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This is awesome! The crust is great and love the barbecue chicken. I used chipotle barbecue sauce for extra spice. Thanks for the great recipe!
Iāve always been fashionably late with⦠fashions.
Like Capris. As a brace-faced-bad-bangs 8th grader, I was convinced that I would never ever wear them. My friends went capri crazy but I resisted. As luck would have it, I came to realize that my friends were right and now I have a closet full of capris from my late-bloomer capri phase in the late 90ās. Sweet.
Twitter. Iāll get back to you on that one.
Jeggings. I didnāt want to wear them, like, this year. But then my sister told me they were cool so I bought them. And now I wear them all the time, and Iām crossing my fingers that the fad is still a fad and Iām not just 5 years behind the fashion train again.
Speaking of jeggings, do you wear them in the summer?
How? And why?
Mysteries.

So it figures that Iād be about 10 years late on the cauliflower crust fad with this BBQ Chicken Pizza, but I donāt care if Iām 100 years late on this one. All that matters is that Iāve arrived here at the point of making cheesy, filling pizzas that are secretly packed with vegetables.
I donāt mean to say that I donāt like cauliflower, cause I really love it. Er, I take it back. Love is a strong word. Does anyone truly LOVE cauliflower? {Update: I DO! A few batches of creamy cauliflower garlic rice later, I really do!}
Whether or not you love cauliflower is beside the question. This crust is a delicious alternative to traditional pizza crust and it holds up incredibly well under a mountain of toppings and a bucket of cheese. Wait, no no no, this is light and I didnāt put a bucket of cheese on top. I didnāt.
Donāt like BBQ Pizza? Youāre weird. But you could actually still make this sneaky-healthy-crust and top it with whatever other weird-o toppings that you like, cause youāre weird like that.
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Light BBQ Chicken Pizza
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
This light BBQ chicken pizza has just 200 calories per slice thanks to a cauliflower pizza crust. Healthy, colorful, and full of BBQ flavor!
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
- 1 cup cooked, shredded chicken
- 3/4 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
- thinly sliced red onions
- fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Chop the cauliflower into medium pieces. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the oil and heat until shiny. Place the cauliflower in the hot oil, stir to cover with oil, and place a lid on the skillet. Check skillet every few minutes to keep cauliflower from burning, but let it get a nice browned roasted outside. Continue to let cauliflower cook, covered, for about 10-15 minutes, or until tender-crisp. Let cool for a few minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450. In a blender or large food processor, place eggs, cornmeal, and seasoning. Place cauliflower in blender and puree until you have a semi-smooth, thick batter. Cover a pizza pan with parchment paper and pour batter into the center of the paper. Spread until you have about a 1/2 inch thick crust or thinner if desired.
- Bake the crust for about 20 minutes, checking occasionally to keep from burning. I liked the crispy edges, so I recommend letting it brown a little bit more than a normal crust.
- While crust is cooking, coat chicken with barbecue sauce. When the crust is cooked through and golden brown, remove and top with barbecue chicken, half the cheese, red onion, and the rest of the cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden. Top with cilantro, slice, and serve!
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: healthy pizza recipe, bbq chicken, bbq chicken pizza, pizza recipe
FYI, every time I type this little section at the bottom, I have to do some mad HTML coding. Thatās right. I make cauliflower pizza crust and I do HTML coding.
I donāt even know who I am right now.
Post Update: Iāve continued the cauliflower craziness with a Healthy Fettucine Alfredo recipe that includes a cauliflower sauce. Click here to check it out.


I wore my black jeggings yesterday with an oversized shirt and flat ballet pumps. I think it worked despite my initial scepticism. And I also remember the non-capri phase of my youth, Iām only just coming to terms with the fact that I might be able to wear them now.
Iāve seen this cauliflower crust around and it gets such rave reviews that I have no excuse for not having tried it yet. Love the BBQ toppings.
Iām always a bit fashionably late too. I swore I would never wear chucks and now I have 5 pairs. I swore I would never wear skinny jeans and now thatās the only kind of jeans that I own. I swore that I would never make a cauliflower pizza crust but Iām sure Iāll be making these in no time!
DYING to try the cauli crust! And yes, I actually DO love cauliflower, ha!
Wait. What? Cauliflower pizza is a thing? I didnāt know that. I hate cauliflower but I have to try this! I was actually just about to get up and try making a bean and buckwheat flour pizza (I knowā¦) but I think Iāll try this instead. That way I can get rid of the bag of cauliflower taking up precious space in my freezer. š
One thing though. What size cauliflower? A medium head?
Yeah, a medium head or about 2.5 cups chopped.
this looks SO good. It stopped me in my tracks as I was going through my reader. I love that this is with a cauliflower crust ā something on my to-do list! I love HTML coding š because Iām a nerd like that! As in, real life nerd, so it makes me happy to see you coding š
Letās be HTML coding buddies! š I donāt really know what Iām doing, but I can pretend.
