~ This Sweet and Sour Chicken Flatbread Pizza is so many awesome things in one! It’s like your favorite Chinese sweet and sour chicken met up with a BBQ chicken pizza … all on top of a trendy and stylin’ flatbread pizza crust! Oh yeah … and did we mention it’s ready in under 30 minutes? No matter what your family is craving or how much time you’ve got … this uniquely delicious flatbread pizza has got ya covered! ~
* (Our little disclaimer …) We partnered with Flatout for this sponsored post, as part of their #FlatoutIsMyCanvas campaign, but all opinions are entirely our own. Thanks for supporting brands that support Two Healthy Kitchens and our mission of healthy eating! *
Love take-out sweet and sour chicken? Then this is for you!
Or maybe you always order a specialty BBQ chicken pizza from the local pizza parlor? Well then, this is for you, too!
And if you’re into all those trendy flatbread pizzas … yeah … also for you!
Total honesty: it’s actually for me. Because (as I scrawled in my recipe notebook when I was testing this recipe), I “love, love” this unique flatbread pizza! But no worries – I’m happy to share!
Plus, when you need dinner on the table fast … well, then this is definitely, definitely for you! With the help of a store-bought rotisserie chicken and some pantry staples, you can put this together in moments. And yeah … of course we have make-ahead tips … read on …
These Sweet and Sour Chicken Flatbread Pizzas come together so quickly! After pre-baking the crust so it’s extra crispy, you layer on the yummy sweet and sour chicken mixture, followed by cheese, pineapple, and just a little crumbled bacon. Sliced almonds are a finishing flourish, sprinkled on top so they get a bit toasty during the pizzas’ final bake.
If you hang out around here much, you know I’m kind of obsessed with Flatouts. They’re loaded with fiber and protein. And, they’re serious problem solvers!
When we need super-nutritious, nut-free snacks for the kids to eat in the schools’ nut-free classrooms, Apple Pie Cheesecake Pinwheels are perfect! Problem solved! Thank you, little flatbreads! And when life gets crazy (as in, pretty much every day) grab-and-go dinners and freezable make-ahead breakfasts are serious life savers. Hello, Flatouts … more problems solved! And when I was trying to find a way to make a bread bowl that wasn’t loaded with white carbs? Flatouts to the rescue again.
So, I shouldn’t have been surprised that those adaptable little Flatouts solved yet another dilemma for me. This time it was a pizza crust dilemma (really not a big problem … but dilemmas come in all sizes, friends!).
You see, I’ve been making various versions of this Pineapple Bacon Pizza for years, and I was soooooo very close to having my favorite version ready to share with all of you. The toppings were spot-on perfect (“love, love”!), but the stubborn crust wasn’t quite working. And then I sort of just got busy with other recipes and forgot about it for a while …
Until now!
Flatout asked me to create a recipe inspired by a video for their Crowd Pleasing BBQ Chicken Pizza … and as soon as I watched it, I realized that those clever little flatbreads had just solved yet another problem for me! Need a perfectly crisp, nutritiously whole-grain pizza crust? Grab a Flatout! No more crust dilemma! (Face palm … if only I’d thought of that two years ago …)
Check out the video below … or (if you’re having trouble loading this on our mobile site) click HERE to watch it on YouTube …
This Sweet and Sour Chicken Flatbread Pizza really has it all goin’ on. It’s a whole bunch of great things, all rolled into one!
A crispy-crunchy flatbread crust (fiber-loaded, of course!), plus lots of great, Asian-inspired, sweet and sour chicken flavor. And with that juicy pineapple, those crunchy almonds, and just a little smoky bacon, it’s a unique, tropical twist on the typical BBQ chicken pizza, too.
Yup … whether you’re into sweet and sour chicken, BBQ chicken pizza, flatbreads … or just quick-fix dinner solutions – it’s pretty much the perfect pizza dinner for anyone!
So here’s the scoop on how make it even healthier, faster, yummier …
Shopping and Cooking Tips
Pineapple – Be sure to choose pineapple that’s canned in 100% juice, not sugary heavy syrup.
Sweet and Sour Sauce – I was honestly really surprised at the huge variance in ingredients, nutrition profiles and even taste as I compared different brands of sweet and sour sauce for this recipe. No two were the same, and generally they weren’t even very close! It’s definitely worth checking the labels, as some national brands contain things like high fructose corn syrup (even as the first ingredient), while others actually have pretty simple ingredient lists. Also, whenever you make this recipe (or even a traditional Chinese sweet and sour chicken recipe), you might want to experiment with different brands, just to see which you and your family prefer in terms of flavor – some are sweeter, others much more tart and vinegary. One strategy that I’ve found helps to even out the flavor differences between brands: mixing ketchup and soy sauce into the store-bought sweet and sour sauce (as we did in this recipe) helps to round out those flavor differences a little.
