California Club Pizza

I have found a way to mix several of my favorite ingredients all in one dish and it’s close to perfection. Pizza – check. Avocado – check. Bacon – check. Cheese – check. Lettuce – check. Tomatoes – check. Ranch dressing – check. Chicken – check. Delicious – check.

This is also a very simple weeknight dish, thanks to some shortcuts. You can make it more involved by making the crust from scratch and roasting your own chicken, but there are times when it’s nice to have something really simple to prepare, that still tastes fresh, but can be made on a busy weeknight.

I started with a Boboli pizza crust. Sometimes I prefer a nice, homemade crust charred on the grill or baked in the oven, but when I want to make something quick, I go for the Boboli. I like the taste, and because this pizza is very topping-heavy, the Boboli holds up well.

I begin by cooking up some chopped up center cut bacon in a skillet. I prefer the center cut bacon because it’s a lot leaner than regular bacon and has better flavor than turkey bacon. I am not a fan of “bacon bits” or precooked bacon, so you won’t find any of that on this blog. It doesn’t take very long to cook the bacon and the taste can’t be compromised. If you’re going to have bacon, have bacon.

Sometimes I either grill or roast chicken myself, but other times I stop at the market deli and pick up a roasted chicken, which is what I did tonight. I think that roasted chicken has such wonderful, smoky, deep flavor and it’s great for pizza, tacos, tostadas, quesadillas, fresh salads, on sandwiches, or even just on its own.

I add some shredded cheese, the chopped cooked bacon and some shredded chicken to the crust and bake according to the crust package instructions.

It only takes 10 minutes to bake.

Doesn’t that look amazing already? Well, we’re not done yet. I slice up the pizza and then add fresh romaine, Roma tomatoes, sliced avocado and drizzle the entire thing with Ranch dressing. It’s amazing and it’s like having salad and pizza all on one plate. I would love to hear from you if you give it a try. Leave me a comment and take a photo and tag #ketchumkitchen on Instagram.

I’m not including a lot of measurements, because it all really depends on how heavy you like the toppings on your pizza and that’s a very individual thing. I would leave the fresh ingredients off the pizza and let everyone add their own toppings as you serve and that way any leftovers can be heated up without the fresh ingredients.