Alabama Style BBQ Chicken Pizza

ByDavidOctober 18, 2019June 23, 2021

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Mix up pizza night with a batch of Alabama White BBQ Sauce! This Alabama Style BBQ Chicken Pizza is a delicious combination of flavors!

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Whenever someone says “bbq sauce,” my tastebuds instantly think of the sweet, smoky and somewhat tangy flavor of a good tomato-based sauce. While this style (known as the Kansas City style) is the most popular type of bbq sauce here in the States, it’s certainly not the only style. When I was just 6 years old, my family moved from Texas to the Carolinas. In Texas, barbecue refers to beef topped with tomato-based bbq sauce. In the Carolinas, barbecue refers to pork with mustard-based sauce. To this day, my Dad still tells the story of the first time he ordered bbq in the Carolinas. Needless to say, he was a bit surprised. (We’ll just leave that story there.)

Barbecue sauces change quite a bit by region, and the unique ingredients often trace back to who settled that particular area. For instance, the southern half of South Carolina was settled predominantly by Germans. Pulling from that German influence, BBQ sauce in this area is typically a mustard-based sauce. Very different than the ketchup-based sauces of the Midwest! Before we get to today’s recipe (mmm…Alabama Style BBQ Chicken Pizza!), let’s do a quick tour of barbecue sauces by region. Entire books have been written on this subject. I find it fascinating, but the goal here is just a quick recap:

Barbecue Sauces by Region

The Carolinas:As noted above, bbq sauce in the Carolinas is quite different. This thinner sauce is often used as a mopping sauce to baste the the meat (as opposed to a thicker sauce that gets added after the meat is cooked). Carolina BBQ sauce relies heavily on vinegar with little sugar. The result is a very tangy sauce that some folks (ahem, my Dad) call sour. In parts of South Carolina, mustard also works it’s way into the barbecue sauce.

Kansas City:Far and away the most popular type of barbecue sauce in the States, Kansas City-style sauces are typically thicker, tomato-based sauces that are brushed or poured on top of meat after cooking. A stop by the sauce aisle at any grocery store will yield dozens of options of Kansas City-style sauces.

Memphis:Another bastion of barbecue is Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis-based sauces are very similar to Kansas City sauces. However, Memphis-style sauces often have more vinegar, and they’re sweetened with molasses rather than sugar. As a result of the added vinegar, Memphis sauces are usually tangier and a good bit thinner than Kansas City sauces.

Alabama White:And then there’s Alabama White Sauce. This unique mayonnaise-based style was created by Bob Gibson of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q. This legendary bbq restaurant is a must-visit stop on any trip through northern Alabama. Heck, many BBQ-aficionados will make the pilgrimage to northern Alabama just to visit Big Bob Gibson’s. Alabama sauce is creamy and tangy, and it’s often served with chicken.

Focusing on the Alabama White sauce today, this Alabama Style BBQ Chicken Pizza is delicious! And I took a slightly different turn with this pizza today. I pulled out the cast iron skillet. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, then you know that I love my cast iron skillet. I use it for everything from cinnamon buns to steak. And now we’re adding pizza to that list. (Technically, this is the 2nd pizza as this Deep Dish Skillet Pizza happened a few years ago.)