If you love buffalo wings, you’ll love this buffalo chicken pizza recipe! It’s spicy, cheesy, and perfect for game day or an easy weeknight dinner.
We’re a little obsessed with all things buffalo chicken around here. That’s why I’m really excited to share this buffalo chicken pizza. The combination of tangy sauce, tender chicken, and melty cheese is so good!
This recipe takes everything we love about buffalo hot wings, and turns it into pizza. Whether you bake it as a classic round or slice it into sticks for a crowd, it’s always a hit.
Key Ingredients
- Pizza Dough: Use your favorite store-bought dough or try our homemade pizza dough recipe. For a shortcut, our easy flatbread works beautifully, just bake it for a shorter time (see tips below).
- Chicken: This pizza is perfect for using leftover or rotisserie chicken. If you’re cooking chicken specifically for this recipe, check out our shredded chicken recipe or crockpot shredded chicken.
- Buffalo Sauce: We love using our homemade buffalo sauce, made with just four ingredients: butter, hot sauce, garlic powder, and honey. Store-bought buffalo sauce is also an option if you want to save time, although my homemade version really only takes 5 minutes.
- Cheese: A blend of mozzarella and cheddar provides the perfect balance of stretch and sharp flavor.
- Green Onion: Sliced green onions add a fresh pop of color and flavor. Chives work well here, too.
- Extras: For even more flavor, top your baked pizza with crumbled blue cheese and a drizzle of ranch dressing.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Tip 1: Make your own buffalo sauce. If you have a favorite wing sauce from the store, use it. I prefer this easy buffalo sauce, which calls for hot sauce (I use Frank’s Redhot or Crystal), butter, garlic powder, and honey to balance everything out. It lasts for a while in the fridge, allowing you to save leftovers and use them in all your favorite buffalo chicken recipes.
Tip 2: Use a hot oven. When I make pizza at home, I use a really hot oven for baking. I’m talking 450°F+, which gives you the best crispy crust on the bottom and golden spotty cheese on top. When heating an indoor oven to this temperature, there’s a good chance it will smell a little (because who has a spotless oven — not me!). I think it’s worth it for great pizza, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Tip 3: Turn this into pizza sticks. When we first shared this recipe, we shared it as pizza sticks, ideal for entertaining a crowd. Since then, we’ve actually made this buffalo pizza many times for dinner, forming it into the traditional round pizza shape instead. You can do either, but be sure to keep this recipe in mind for your next game day party!
More Recipes with Buffalo Sauce
- Baked Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Buffalo Chicken Bowls
- Buffalo Cauliflower Wings
- Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Shells
Buffalo Chicken Pizza
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This buffalo chicken pizza has all the flavor of hot wings but in pizza form! When we’re feeding a crowd, we like to bake it as a big rectangle and cut it into sticks for easy sharing. You can also make it as a classic round pizza and slice it into wedges. It’s delicious either way.
You Will Need
12 ounces refrigerated or homemade pizza dough
2 cups shredded cooked chicken, see shredded chicken recipe
½ cup buffalo wing sauce, see homemade buffalo sauce
4 ounces cheddar cheese, coarsely grated, about 1 cup
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, coarsely grated, about 1 cup
2 green onions, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese, optional
3 tablespoons ranch dressing, optional
Directions
1Preheat the oven: At least 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450°F (232°C). If you have one, place a pizza steel or pizza stone in the oven as it heats. Lightly dust your pizza peel or baking sheet with semolina flour to prevent sticking.
2Prepare the dough: If your pizza dough is cold, let it sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes to make it easier to stretch.
3Mix the toppings: In a medium bowl, toss the shredded chicken with buffalo sauce until well coated. Then, in another bowl, combine the cheddar, mozzarella, and half of the green onions.
4Shape the pizza: Lightly flour your work surface and gently stretch the dough into a round (or a rectangle for pizza sticks). Avoid using a rolling pin — instead, use your fingertips to press and stretch the dough from the center out, keeping as many air bubbles as possible for a light crust.
5Assemble: Transfer the shaped dough to your prepared peel or pan. Spread the buffalo chicken mixture evenly over the top, leaving a thin border around the edges. Scatter the cheese mixture evenly over the chicken.
