Lately, I’ve been obsessed with making my own dough from scratch. It’s actually easier than you think, without all the extra unnecessary ingredients from storebought or premade. The only thing really missing is, yes, convenience – it does require a bit of your time. Yet I convinced myself that I would never buy the storebought/premade again, and honestly, I haven’t looked back.
This scratch dough recipe is only 5 ingredients, 4 if you leave out the “pinch of salt”. But you don’t need to make your own dough in order to make this flatbread. Stores like Publix, and other markets, now have pre-made dough, or even flatbreads, in their bakery section. One of those will do just fine!
Plus, if you’re itching for an idea on what to use that leftover chicken for – this is an easy one to whip up that the family will enjoy! This flatbread is so crispy, flavorful, and light, it’s virtually fail-proof. Originally, the dough recipe in this post was doubled. I realized that made WAY too much dough, so I only ended up using half for TWO flatbreads. So I went ahead and halved the recipe for you, which will still make you two delicious BBQ chicken flatbread of 3-4 servings (or really 2 if you’re prepared to devour your own – I will never judge).
Crispy bbq chicken flatbread + fail-proof dough from scratch
Crispy BBQ chicken flatbread (and dough from scratch)
Ingredients
- 1 cooked chicken breast shredded (~1 cup)
- 1 small red onion
- 1 1/2 cups pepper jack cheese shredded
- 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese shredded (yellow or white)
Ingredients for dough recipe
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- .25 oz active yeast (some come prepackaged), or 2 tsp
- 1 cup warm water luke warm to touch (not hot)
- 1/8 cup white sugar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Recipe instructions for flatbread dough
- Start by adding the yeast to a bowl with the 1 cup of warm water. Stir and allow the yeast to settle for 5 minutes. In the meantime, using your kitchen mixer, add in 1 1/4 cups of flour, 1/8 cup sugar and salt. Mix together those ingredients.
- After 5 minutes, carefully add in the yeast water to the mixer (make sure the mixer is off at this point). Then mix at the lowest setting. At this point your dough will appear more as a liquid (this is OK!)
- Add in the 2 tbsp of olive oil and scrape the sides with a spatula when necessary. Once thoroughly mixed, add in the remaining 1 1/4 cups of flour. At this point your dough will have thickened (this is what you want!)
- The dough should not drip, but it will be sticky to the touch, so add flour to your hands and on the surface you will be kneading the dough on. Knead the dough (adding more flour when necessary to reduce stick), then place in a large bowl (coated with olive oil to help against sticking) covered in plastic wrap.
- Allow the dough to sit and rise in the fridge for at least an hour.
Recipe instructions for flatbread
- With either fresh or leftover chicken, ideally it needs to be shredded once cooked. Place cooked, shredded chicken in a ziploc bag, and add about 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce to the bag to coat the chicken. Place bag in the fridge to marinade.
- If you are using the scratch dough, first remove from the bowl onto a pre-floured surface. Cut dough in half – this allows you to make either 2 separate flatbread, or save half for another use. If you are store bought dough, continue to follow the next step. You can also use pre-baked, store bought flatbread from the bakery, or other alternatives to dough.
- Lightly flour dough and surface as needed. With a rolling pin, or fingers, roll out dough into a thin 1/2 inch thickness. You want it thinner than a pizza crust, but not too thin where it breaks the dough. If it breaks, simply add water to your fingers, pinch and fold the area to fix. Don't worry about shape – the funkier the better!
- Be sure to spray cooking spray or rub olive oil onto to baking sheet before placing dough.
- Add the BBQ sauce to the dough as your base (add as much as desired). Then evenly spread out the shredded chicken, and diced or slivered red onion.
- Decide on one of two options for the cheese: 1. Add the cheese prior to baking, which will then caramelize the cheese rather than it be "gooey". 2. Add the cheese to the flatbread 20 minutes into baking, which will only melt the cheese. I went with caramelizing the cheese – it was delicious! (Optional, yet recommended!) Baste melted butter and garlic on the crust prior and once during baking.
- Bake at 350 for approximately 25-28 minutes based on desired crispness.
- Allow to cool before cutting – then serve and enjoy!
