If you're bored of eating the same old pizza toppings try this Chicken and Avocado Pizza. Get the recipe below.
Making pizza at home
What I love about pizzas is that they are so highly customisable. I've ripped apart the rules and come up with a delicious alternative to your regular pizza.
This Chicken and Avocado pizza is a real twist on a classic pizza recipe. It's creamy sauce packs a little heat thanks to the jalapeno which is balanced out by the mild, slightly salty goats cheese. It's flavours are slightly Tex-Mex, not something you'd usually associate with a pizza.
This pizza would work brilliantly as part of a main meal, served with salad and/or wedges. Alternatively serve on its own for an indulgent lunch!
Depending on how much time you have on your hands you can even reduce the amount of prep and cooking time by using a ready baked flatbread or high quality pizza base. I won't tell anyone if you don't!
What makes a pizza?
We all know pizza as a flat, bread base, topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. There may be other toppings but these are the 3 core elements. White pizza is the exception where tomato is omitted and cheeses like ricotta are used in place of stretchy mozzarella.
By looking at the photos in this post you may be debating whether or not this counts as a pizza.
This variation isn't too far from the tomato based or white pizzas we all known and love. It has a dough base, smothered in an avocado "sauce" and is topped with cheese and various other toppings. Surely that counts as a pizza...right?
While I’m not here to debate what truly makes a pizza, I am here to convince you that once in a while swapping tomato sauce for avocado is a fun and TASTY thing to do!
How to make a Chicken and Avocado Pizza
As with any pizza this recipe starts with a pizza base.
You can choose to buy ready made pizza dough or make it from scratch. (More instructions on that below).
Once you've rolled out your dough to the desired thickness.
To make the avocado sauce, place the avocado into a blender with the lemon juice, garlic, oil and jalapeno and blitz until a smooth. You don't want any lumps. It should be smooth and spreadable. Do taste it before spreading it on to your pizza base, you may want to adjust the seasoning (particularly the japapeno).
All that's left to do is then to top with the cooked chicken and goats cheese then bake until the cheese has melted slightly.
I've served mine with a drizzle of ranch dressing but this is optional. As with all pizzas you can tweak the toppings as you wish.
The recipe
Chicken and Avocado Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 small ball pizza dough
- 1 large avocado ripe
- 1 lemon juice only
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ jalapeno
- 1 handful chicken cooked, shredded
- 1 cup goats cheese soft, mild
- 2 tablespoon smokey ranch dressing optional
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6 / 180C.
- Roll out the ball of dough into a flat circle roughly half a centimetre thick.
- Place onto a baking sheet or preheated pizza stone.
- Bake without toppings for roughly 10-15 minutes or until beginning to turn golden.
- Scoop the flesh out of the avocados.
- Place the avocado into a blender with the lemon juice, garlic, oil and jalapeno and blitz until a smooth puree has formed.
- Remove the bare pizza base from the oven and spread with the avocado puree over the pizza base.
- Top with the cooked chicken and crumble over the goats cheese.
- Place back in the centre of the oven and bake until the chicken is piping hot and the cheese soft and melting.
- Drizzle with the smokey ranch dressing as desired.
Nutrition
Variations
Each time I make this pizza I do change it slightly. The best thing about pizza recipes of any variety is that you can adapt the recipe for your own personal tastes.
I used to make it with mozzarella but I find that a soft, mild goats cheese is a much nicer texture alongside the soft, creamy avocado. When wanting even more heat, I used to finish the pizza with a drizzle of jalapeno sauce. I still do this on occasion, but today I opted to drizzle it with a little smokey ranch dressing.
More pizza recipes
Make your own pizza dough
Take this recipe to the next level by using my simple pizza dough recipe. Find out how here.
Jesss says
This sounds literally amazing!! I love chicken & avocado.If you have any avocados left, might I suggest them sliced up in bacon sandwiches? Sounds strange but it's so good, haha!I'm loving your new background/layout/header, too! 🙂Jesss xo
Emmyw says
Thanks Jess! I felt like I needed something a bit more vibrant and fresh...on my pizza and as my header hahaha :PAvocado and bacon eh? I may have to try that 🙂 sounds weirdly delicious! xx
Ren Behan says
Great before and after pics. I love adding smoky sauces or even a good dollop of mayo on my pizza!
Emma Walton says
Mmmmmmmm I do like a bit of mayo too. Good suggestion. Glad you like it Ren 🙂
Janice says
Genius idea! After all, pizza is simply the Italian for pie and you can put what ever you like in or on your pie. I'm going to try the avocado idea, might even cheat and use a flat bread for an even quicker version!
