We have this little pizza restaurant downtown that sells such delicious pizza, but by far my favorite thing on their menu is their pesto ranch. Ha! I was head oven heels for it when I started eating there, and I was so sad to learn I couldn’t enjoy it anymore once I found out about my egg allergy (in case you don’t know, ranch is almost always made with mayo, so it’s a no go for me!). So what’s a girl to do but make her own egg-free pesto ranch? And since she is macro counting, she might as well make it easy on the fat too! Seriously, this Skinny Pesto Ranch is to die for and goes great on almost anything. But, my favorite will always be on pizza!
This pizza recipe starts with a two-ingredient dough and then gets loaded with flavor from the pesto ranch, shredded chicken, bacon, chopped tomatoes, green onions, and mozzarella cheese. We have also topped this pizza with avocado after it cooks and that’s delicious too. Optional (but not in my book) is drizzling more pesto ranch over the cooked pizza or dipping the extra crust in pesto ranch. This time we made our pizza on the grill (yay for not turning on the oven during the summer!), but this can also be made in the oven (425 degrees for 20 ish minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cooked through).
Chicken, Bacon, & Pesto Ranch Pizza
Ingredients
Skinny Pesto Ranch
- 1/2 cup light sour cream (120 g)
- 1/4 cup buttermilk (or make your own by using 1/4 cup of low fat milk and mixing it with 1 tsp of vinegar. Allow it to "sour" for 5 minutes) (60 ml)
- 10 g fresh basil leaves (weigh basil first and then rinse well under water for most accurate measurement)
- 1/8 cup Parmesan Cheese (14 g)
- 1/2 ranch dressing seasoning packet (14 g)
Two Ingredient Dough
- 1 cup Self Rising Flour (120 g)
- 1 cup Non Fat Greek Yogurt (255 g)
Pizza Toppings
- Shredded Mozzarella
- Shredded Chicken
- Crumbled Bacon, or turkey bacon
- Chopped Tomatoes
- Chopped green onions
- Chopped Avocados, if desired
Instructions
Skinny Pesto Ranch
- Place fresh basil, Parmesan cheese, buttermilk, and ranch dressing seasoning into a blender and blend until smooth. Fold it into the sour cream until completely combined. Place back in the refrigerator for an hour to allow flavors to blend.
- Before serving, give it a good stir and check the consistency. If you would like to to be thinner, feel free to add buttermilk to reach desired consistency.
Two Ingredient Pizza Dough
- Mix flour and Greek yogurt together using a mixer with a dough hook. Start on slow and then increase the speed as dough starts to form. You may need to scrape down the sides to get all the flour incorporated. Keep mixing until it forms a soft, sticky dough. Note: If you don't have a mixer, you could also mix the flour and yogurt together until combined. Then flour a surface and knead the dough until a dough forms. Continue kneading for a few minutes. You may need to add additional flour if dough is too sticky to work with.
- Flour a surface very well and place dough onto the floured surface. Knead the bread a few times, adding additional flour if necessary. Divide dough into 4 equal balls (if you spray your hands with cooking spray the dough will not stick as much). Roll out dough with a rolling pin into a round shape (it doesn't have to be perfect!) until the dough is about 1/8 inch thick. You will need plenty of flour for this, as the dough can get sticky!
Preparing the Pizza
- About 10-15 minutes before you're ready to begin prepping the pizzas, heat all the burners on your grill to high heat. When you are ready to place the dough on the grill, turn half of the burners off, so you have some cooler and hotter spots. Place the dough onto the grill carefully (you may need to use two hands to do this, since the dough can be fragile. Be careful not to burn yourself!). Cook the dough for about 2-3 minutes, or until char marks start to form on the dough.
- Take the pizza off the grill and then begin assembling the pizzas. On the charred side of the dough, spread the skinny pesto ranch until almost to the edge of the pizza. Then top with desired amount of cheese, chicken, bacon, tomatoes, and green onions.
- Once pizzas are assembled, place them back on the grill, closing the grill to keep the heat in. Pizzas are finished when the dough is cooked through and the cheese is melted. You may need to watch the pizzas carefully and move them to a cooler spot if they are beginning to char too quickly.
- Take pizzas off the grill, drizzle with additional pesto ranch, cut, and enjoy!
