BBQ Chicken Pizza: California Pi

Ok, pi day was obviously a while ago now, but math is mathematically awesome any time of the year, so we're sticking to pi references for now. And while yes, tau is definitely the superior circle constant, apple tau or a tomato tau with cheese just sounds ridiculous. Though, in my opinion, calling pizza "pie" to begin with is a pretty large stretch. Pizza as "pie" must be an east coaster, Italian American thing because over on the western, better coast, no one in their right mind would call a pizza a pie. Then again, I will concede, the west coast isn't exactly known for pizza.

Before my little education stint over here, my idea of great pizza was California Pizza Kitchen and Costco. I still maintain that combo pizza at Costco is one of the best pizzas out there, but California Pizza Kitchen? As a teen, I thought California Pizza Kitchen (or CPK if you're really hip) was the premier pizza eatery. It was like the coolest, bestest, most mathematical place to go out for a birthday dinner, or to hang out with friends. It was like fancy, but affordable for a teenager borrowing money from the parents. And, as evidenced by this post, my favorite pizza from there was by far the BBQ Chicken Pizza on a honey-wheat crust.

Since college and east-coast pizza revelations, CPK just doesn't hold the same appeal anymore (Costco pizza still does). Maybe it was a post-I thought-I-failed-the-MCAT thing, or a this-service-sucks thing, but the last time I was there, everything was such a letdown. From the crust, to the off-tasting plastic cups of water, to the meh toppings, it was like tasting the sawdust remains of teenage righteousness.

While CPK may have departed from my heart, I do have to give California credit for inventing BBQ Chicken Pizza, which is still delicious and super easy to make at home. Especially if you use ~fancy~ Sriracha BBQ sauce from Trader Joe's (oh look, more California things). The thing I love about "California" cuisine, is that for the most part, its basically normal food, except with like, 20 more varieties of vegetables and lots of locally sourced items year round because of that whole lack of winter thing. Though this current drought might become a problem. :( Anyways, luckily for us who do get to experience winter and spring snowstorms, the basic ingredients of a BBQ Chicken Pizza stand up to winter pretty well. You can probably add more vegetables if you wish, as I normally do, but sometimes the simplicity of just chicken, red onions, and BBQ sauce is perfection that doesn't need more nutrition.

Recipe via Budget Bytes.