Easy BBQ Mushroom Pizza Made In A Cast-Iron

[Kendra] It's pizza!

I knew it was pizza...

I knew it was pizza.

I knew it was pizza,

because it looked a lot like pizza.

[upbeat music]

Today, we are making barbecue mushroom pizza.

If you, like me, are a child of suburbia

and you have deep, beautiful, fond memories

of California Pizza Kitchen,

you are aware of the barbecue chicken pizza.

It is a perfect food.

And this is a version that is vegetarian.

It is one of the fastest ways

that you can get pizza on the table at home.

[upbeat music]

First things first

is we're gonna prep our dough.

It has to bake for about five minutes

all by itself

before you load it up with toppings

so that it doesn't get soggy.

You gotta oil your pan a little bit.

I'm just gonna use my hands

to rub it around the bottom

and then a little bit up the sides.

Getting a little bit of oil on my hands

is a good thing,

because it's gonna help me work with the dough.

A lot of grocery stores

will sell you fresh dough like this

or you can go to your local pizza place

and they will often sell you dough

in a container like this

or a bag with some oil at the base.

So you want the dough to be room temperature.

This is a little chilly still,

but it's gonna work fine.

When it's room temperature,

it's more relaxed

and ready to spread,

and when it's cold,

it's gonna shrink back up from the sides.

If it's super elastic, you can just press it

into all the corners of your pan.

Or if you need a little bit more heavy duty work,

you can get your hands underneath.

I like to turn it back and forth like this

and just let gravity do the work of stretching it out.

If your dough tears, it's actually totally fine.

You can just squeeze the tear together

and patch it back up.

See, I've got a little hole here.

No problem.

Pinch that baby shut.

No one's the wiser.

Alright, I think we're good.

So we preheated our oven to 475,

and we're just gonna toss this bad boy in there

for about five minutes

[notification sound] to jumpstart the process.

That was our oven telling us that it's preheated.

We got new ovens and they sing now.

I love them.

We're mostly round.

We feel good about ourselves.

And now we're gonna go into the oven.

[upbeat music]

So the crust is in the oven.

About five minutes.

I'm de-oiling my hands.

And now we can prep all of our toppings.

First things first.

A fun plate of mushrooms.

You can use all cremini button mushrooms for this

if you want.

All shiitake mushrooms.

But a fun mix is nice,

especially because like

these frilly edges on a trumpet or an oyster

or a maitake get nice and crispy frilly in the oven

and that's really delightful.

You just want big hunks.

The mushrooms are gonna shrink in the oven,

so anything too small kind of just shrinks

into a crispy nothingness,

which will taste delightful.

But in terms of having

a fun visual of mushrooms,

you want bigger pieces.

So we are tearing our 'shrooms up,

and then we're gonna dress them

with a little bit of olive oil,

and that's just gonna help us

when we load them onto the pizza.

It's gonna help promote browning.

The same way that you would drizzle vegetables

with olive oil before you roast them on a sheet pan,

we're doing the same thing.

Mushrooms, in general, are quite meaty,

and they make a really great meat substitute.

I think that's why mushrooms

make such a great pizza topping in general.

Oh, I didn't get any of these weirdos.

I'm gonna keep them

with their hats on,

'cause that's a fun little look.

Alright.

Time to go pull that dough.

Perfect.

It's just set on the top

and that is gonna be perfect

to load up all of our toppings.

Letting the crust sit for a second

while we prep the rest of our toppings.

Just gonna drizzle our mushrooms

with a little bit of olive oil.

Alright, we'll set that aside.

Then we're gonna prep our onion.

We just wanna thinly slice this bad boy.

If you have like a half onion

or a quarter onion sitting in your fridge,

don't need a ton.

Unless you're a big onion gal,

in which case, live your life.

You just want that little pop

of allium-y sweetness happening on there.

It's a classic barbecue chicken pizza addition,

the red onion.

Again, we're probably not gonna use all of this.

For cheese, we'll just tear the mozzarella

as we're topping.

But the Gouda, we wanna grate.

Again, this is smoked Gouda.

It smells so specific.

Like processed, smoky, cheese, dairy flavor.

But in the best way.

