Chicken Pesto Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipe Plus 9 Others

This chicken pesto pizza is so dang tasty – and better than any pizza delivery!  It is made with a simple whole-wheat pizza dough, homemade pesto sauce, grilled chicken, fresh mozzarella cheese, and topped with lemony arugula.

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It’s Friday – pizza night – right?  There is something about the weekend and pizza that seem to go together perfectly.  I’m not sure why that is, but it’s just the way it is.  If I am being honest, my husband and kids are HUGE pizza fans, and every once in a while my hubby likes to have pizza night with them; I on the other hand like it, but I very rarely eat it, and usually opt out of pizza night at our house – I know, LAME.

Pizza is one of those foods that I have a hard time just eating one slice, and it doesn’t get along with my waistline…basically pizza makes me one of “those girls.”  However, if I make homemade pizza at home, I have no problem and no guilt eating a couple of slices on Friday night pizza night.

The lemon arugula is obviously optional, but I STRONGLY recommend giving it a try.  It takes this pizza from good to extremely/insanely delicious.  Trust me, even though it sounds strange, the arugula on top is so GOOD!

A few notes about this recipe:

• I make the crust from scratch and it is super simple…but I understand if you don’t want to or don’t have time – I totally get it.  My local grocery sells a fresh pre-made whole * wheat pizza crust that I have used when I am in a hurry.
• I  grill my chicken myself, usually the day before, and used leftovers for the pizza…but a rotisserie chicken would work as well, or any pre-cooked chicken.
• I also make my own pesto sauce, it is once again super easy, but you could also use store-bought pesto.  I haven’t done that personally, but I am sure it would work just fine.
• I used fresh mozzarella because I love the taste on the pizza, but any mozzarella cheese would work
• Finally, this pizza crust recipe makes a thicker pizza crust.  I like my pizza crust thinner, so I use some of the crust to make my kids their own personal cheese pizza – there is no way my little girl would eat a pizza with green pizza sauce on it.

Please comment below and let me know what you think of this recipe and if you make it all from scratch or not – no judgments here!

You may also like these recipes:

9 of the Best Whole Wheat Banana Bread Recipes

9 of the Best Whole Wheat Pancakes for Breakfast

9 of the Best Ever Whole Wheat Waffles for Breakfast or Anytime

Whole Wheat Flour Recipes Index (Clean Eating and Good)

9 of the Best Whole Wheat Bread Recipes Even a Beginner Can Make

Chicken Pesto Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

This chicken pesto pizza is so dang tasty – and better than any pizza delivery!  It is made with a simple homemade pizza dough, homemade pesto sauce, grilled chicken, fresh mozzarella cheese, and topped with lemony arugula.

• Author: Rebecca Baron
• Prep Time: 30
• Cook Time: 25
• Total Time: 55 minutes
• Yield: 6 1x
• Category: Main Dish
• Cuisine: American

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

For the Crust

• 1 packet yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp coconut sugar * (or light brown sugar)
• 1 tsp salt

For the Pizza

• Homemade Pesto Sauce
• 4 ounces shredded chicken
• 4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
• 1 medium tomato, sliced
• Fresh basil, minced
• 1 Pinch crushed red pepper flakes

For the Lemon Arugula

• 3 heaping cups arugula
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Real Salt * and pepper to taste

Instructions

For the Crust

1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water in the medium bowl (approx. 5 minutes)
2. Stir in the remaining ingredients and incorporate well
3. Allow to sit for 15 minutes, knead a few times, and spread out onto a pizza pan (I used a pizza stone, but any pizza pan or baking sheet would work)

For the Pizza

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Spread a thin layer of the pesto sauce onto the prepared crust
3. Add the remaining toppings
4. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until crust starts to lightly brown

For the Arugula

1. Combine all of the ingredients for the arugula in a large bowl.
2. When the pizza is done baking and slightly cooled, top with the arugula

Keywords: Clean, Simple

9 of the Best Ever Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipes

I realize that all of these recipes are quite similar. It seems that you can’t change a pizza dough recipe very much.

On the other hand there some significant differences. Some of them have cornmeal in the ingredients. Most of the time the cornmeal is used when the dough is rolled out. The cornmeal keeps the dough from sticking to the table or whatever you’re rolling the dough out on. The cornmeal also adds a little texture and a bit of flavor and makes the pizza more like a pizza you would buy already made.

Another difference is that some of these recipes are made with whole wheat flour and some are made with whole wheat white flour. Whole wheat white flour isn’t anything new but it’s a flour that a lot of people haven’t heard about. It’s also a little bit difficult to find in stores.

It isn’t new to my mother. She has been making bread with it for years. whole wheat white flour is just like whole wheat flour except it’s white. The advantages are that the texture is much finer and so it is more like regular all-purpose flour. It is also white not brown so children and picky adults are more likely to try it. It also tastes more like regular all-purpose flour.

My mother doesn’t buy the flour she buys the wheat and then grinds it herself in a wheat grinder *. There are many advantages to grinding the wheat yourself. It’s a lot less expensive once you’ve made the investment of buying the wheat grinder *. The wheat is a lot less expensive to buy than the flour.

Another advantage is that if you grind the wheat and then you use the flour to make the pizza dough right away, the flour retains the nutrients and the flour is much healthier for you.