6Bake: Bake until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted with golden spots, 6 to 15 minutes, depending on your oven temperature and setup.
7Finish and serve: Remove from the oven and top with remaining green onions and, if using, blue cheese crumbles. Drizzle with ranch dressing, slice, and serve warm. For pizza sticks, slice into 16 pieces before serving.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Oven temperature: We recommend baking at 450°F (232°C) according to the recipe, but if you’re comfortable with higher heat, increasing the temperature to 550°F (288°C) will yield even better results with a crispier crust and more bubbling cheese. If your oven has a vented hood, turn it on high. When we bake at 550°F, our fire alarm occasionally goes off from the burst of hot air when opening the oven door. If 550°F feels too high, use a lower temperature. Just keep in mind that this pizza bakes best between 425°F and 550°F (218°C to 288°C). The lower the temperature, the longer it will take to bake, and the crust will be a little less airy and bubbly.
- Spice level: After some of our readers have made this recipe and commented about their experience, there seems to be a significant range in how spicy store-bought buffalo wing sauce is. If you are sensitive to spicy foods, look for sauce labeled “mild.” You can also use less buffalo sauce.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
I love this recipe! It’s fantastic n I didn’t change anything! I lost my 1st copy so bad to come back for another try again. Thank you for your website, I go there for alot of your recipes they are fantastic!!!
Here’s a Tip…IF you use Franks Hot sauce…Or any other hot sauce…It helps ALOT If you put a stick of butter while heating up hit sauce in a pan…the butter calms down the acidic taste and spreads the hot sauce better ..hope this helps..it works for me and that’s how I get my kids to eat buffalo wings…works for ALL of the hot sauces for buffalo wings ..
This was absolutely delicious. I did try up the chicken so it would be crispy. Then we made half with homemade ranch as the base and half with extra buffalo sauce. Both were great. Thanks for the recipe?
I made this and mine turned out fabulous! I did alter the recipe by using 1/2 amount of buffalo wing sauce and 1/2 regular BBQ sauce. It was still very spicy but manageable. I will definitely make this again!
Great recipe! I had to use BBQ Rib Sauce instead though because in Australia, it’s hard to find Buffalo Sauce. Is there a better alternative that is available?
Hi Jeremy, Check out our hot wings recipe. We share a DIY buffalo sauce there — you can use that in place of store-bought buffalo sauce.
Great tip for shredding chicken/cooked meat. Put in your stand mixer with the regular “paddle” attachment and turn up the power slowly until it’s strong enough to shred the chicken, without redecorating the ceiling with meat!
I definitely will try this recipe. I wanted to share something yummy with you. I like to mix shredded chicken with buffalo sauce and some shredded Parmesan. Then roll it up egg roll style in egg roll wrappers and deep fry. My husband likes to dip them in ranch dressing.
If you REALLY wanna turn it into a “passion killer” along with all the green onions, add crumbled blue cheese! There’s lots of room to experiment, so add what you want. I also mix the sauce (all of it) with a shredded rotisserie chicken I buy in the deli of the grocery store, wrap it up, and let it sit overnight in the fridge so the chicken has time to soak up all the flavor of the sauce. Love this pizza! Every time I take it to a party it’s gone in 30 seconds haha 🙂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and tips for next time!
I just wanted to say that I found this recipe on Pinterest, and OMG it is amazing. I first made it for Superbowl, but it has since become a staple in our house and I’ve told several people about it!
Thank you!!
Nice! So glad you found us.
This is on regular rotation at my house! It’s fabulous with gorgonzala crumbles. If we don’t have any on hand, I add just a couple tablespoons of lite bleu cheese dressing to the base. So glad you shared this recipe!
We’re glad you enjoy it!
Wow I just found your web sight. You two are amazing. Thank-You for sharing all your wonderful recipes with us all. What a great sight. Thanks again.Sherri
Thanks so much! Love that you found us 🙂
I wonder if this dish would be good even once it’s cooled?
Probably. Although that depends if you like cold pizza 🙂 I do, but Adam really isn’t a fan.
