Making The Papa John’s Papadia At Home | But Better

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. In a separate vessel measuring cup, add the yeast to 515 ml of waterwater that’s been heated to 95°F. Whisk until dissolved and then pour into the seasoned flour.

Using your hands, mix to evenly hydrate the flour and a rough dough forms. Knead by hand, in the bowl, for 3-5 minutes until it’s smooth and stretchable dough.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and shape into a loose ball. Place in the greased bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature to rise for 2 hours. After 2 hours, transfer the dough to the refrigerator to cold ferment overnight.

Generously dust a dough proofing box or baking sheet with flour.

Punch the dough down and separate into 6 even-sized pieces, each weighing about 235-250 grams. Shape each piece into a ball by turning the dough in a circular motion between the palms of your hands, keeping the dough in constant contact with the work surface to create a taut, round shape. Place each round of dough into the floured proofing box or on the baking sheet. Cover the proofing box with its accompanying lid or the baking sheet with an inverted baking sheet. Set aside at room temperature to proof for 3-4 hours.

Now is a good time to make your BBQ chicken and condiments.

Preheat a grill pan or a gas or charcoal grill over medium-high heat.

Season the chicken on both sides with whatever spices you prefer, along with salt and pepper.

Grill the chicken, flipping constantly, just until cooked through and the internal temperature reaches 165°F. Remove from the heat and optionally you can smoke the chicken.

If you choose to smoke the chicken, shape a small bowl out of aluminum foil and place inside a deep, high-sided hotel pan, roasting pan or similar. Add 2-3 1 inch pieces of compressed smoke wood into the aluminum bowl. Drop a perforated, shallow hotel pan into the deep pan. Place the grilled chicken thighs on the opposite side of the compressed wood. Lift the perforated pan slightly and with a blow torch, light the compressed wood on fire, drop the perforated pan on top and cover the pans with a lid or with aluminum foil. Set aside in a well-ventilated area to smoke for 15 minutes. Remove the chicken from the smoker and slice into ⅓”-thick pieces. Put the sliced chicken into a bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the brown sugar, ketchup, onion powder, smoked paprika, hot sauce, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar and 1/4 cup (60ml) water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and allow to reduce for 1-2 minutes.

Turn off the heat and season, to taste, with salt and black pepper.

Pour the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl and set aside until ready to use or store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

In a medium-size bowl, whisk together all the ingredients until thoroughly combined.

Set aside to serve immediately or store in the refrigerator in an airtight container until ready to use.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.

Turn off the heat and add the garlic and sage leaves.

Set aside at room temperature to steep for 5 minutes.

Place a pizza stone or baking steel in the oven and preheat to 500°F for at least 45 minutes prior to baking. Alternatively, preheat a pizza oven to 700°F.

Once the dough is proofed, generously flour both a work surface and a round of pizza dough.

Punch down the dough and leave a 0.25 inch perimeter of puffed dough - this is the pizza crust. Shaping your hands into fists, lay the dough over your knuckles and stretch and pull in a circular motion, allowing gravity to pull the dough down and shape it into a 12 inches round.

Generously flour a pizza peel.

Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of BBQ sauce onto the dough and, using the back of a spoon spread the sauce all over, leaving a clean perimeter for the crust.

In a medium bowl, combine the grated cheeses. Top the pizza with a generous handful of the cheese blend.

Add the peppered bacon lardons and some sliced, smoked BBQ chicken.

Drizzle with more BBQ sauce and top with a sprinkling of sliced onion.

Finish with a drizzle of olive oil.

Swiftly but carefully launch the pizza onto the preheated baking steel or pizza stone, if using a conventional oven. Or, launch the pizza directly onto the pizza stone of a pizza oven.

If baking in a conventional oven, bake for 4-7 minutes to fully cook the dough and melt the cheeses. Transfer to a cooling rack.

A pizza oven will require only a 25-second bake before turning it 180 degrees to bake for another 25 seconds. Immediately remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.

Brush the pizza crust with garlic-sage butter.

Fold the pizza in half to form the Papadia and serve with ranch dressing.