I can totally relate to jumping late on the capris-train! š And I still havenāt tried jeggings, so you can always know thereās someone more behind than you!
Cauliflower crust, thoughā¦. definitely on my to-do list.
Yeah but youāre ahead of me on the cute zoo dress trend. Iām jealous. š
Haha ā I am totally in the lead for cute zoo apparel. I should put that on my resume for sure!
Iāve been meaning to try cauliflower crust forever. Guess Iām late to the party, too. And instead of being behind on trends, I tend to skip them completely. Fashion just doesnāt work on me š
PS- this looks awesome! I canāt wait for lent to be over so I can eat chicken again!
Hiā¦found your site through Pinterest. Wonderful recipes and photography!
I actually love cauliflower, so will definitely try this. Gotta love that low calorie count. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Carole!
If I make this for dinner, does that cancel out the bag of trail mix and half-sleeve of Thin Mints that I ate for breakfast? Please say yes, since this was supposed to be the day I started losing weight⦠but then it was a Monday and I was late for work and my computer said that my entire documents folder didnāt exist and the call of chocolate was just too strong⦠You understand, right?! š
No no no. Documents folder GONE? Please tell me it was recovered. And obviously yes, this cancels out anything else bad from your day. Probably from your whole life.
The pizza is gorgeous, Lindsay!
I live in capri pants, year round. The joys of San Diego living š
Quit teasing me with your California lifestyle. š
157 calories? Iām IN!
I know. Hard to pass up when itās that low (and still yummy)! š
Love the addition of corn meal to the crust!
We loved the cauliflower crust, but also thought, if there is tons of cheese in the crust and on topā¦it isnāt very light! š
The cornmeal made the texture awesome! Not quite so mealy as other ones Iāve tried before.
Iāve been wondering how you do that nutritional stats thing b/c I canāt find any online calculator that looks like this one. Do you create it yourself? Mad props if so, I canāt code a darn thing!
Iāve jumped on the twitter and jeggings bus within the past year but have yet to do the whole cauliflower thing, go figure!
HAHA ā oh my. If I could code that, that would be, like, amazing. I use this (free) website: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
The coding I was referring to involved some page breaks and paragraph tags. Pretty sweet.
oh, haha! that makes me feel better š
Gorgeous pizza! The flavors sound really fantastic! š
Oh wow, that pizza looks AMAZING. Am I weird that Iām an insane cauliflower lover? Like, āpolish off a head of cauliflower in one sittingā cauliflower fan. Its the best veggie to dip with hummus, in my opinion, because it never overpowers the flavor of the hummus.
Interesting! Iāve never thought of that combo before. I like it.
Hahaha! Well, I didnāt enen KNOW about cauliflower crust, so youāre ahead of me at least. š
This looks amazing, I heart bbq pizza!
I feel like everyone and their mom was on that cauliflower pizza train a few months ago. Everyone except me. And you. š Iām glad Iām not the only one living in the dark!
Sounds really interesting! I have tried to incorporate cauliflower in our diet and was not very successful⦠Iāve pureed it before, it was not the best thing. Iāll try this now!
I still havenāt tried this crust. It looks so good though. I need to try and sneak it by mu husband. I was totally behind on the Twitter thing too!
Darn twitter. Itās so confusing.
I made it and it was yummy! I was worried about the cauliflower tasting like⦠cauliflower, so when I was sauteing it I added lots of garlic powder and salt. And when I pureed everything, I added lots of fresh basil. It still tasted a little bit like cauliflower, but not so much that it was bad. And I put mine on a Silpat and then on a pizza stone so itād get super crunchy. It was great! And thanks for the answer about how much cauliflower to use. š
Youāre so quick! š Glad you liked it! I loved getting the outside crunchy too.
Oooh, love bbq pizza! Donāt worry about being late, because thatās always me. In fact, Iāve seen but havenāt tried the cauliflower crust yet. It looks awesome though!
That looks incredible! I havenāt tried the cauliflower crust yet, either, but I think I might have to cave and make it. š
This looks fantastic! Canāt wait to make it!
That pizza looks delicious! Jeggings in the summer sound miserable lol.
Yes!! Thank you!! I just donāt think Iām up for that challenge.
It was most delightful and deilicous thanksgiving. Candi out does herself each and every time. So pleased to be there! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T ________________________________ From: Cooking with Candi Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2012 12:59:28 +0000 To: ReplyTo: Cooking with Candi Subject: [New post] Thanksgiving 2012 is Overā¦. another year down cookingwithcandi posted: I am sitting here with my morning coffee relieved to have Thanksgiving behind me with no more lists to pore over and no more last minute runs to the supermarket. Relax time. I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday and that we all enjoyed our families
YUMMMM as always! This is gluten free too which is fabulous ā I need to make this ASAP!
btw, I am sure youāve already been nominated butā¦I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award in case you want to check it out š
https://naturalnoshing.com/2012/04/02/versatile-blogger-award/
Thanks Nora! How fun! š
I, happily, am not weird. I need this pizza immediately.
That is happy. š