gluten-free | dairy-free
This is the pizza that won the 2016 International Pizza Challenge (Gluten-Free Division)—and it has no cheese. Bacon, chicken, broccoli, and a dairy-free ranch base on the championship GF crust. Victoria’s philosophy: ‘cheese does not make pizza, pizza—the crust and the flavors do.’ This proves it.
“Hey, you want to enter a pizza cooking competition?” When Rich asked me this in 2016, I thought about it for a moment, and then said, “Sure, why not?”
Looking back, I remember the anxiety, excitement, and at times, sheer terror of competing with other pizza makers from around the world. And, I knew, I was not going to make the judges a pizza I could not eat. So that meant a dairy-free pizza would be my entry in the gluten-free division I was competing in.
I had no visions of winning, even though I am extremely competitive. I was in a new world that I did not know much about, and just being there, competing, was enough for me. But when they announced my name as the winner, I jumped into the air and shouted “no way!” over and over as I accepted my award. It was pure joy.
This recipe is the “World Champion,” and I am so excited to finally share it with you! Dairy-free and pizza usually don’t go well together, but this pizza, and many others I will be sharing in the future, I hope, will change that assumption. In my mind, cheese does not make pizza, pizza. Instead, a great-tasting crust and the FLAVORS you put on it make pizza so darned good.
Click here for the link to the pizza crust recipe and click here for the link to the ranch dressing recipe.
If you have any questions about the pizza crust-making process, please message me here, and I will respond within 24 hours.
And, for pizza topping ideas, be sure to check out our Pizza Toppings Matrix and our Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe.
Now, go eat something amazing!
Gluten-Free World Champion Bacon, Chicken, Broccoli & Ranch Pizza
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The Ingredients
For the Crust
For the Sauce
- 1/4 cup gf explorers ranch dressing
- 1/8 cup nutritional yeast
For the Chicken
- 1/4 lb chicken tenders, chopped
- Kosher salt and pepper
- smoked paprika
Other Toppings
- 4 slices bacon, chopped into lardons
- 1/4 red onion, sliced
- 2 stalks broccoli, fresh
- olive oil
- garlic salt
The Process
The Pizza Crust
- You will need one par-baked pizza crust. It can be frozen or thawed. Find the link to the recipe in the ingredient list.
The Ranch
- You will want to make this ahead of time. Find the link to the recipe in the ingredient list.
Mise en Place
- Slice the red onions. Set aside
- If using a pizza stone, place it in the oven and set the oven at 400 degrees.
The Bacon
- Cut the strips of bacon in lardon (strips of about 1/2 inch wide). Add to a cold skillet and turn heat to medium-high. Cook until beginning to become crispy and most of the fat is rendered out. Remove to paper towels to drain fat. Set aside. Drain nearly all fat from the skillet but leave a little for cooking the chicken.
The Chicken
- Season both sides of the chicken tenders with kosher salt, pepper, and smoked paprika, fairly liberally. Add the chicken to the skillet you cooked the bacon in and do not overlap the pieces. Cook for about 2-3 minutes or until you see opaque white on the sides, then flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from skillet and let cool. Once cool, slice the chicken into small pieces. Set aside.
Blanch and Chop the Broccoli
- Chop most of the stalks from the broccoli.
- Before you start cooking the bacon, add cold water and a fair amount of kosher salt to a large pot and bring to a boil. You should be done cooking the bacon and or chicken by the time the water comes to a boil.
- Add the broccoli to the boiling water and let sit for 1 minute. During this time, fill a large bowl with ice and water for the ice bath.
- After a minute, remove the broccoli from the pot to the ice bath. Once the broccoli cools in the water, drain.
- Chop enough broccoli for the pizza. You will want very small pieces of just the flowerets and not much of the stalks. Set aside.
Topping and Baking the Pizza
- Add sauce to the crust, as much as you like, leaving about 1/2 inch of the crust on the outside un-sauced.
- Sprinkle a fair amount of nutritional yeast over the sauce.
- Add the chicken, broccoli, red onion, and bacon.
- Place the pizza in the oven. Depending on your cooking method, put the pizza on the pizza stone, directly on the oven rack, or on a sheet pan. Cook for 12-15 minutes or until the crust achieves your desired brownness. Remove pizza from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.
- Brush the outside of the crust with olive oil and sprinkle garlic salt on the crust and the pizza. For added creaminess and flavor, drizzle more ranch dressing on top. Cut, serve, eat, enjoy!
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