Bacon – You can certainly use turkey bacon for this pizza, crumbling 1-2 cooked slices for this recipe. But, I often buy the little packages of reduced-fat real bacon bits (NOT Bac-Os), particularly since I don’t often use up entire packages of bacon quickly enough. The bits actually compare surprisingly favorably in terms of fat and calories, plus they offer a huge time savings and store well in the fridge, particularly when you need only a little at a time.
Chicken – As with so many of our recipes that call for cooked chicken breasts, I typically use rotisserie chicken when I’m making these flatbread pizzas. It’s a huge time-saver! Nearly any boneless, skinless chicken breasts will work in this recipe, though, so if you’re making chicken earlier in the week, you can always just cook a little extra to have on hand for these pizzas later in the week.
Make-Ahead Suggestions – These flatbread pizzas come together really quickly, but you can make them even speedier on busy evenings by prepping everything ahead. Just chop your chicken and onions and mix them into the sauce, storing that mixture in the fridge for up to a day or so, and measure out all of your other toppings, too. When it’s go-time … all you have to do for these pizzas is just top and bake!
So simple, so uniquely yummy!
Next time you’ve got a hankering for sweet and sour chicken, but the hubs is thinking BBQ, and the kids are begging for pizza … don’t call for carryout! Grab some handy little flatbread problem-solvers … and consider your dinner dilemma deliciously solved!
Sweet and Sour Chicken Flatbread Pizza
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sweet and sour sauce (see note)
- 1 tablespoon ketchup (natural or organic, see note)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1 cup diced, cooked chicken breasts (see note)
- 1/4 cup very thinly sliced sweet onion
- 2 Flatout flatbreads (we use Light Original)
- 1 cup shredded, reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend
- 1 8-ounce can pineapple tidbits in 100% juice, drained to yield about 3/4 cup pineapple
- 2 tablespoons cooked and crumbled turkey bacon or reduced-fat real bacon bits (see note)
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the sweet and sour sauce, ketchup, and soy sauce until thoroughly combined. Add chicken and onions, and stir into sauce until well coated.
- Lay both flatbreads on a large, parchment-lined baking sheet. (We use the parchment for easy clean-up, but you can skip it if you prefer.) Bake for about 8 minutes, until flatbreads are crispy. (You can adjust this time to suit your preferences of how soft or how crispy you like your pizza crust.)
- Remove pre-baked crusts from oven. Spread half of chicken mixture on each flatbread, then top with cheese, pineapple, and bacon, reserving a little cheese to sprinkle on after you've spread all your pineapple and bacon, so there's cheese throughout the toppings. Finish by evenly sprinkling the sliced almonds (we reserve those until the end so they stay crispy and have a chance to get a little toasted on top of the pizzas).
- Bake pizzas again for about 10 minutes more, until toppings are heated through and cheese is melted.
- Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
Sweet and sour sauce: Be sure to read the labels carefully, as store-bought sweet and sour sauces vary widely in terms of ingredient lists and nutrition profiles. Look for the cleanest ingredients you can find, avoiding those with high-fructose corn syrup or lots of preservatives.
Ketchup: We recommend purchasing natural or organic brands of ketchup whenever possible, in order to avoid brands that high-fructose corn syrup and other "questionable" ingredients.
Chicken: Nearly any boneless, skinless chicken breasts will work in this recipe, as long as they’re not overly flavorful from spices or marinades. Store-bought rotisserie chicken is a quick and easy option, or you can plan on cooking a couple of extra chicken breasts whenever you’re making chicken, so you have extra cooked chicken for this recipe without any extra work.
Bacon: If you choose to cook and then crumble your own bacon, we recommend selecting an organic or nitrate-free brand, and choosing lower-fat center cut bacon or turkey bacon. In a pinch, however, to save time, we often use packaged real bacon bits (NOT Bac-Os), particularly since we don’t often use up entire packages of bacon quickly enough. Either option will work in this recipe.
This Sweet and Sour Chicken Flatbread Pizza was inspired by the recipe for Pineapple Bacon Pizza, published in the February/March 2005 issue of Light and Tasty magazine.
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