I just made this for my family, ages 4 to 35 years old, and we loved it! I did make homemade dough and dipped the pizza in ranch for the young ones. Thanks for the delicious recipe!
I’ve used both canned chicken and shredded rotisserie chicken and it turns out well either way. I found this recipe a few months ago and have made it more than once, with it being a hit every time. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
That’s great Melissa. Thanks for letting us know 🙂
Wondering if I could use canned chicken breast for the shredded chicken?
Sure, that would work fine.
I made this tonight and followed the advice and only used 1/2 c buffalo sauce. It was perfect!
This looks so good! My stomach is rumbling and practically begging me to go to the store and pick up the ingredients to make this.
Made this for my 4 year old grandsons. Although, individually, they love the ingredients, they hated this.
Bummer. Sorry they didn’t enjoy it. Maybe switching for barbecue sauce would be better next time? Other commenters have had success with that.
I am going to make this right now!! I make chicken wing dip all the time, so I think I am going to add a little blue cheese to the mix. Has anybody ever tried to spread a little cream cheese on the partially baked crust before adding the chicken topping? I also use that in my dip recipe as well!
I see this comment was from 3 years ago, but I DID happen use cream cheese and it was delicious! I think the reason I used it was because I did not have buffalo sauce so I used Tabasco Chipotle Sauce and was afraid it would be too spicy so I added cream cheese to help cool it down. It was very good!!
What a great idea! Let us know how it goes if you try it 🙂
Going to make this tomorrow and was curious how everyone cooked their chicken breast? Thanks!
Hi Jenna — We usually roast in the oven, but you can also cook in a frying pan with in a little olive oil.
When I first saw the picture I thought it was made on french bread. I think I am going to give that a try. I bet it will be great on crusty bread also.
That would be delicious.
Waaay to spicy for us! Even for my husband who loves spicy foods. Next time I make it I’m going to use a blue cheese dressing base for the sauce and just drizzle the hot sauce over the chicken. But overall good idea/ recipe
Great idea to switch the sauces. Hope you enjoy it next time 🙂
Sorry this was too spicy. BBQ sauce would be delicious. Another option would be to look for mild wing sauce.
I’m confused bout the chicken. Do u use the fully cooked chicken strips then you shredded?
Yes, the chicken is cooked then shredded.
What are the nutritional break down for this recipe, meaning calories, protein, fat, etc?
Hi Sabrina, At the moment we do not provide nutrition info for our recipes on the site. As an alternative, we suggest that you take a look at CalorieCount.com. There, you can copy our recipe and paste it to get full nutritional info. Hope that helps!
I would like to try this .. Could you use hot sauce instead of the buffalo sauce?
Sure. Hot sauce is thinner and less “creamy” than buffalo sauce. It also might be a bit spicier. So, if you go with just hot sauce, the pizza will be a little drier (not in a bad way).
Recipe calls for 1/2. Onions on pizza, so ok WHERE does the other half go???
Sorry about that — the recipe was incorrect. We like to add half of the onions before baking then just before serving, we scatter the remaining half on top. The recipe is fixed now.
Oh this is heaven! I am so hungry now!! Thank you for sharing your recipes, love your site!
Wow, your pizza looks so yummy! I would have to try this recipe soon. Thanks a lot!
Next time, look for mild buffalo sauce. Also, you could serve with a little sour cream on the side.
Would you recommend pre baking the dough even if it’s homemade dough? Thanks!
Yes, we would recommend that you pre-bake the dough because the buffalo sauce is quite wet.
Thanks! I’m making this recipe tonight for the second night. My fiancé and I LOVE it.
I made this for the Super Bowl the other day and it was a hit! There was none left. I was a little bummed that it went so fast that I made another one the next day! The second time I made it I only had about 2/3 a cup left of buffalo sauce and my husband said it wasn’t as spicy. Which means that he liked it better because it was more gentle on his tummy.
I would love to give this a whirl with BBQ sauce as well. I think Munster cheese would be great with the cheddar instead of mozzarella.
I wish I would have seen the comments before I made this (it’s in the oven now 🙂 ) BBQ sauce sounds amazing, can’t wait to dig in!!
Everything looks amazing