After the wheat is ground into flour and it sits in the factory and the warehouse and the store until you buy it, it loses a lot of its nutritional value. It only takes a few minutes to grind enough wheat to make a batch of pizza dough or bread. That wheat grinder * grinds very quickly.

If you want to try grinding your own wheat just buy what they call wheat berries or whole wheat. Where we live in Utah you can buy wheat berries in grocery stores. It’s very common here, I don’t know about where you live. My mom buys a 50-pound bag. A bag of wheat berries will store indefinitely almost as long as it’s kept dry. A pound of wheat berries will make a lot more than a pound of flour, that’s why it’s so economical.

Another difference with these recipes is that although most of them are made with honey, some are made with coconut sugar. That’s because I chose recipes that are all clean eating. Clean eating is all about eating food that isn’t processed but in it’s purest form.

This means that clean eaters eat honey, or maple syrup or coconut sugar instead of regular sugar. Whole wheat flour either white or brown is not processed as much as all-purpose flour and is, therefore, a lot more healthy. Whole wheat that isn’t ground yet is not processed at all. That’s the healthiest way to go.

Another difference is that one of these recipes is made with baking powder instead of yeast. Many of these recipes have a recipe for the toppings too, of course, they are all very different. So have fun and pick the recipe that catches your eye and make some homemade pizza.

You may never go to the pizza store again! It’s a lot of fun because you can choose the toppings you want and please everyone in the family. No one says you even have to put the same toppings on the whole pizza, change it up and have fun!

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipes

1. Whole White Wheat Pizza Dough – Gimme Some Oven

Water – Yeast – White Whole Wheat Flour – Honey – Olive Oil – Cornmeal

This pizza dough has a thicker crust than some but if you like your crust thinner, just divide the recipe in half or make 2 pizzas with it. You can even freeze the dough either rolled out or in a ball. If you freeze it in a ball you’ll have to let it defrost in the refrigerator for a few hours. Whereas if the dough is rolled out you can just put the toppings on and bake it. Of course, you know that a pizza pan takes up a lot more room in a freezer than a ball of dough. Whichever best fits your needs, go for it.

2. Whole Wheat Spinach and Artichoke Pizza – Half Baked Harvest

Water – Yeast – Honey – White Whole Wheat Flour

You’ve heard of Taco Tuesday, right? Well, I purpose that we start a new fad and call it Whole Wheat Pizza Monday. Let’s do it, let’s make it a “thing”.

3. Whole Wheat Ultimate No-Knead Pizza Dough – Handle the Heart

White Whole Wheat Flour – Yeast – Olive Oil – Honey

You don’t have to knead this pizza dough, which makes it ridiculously simple. It’s just as tasty, chewy, crispy and as light as a regular pizza crust.

4. Whole Wheat Thin Crust Pizza Dough – Sugar-Free Mom

Whole Wheat Flour – Yeast – Olive Oil – Water – Coconut Sugar

This is made with coconut sugar instead of regular processed sugar or honey. It’s just a good, maybe even better. Coconut sugar is a good clean whole food. Give it a try, you’ll never go back to regular sugar. You have to have a little bit of sugar to make the yeast work.

5. How to Make Whole 100% Wheat Pizza Dough – Ambitious Kitchen

Milk – Honey – Olive Oil – Yeast – Whole Wheat Flour – Cornmeal

This blogger gives very detailed instructions on how to make the pizza dough. So if you’re a beginner this is a good one to start with.

6. Whole Wheat Best Pizza Dough – House of Yumm

Water – Yeast – Honey – White Whole Wheat Flour – Salt – Olive Oil

What do you like to put on your pizza? Every tried spinach? Try putting sliced fresh tomatoes on your pizza instead of pizza sauce or tomato sauce. My nana who is Italian made it that way. It’s actually pretty good. The tomatoes cook up and are quite tasty.

7. Whole Wheat No-Yeast No-Rise Pizza Dough – The Conscientious Eater

Whole Wheat Flour – Milk – Olive Oil or Applesauce

All of these homemade pizza recipes are a good healthy alternative to take-out pizza. You’ll be surprised how much money you’ll save and how good it tastes. You won’t gain as much weight either. Those take-out pizzas have a ton of oil on them. That’s how they cook them and get them off the pan or cooking stone so easily. We don’t need to do that when we make our own. It’s much healthier.

8. Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough – Clean Eating Mag

Honey – Water – Yeast – Whole Wheat Flour – Vital Wheat Gluten

I really like how we can choose our own toppings and put as much or as little as we want. Go ahead, use your imagination and make the perfect pizza, at least in your opinion. And in my opinion, that’s all that matters.

9. Hot Air Balloon Pizza – Sweet Phi

Olive Oil – Cornmeal – Whole Wheat Flour

Have you ever thought about making a pizza in a different shape? Come to think of it I’ve only ever seen round or rectangle pizza. Of course, round tastes better. I love eating the point. It has all the toppings on it and that much crust. I know people that think the crust in the best part. So each to his own. Now you know how to make a pizza in the shape of a hot air balloon. You can always make any shape you want. Maybe you’d like to make your child’s favorite animal. You could also teach your children their shapes by making individual pizzas into different shapes.