Chicken, Bacon, and Ranch French Bread Pizza

Jun
3

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Chicken, bacon, and ranch dressing is one of my favorite flavor combinations and this french bread pizza is divine. You must make it–today! (Or tomorrow, I’ll give you a little time.)

Of course, you can use store-bought french bread as the base, but c’mon, make some homemade french bread with Grandmother Bread. You won’t be sorry! To make french bread with Grandmother Bread, you add a bit less sugar and a tablespoon of olive oil per loaf in the recipe–you don’t want the bread to be sweet, and the oil gives a tenderness inside and a crispiness outside. A bit of a higher temperature also adds to the nice, crusty french bread style.
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How to make French Bread with Grandmother Bread:

How much pizza do you want to make? Choose the one-loaf or two-loaf recipe.

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One-loaf French Bread with Grandmother Bread recipe–

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 1/2 cups flour

Two-loaf French Bread with Grandmother Bread recipe–

3 cups warm water
1 tablespoon (1 packet) yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
7 cups flour

In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, salt, sugar, and oil. Let sit five minutes. Begin stirring in flour with a heavy spoon, a cup at a time, stirring until dough becomes too stiff to continue with a spoon. Add a little more flour and begin kneading. The amount of flour is approximate–your mileage may vary! Continue adding flour and kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let dough rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled. (Usually 30-60 minutes.) Uncover bowl; sprinkle in a little more flour and knead again before dividing, in two pieces if using the two-loaf recipe. Shape into french bread loaves. Sprinkle a large greased baking sheet with cornmeal if desired. (Sometimes I do this, sometimes I’m lazy. It adds a nice, traditional crunch to the bottom of french bread loaves.)

Place shaped loaves on pan and slide immediately into the oven, setting the heat at 375-degrees. Do not preheat. (The time while the oven is heating up is all the second rise time you need.) Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes. (How long your oven takes to heat up will vary your baking time as preheating is included in the 30-40 minutes–keep an eye on it.)

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How to make Chicken, Bacon, and Ranch French Bread Pizza:

(The following are the recipe amounts for one loaf, sliced open, to make two french bread pizzas. If you use two loaves–which makes four pizzas–double the quantities below.)

olive oil
garlic powder
1 cup ranch dressing
1 pint of canned tomatoes, cut up
1-1/2 cups of mozzarella, shredded
1 cup chicken, cooked and shredded
(season chicken as desired with salt, pepper, garlic, cayenne pepper, etc)
6 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
parsley

Slice french bread in half and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder.
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Spread ranch dressing over loaves then top with tomatoes.
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Lay on the mozzarella then the shredded chicken….
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….and the crumbled bacon.
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Scatter the top with a bit of parsley to make it pretty.
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Bake at 400-degrees for about 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Cut into slices.
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Try to not burn your fingers slicing it into pieces right away because the children are so eager.
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Note: This is also a really great make-ahead dish. You can cook and shred the chicken, fry and crumble the bacon, and bake the bread ahead of time and assemble it at the last minute, or even go ahead and assemble it then freeze the pizzas to bake whenever you’re ready.
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Try it! You’ll like it!