Barbecue sauce is already a little sweet and smoky,

obviously, with all of the spices

and the flavors that are inside of it.

And this smoked Gouda just kind of dials that up.

And now we are ready to load up our 'za.

[upbeat music]

Our dough has cooked for its five minutes.

We have prepped all the ingredients,

and now all that's left

is to pile everything on.

Barbecue sauce.

Use whatever you have.

We're just gonna use the back of a spoon

to spread our sauce all over the 'za.

And leave yourself a little crust.

Or don't.

That's the thing about this

is you can just sauce it all the way to the very edge,

because part of what's fun about a pan pizza

is it kind of doesn't need there to be

a distinctive crust.

So I'm gonna get pretty close to edges here.

And then we're gonna do cheese.

Gonna start with our ginormous ball of mozzarella.

God, it makes me so happy

to tear this with my hands.

[Kendra inhales deeply]

Okay.

We're working with our hands here.

You want pretty full cheese coverage.

Nobody's like, I wish this pizza had less cheese.

And then just fill in all the gaps

with your Gouda.

Some onion.

I'm gonna go pretty heavy on the onion.

I think it provides a really nice contrast of flavor

with all the richness going on here

with our cheese.

And then 'shroom time.

I'm gonna get pretty heavy duty.

Again, they shrink in the oven,

so you don't have to be scared

about full-seeming coverage of mushrooms.

Wow.

We're gonna make this one

look like it's growing out of the pizza.

Perfect.

So we're gonna use all of that.

Poke some onion through

so we make sure

we get a little bit of everybody

in every bite.

And then I'm also gonna just

take a tiny bit of cheese on top.

Everything needs to be seasoned

with a little bit of salt

and a little bit of pepper.

It's fully loaded.

[upbeat music]

We're gonna bake this bad boy

for 16 to 20 minutes

and then we're gonna broil it

so that the top gets super crispy.

In we go.

It's looking really nice.

Crisping around the edges.

You can see the mushrooms are starting to crisp.

The cheese is bubbling.

We are just gonna turn on the broiler now.

Make sure it's in the center

underneath the heating element

so it gets the full strength of that power.

Broiling is usually a quick endeavor,

especially if you've already melted the cheese.

All you're doing is browning it

and crisping it at the end.

Alright.

This mushroom, portions are super crispy.

We've got this bubbly, juicy, cheesy bit.

We're nice and brown around the edges.

I think it looks great.

[upbeat music]

So we're just gonna finish it off

with a little bit more barbecue sauce.

We just put a little bit of barbecue sauce

in a bag

and then we're gonna nip off the end,

make it look cute,

make it look like they do it at CPK.

And then we're gonna finish

with some cilantro

over the top for freshness.

Not being shy with the cilantro

is a good move here,

because everything else is rich, smoky,

and cheesy and melty.

So something green,

something bright and fresh

is a nice thing to include.

And then I'm gonna do a sprinkling of red pepper flakes

on at the end.

I am a big sprinkle red pepper flakes

over your slice type of gal.

And there you have it.

Barbecue mushroom pizza.

I'm gonna use a fish spatula

to help me loosen all the cheesy bits

and then we're just gonna slide

Woo!

Hell, yeah.

Look at these crispy edges.

I'm just gonna slice it all up.

You know? Why not?

Get ready for a party.

Oh, yeah.

It smells like barbecue sauce.

It smells really smoky

and a little sweet,

which is really nice.

Z, do you wanna come eat some pizza?

What a day to be alive.

There's some fun little crispy bits on the edges.

Mm. Mm.

Oh my god.

Mm.

That is delicious.

The barbecue sauce plus the mushrooms

is like very meaty.

Yeah.

It feels very substantial.

Mm-hmm.

And I like, also,

the base is very well cooked, too.

The red onion, the ooze-y cheese.

It's perfect. Oh, it's good.

I'm taking this with me.

You can.

Have a nice day.

Okay. Have a nice day.

Yum.

This is a great pizza to make

if you want dinner on the table quick,

but you also want it to feel substantial

and without any of the effort

that comes with cooking meat for dinner.

I think this is absolutely your move.

[upbeat music]

Pizza party success!