As you may have figured out from my Balsamic Chicken post, I’m a big fan of pairing balsamic vinegar with chicken. So it should come as no surprise that when I saw Balsamic Chicken Pizza on the menu at Wildfire Brick Oven Pizza in North Providence, I fell in love. And luckily, that love did not end with the menu… it may be one of my favorite foods ever (and I’m not good at picking favorites… especially with food!)

The last time we went to Wildfire, my husband decided that I needed to try to recreate this pizza myself. That’s a tall order… and I wasn’t sure I was up to it. Not only did I feel that I could never measure up to the real thing, but I was also afraid of ruining this pizza that I love so much, and potentially having a bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended) for this pizza as a result.

Needless to say, I was curious enough to see if I could come close, so I gave it a shot. While it certainly didn’t come out as good as the original (my husband says it did, but I guess that’s why I keep him around), it did actually do it justice. The delicious flavors were all there, and I added my own touches to the pizza to make it my own, while still preserving what I loved so much from Wildfire’s version.

Disclaimer: My version is nowhere near as pretty as theirs. This is something I need to work on…

Balsamic Chicken Pizza Ingredients

Ingredients:

For pizza

  • 1 package fresh pizza dough (either white or whole wheat)
  • Flour
  • Corn meal (optional)
  • 1-2 cups tomato basil sauce
  • 1 cooked, sliced chicken breast
  • 1/2 cup roasted red peppers
  • 1/2 cup chopped broccoli (fresh or frozen)
  • 1 cup mozzarella cheese

For glaze

  • 1 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.

Flour a large surface and roll out dough into a large circle. Sprinkle corn meal onto pizza stone (if desired to help dough slide off stone – I never use corn meal and I don’t have any problems!) and place dough on stone. Reshape if necessary.

Spoon pizza sauce in center of dough and spread to cover pizza center. Use as much or little sauce as desired. Add peppers, broccoli, and chicken. Sprinkle whole pizza generously with cheese.

Place pizza stone in pre-heated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Balsamic Chicken Pizza on Pizza Stone

While pizza is in the oven, bring balsamic vinegar and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid reduces by half. Remove from heat and pour into bottle for drizzling (or if you’re good at using a spoon to drizzle, leave it in the pan!)

Take pizza out and drizzle with balsamic glaze. Return it to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes, or until edges of crust begin to brown. Slice and enjoy!

Balsamic Chicken Pizza

As I said, it's not as pretty as Wildfire's version, but it tasted great!

Have you ever tried to re-create a dish you loved from a restaurant? Did it compare to the original or fall flat?