too runny to make the sauce?
Yeah sorry it does need to be the sauce.
Thanks for the recipe, Chelsea! It was sooo good!! I’ve made this for dinner tonight and have a bit of sauce left over as I only made 2 pizza’s – How long do you think leftover sauce would last in the fridge?
At least a couple of weeks!
Hi Chelsea – which sauce did you use? Jelly sauce or whole berry?
Either really – whole berry is nice :)
I don’t have a pizza stone could it be a very hot baking tray??
Definitely!
I can’t wait to make this pizza. And your sauce sounds to die for. Can’t wait, thanks Chelsea for being so generous with your recipes.
I just love that your signature thing is nearly always adding the zest and juice of a lemon. Chelsea you will become known for this maybe famous for it. I hope you do. . Love your books and in day or two I will have all three.
It makes everything taste alive, I reckon!
Just made these for the 1st time.. HOLY SHIT THEY’RE GOOD ?