Seared apple chicken sausage, sweet and spicy BBQ sauce, savory umami-loaded shiitake mushrooms and caramelized onions, toasty garlic and a kick of red pepper, smoked gouda and creamy sharp blue cheese, all melted into crispy, chewy garlic naan or your favorite pizza dough.
This pizza delivers the beloved essence of game-day with its cheesiness, meatiness, sauciness, and spicy BBQ flavor, while elevated to a whole new level of sophistication with umami-glazed shiitake mushrooms, smooth and complex smoked gouda, and sharp and creamy blue cheese. Plus, the sweet touch of apple in the sausage brings home the flavor of autumn, married perfectly with the roasted garlic barbecue sauce, caramelized onions, and red pepper kick.
Translation: This distinctive sweet-savory-umami flavor combination may be the most exceptional version of a BBQ pizza I’ve ever made.
You can use your favorite pizza dough for the crust. See this post for a homemade dough recipe and tips for cooking with a pizza stone.
For an option that lends a perfectly crispy, chewy, soft yet hearty crust with no effort and no sacrifice on flavor, try pre-made naan bread like the roasted garlic naan I used here. (Confession: I haven’t touched homemade pizza dough in years because this is THAT GOOD.)
Sweet Sausage and Mushroom BBQ Pizza
Notes
This recipe uses pre-cooked naan for the crust and makes 2 personal-sized flatbread pizzas. See this post for a homemade pizza dough recipe and tips for cooking with a pizza stone.
Ingredients
- 2 naan breads (126g each) (such as Stonefire Roasted Garlic)
- 3 Tbsp BBQ sauce (such as Hak's Roasted Garlic)
- 1.5 tsp chipotle hot sauce (for extra heat, if desired)
- 3 oz fully cooked chicken apple sausage (such as Applegate)
- 1/2 tsp olive oil
- 4-5 oz shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 3/4 cup thinly sliced yellow onion
- sea salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- red pepper flakes, to taste
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- splash bourbon (or chicken broth)
- 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 oz smoked gouda, shredded
- 1 oz creamy blue cheese, crumbled
- chopped fresh chives (opt.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450º.
- Heat a medium to large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Thinly slice sausage links and cut the pieces in half. Sear about 3 minutes per side, until crispy. Remove from pan.
- Grease the pan lightly with olive oil and bring to medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and onion to the pan and spread them out as much as possible. Stir in a pinch sea salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes, to taste. Sauté until lightly charred. Stir in minced garlic and cook another minute. Add a splash of bourbon (or broth) and stir to deglaze the browned bits from the pan. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue cooking until mushrooms and onions are tender and the liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat. Stir in apple cider vinegar and Worcestershire sauce.
- Place naan flatbreads on a perforated pizza pan (one with holes).
- Mix BBQ sauce with chipotle sauce (for extra heat, if desired). Spread sauce evenly over the naan. Evenly distribute sausage and mushroom/onion mixture over the sauce. (Hold the cheese for now.)
- Bake at 450º for 8 minutes. Quickly remove pizzas from the oven, sprinkle gouda evenly over the toppings, dollop blue cheese on top, then return them to the oven.
- Reduce heat to 425º. Cook about 4-5 minutes longer, or until crust is crispy and cheese starts to bubble. Sprinkle with chopped chives.
- Transfer to cutting board, slice, and serve immediately. Reheat in the oven on the perforated pizza pan as needed for further crisping.