Emma Walton says
I didn't know that Janice! I totally feel justified topping it with avocado now 😛 thanks!
MissPond says
What an amazing idea, I love avo so am totally convinced about swapping to an avo topping!
Emma Walton says
Woohoo! Another avo lover 😛 it should go on everything shouldn't it!
munchies&munchkins says
I think this looks epic Emma. I need to update all of my old posts - some of them you can't even distinguish what the dish is. I am intrigued enough to really want to try this out..avocado is starting to really grow on me.
Emma Walton says
Thanks Becky 🙂 I'm still amazed at how bad some of my old photos are. I actually took down some old recipes that were really, really bad and they have a placeholder now saying "under construction" when your food looks like sick you know you've got a problem lol! Slowly but sure making some of my old favourites. It's actually been quite good fun!
Diana says
Sounds like a lovely summer pizza! I LOVE everything with avocados so I would love to try this one.
Emma Walton says
Thanks Diana! We eat way more than our fair share of avocados in this house 😛 I think we currently have 5 or six in the kitchen waiting to be devoured!
Diana says
I don't have any avocados right now, will have to go grocery shopping this evening 🙂
Emma Walton says
Sounds like a plan 😀 enjoy!
Melissa says
This def counts as pizza! And your revised photo is just beautiful which makes me want to revise some of my older posts. Thought: if you fold it, it also becomes a (messy) taco! Or gordita? Regardless, major yum!
Emma Walton says
Oooooh I like your thinking Melissa 😉 I love messy food. Might give that a go next time! Glad you like the updated photos too. It's nice reflecting back and seeing how far along the photos have come!
lisa @garlicandzest.com says
You wouldn't have to twist my arm to get me to eat this! Looks wonderful!
Emma Walton says
Haha thanks Lisa 🙂
Lisa says
YUM!!!! I'd eat this everyday! And to answer your question....no! There's no such thing as too much avocado!!
Emma Walton says
Haha I'm glad you agree Lisa 😀
Dahn says
This counts as pizza in my book, it looks amazing and delicious
Emma Walton says
Glad you agree Dahn it really is delicious 😀
Aish says
I love chicken and I love avocado. Will definitely try this recipe
Emma Walton says
Oh you must Aish! Let me know what you think!
Bintu - Recipes From A Pantry says
I've never really thought about putting avocado on a pizza but how nutritious.
Emma Walton says
Once you try it you'll ask yourself why you didn't sooner! You must give it a go Bintu 🙂
Sarah Sears says
Yes, I'm bored of my current pizza toppings!!! And I can't seem to get enough of avocado at the moment so this is the perfect pizza for me! Thanks for sharing. P.S. I love the idea of revising your photos, I hope to do this when I get my new camera
Emma Walton says
Thanks Sarah 🙂 I'm glad you enjoyed the old pics 😛 definitely give this pizza a try and let me know what you think 🙂
Sarah @ Champagne Tastes says
This is totally a real pizza! Also it sounds DELICIOUS!!! I hadn't thought of using avocado instead of tomato sauce, but as I am avocado obsessed, I always have a stock of avocados in different stages of ripeness (to prevent the disaster that would happen if I didn't have a ripe avocado on hand). This sounds so crazy good- I'm going to start using a guac base on occasion!!!
Emma Walton says
Hahaha Sarah you sounds just like me!!! I have them all lined up in order of ripeness 🙂 I promise you'll love this. Give it a try and let me know what you think x
Pat says
Oh, I really like this pizza! Especially the quick-fix idea of using flat bread. 🙂
Emma Walton says
Thanks Pat - I'm all about making life easier 😉 so long as the food still tastes GREAT!
Elizabeth says
OOoh I am loving the sound of this! I need this on my plate soon!
Michele @ Flavor Mosaic says
It looks so easy and delicious.
Emma Walton says
Thanks Michele 🙂
Catherine says
This looks and sounds so good! I love all the flavors and ingredients. xo, Catherine
Emma Walton says
Hey Catherine thanks for stopping by. Glad you like it!
cakespy says
duuuuuuude if I was at a restaurant right now I would order this. I am not at a restaurant however, so I will just start to dream of buying the ingredients so I can make this for dinner! Beauty!
Emma Walton says
Hahah thank you so much :p best response to a recipe ever 🙂 you should definitely go out and buy the ingredients RIGHT NOW! You don't wanna miss out on this...
Margot Brown says
What a stroke of genius to pre bake the pizza base! Turned a great pizza into a phenomenal onE! Why is lateral thinking so hard?