Heart-Healthy Chicken & Veggie Pizza
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Want to enjoy a pizza but not have it blow your diet? The key to a healthy lifestyle is not to restrict, but to incorporate! This Heart-Healthy Chicken & Veggie Pizza is thin crust with lots of healthy toppings that will make you full and satisfy that pizza craving!
I was up for a challenge and went for it: Can I really make a healthy pizza? Yes, you see those recipes for makeshift pizzas all over the Internet for everyone who’s looking to go on some sort of diet. However, I wanted not only to make a healthy pizza, but to make one that is true to my style of cooking and is still tasty.
I believe with this Heart-Healthy Chicken & Veggie Pizza that it’s mission accomplished! I’m still using my favourite pizza crust and toppings with only a few modifications (and believe it or not - additions!) to make this pizza delicious and great for your health. If you want to make a lifestyle change but don’t want to cut pizza out of your life, then there is no reason to do so! Depending on your situation, you can easily incorporate this Heart-Healthy Chicken & Veggie Pizza any time you would like! I mention in my free motivational guide to explore your potential in the kitchen, Make Cooking Fun!!, that being realistic with your goals is key. While I am referring mostly to cooking, this can also mean to cravings. Cutting things out of your diet entirely is a recipe for disaster, but allowing yourself flexibility to enjoy tasty foods will help tremendously. When you see that you have the power to cook delicious food that is actually nutritious, you’ll be amazed!
Definitely be sure to love your heart with this healthy pizza recipe as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge. You can get started for free by signing up to my email newsletter today, and you’ll receive all of my latest recipes right to your inbox!
For a step-by-step visual of how to make the pizza dough, topping and broiling the pizza, be sure to watch the video at the bottom of this post! If you’re not already, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, and press the bell button to be notified when all of my video recipes are live! Let’s get cooking!
Can a Pizza really be healthy?
Depending on where you’re from in the world, you know pizza as an epic dinner. It’s the preferred choice for family gatherings and parties. You may think that there’s no way a pizza can be healthy. Well, let’s see what we can do to modify that!
After wanting to all my life, I finally went to Italy, and I observed how the pizzas were prepared there. The crusts are definitely on the thinner side, and toppings aren’t overloaded, especially the cheese. While it’s not the crazy social media cheese pulls or a loaded stuffed crust pizza, I really enjoyed the light pizzas so I could taste all the flavours!
Homemade crust: A homemade pizza is truly the language of love, in my opinion. Using your own crust really makes a difference! You have the choice of the type of flour you’re using and the thickness of the crust, plus you’ve got no preservatives. Now, you may be asking: whole wheat or white flour? Everyone praises whole wheat to be the ultimate nutritional choice, but if you’ve got lots of veggies on top, then the fibre you wouldn’t get from the whole wheat crust is negligible. Plus, if you want to stick to your healthy lifestyle, then you have to enjoy it! If you prefer white flour, then go ahead and do that. What will actually really help our health in this homemade crust in particular is the fermentation, coming from the “poolish.” This step is preliminary to making the dough.
Size: The smaller the portion the less calories you will eat! If you want the satisfaction of eating an entire pizza, simply use less dough to make it. This pizza is smaller than the usual pizzas I make. Of course, just to be clear, depending on what your body needs and your current health status, I’m not giving a blanket statement to eat the whole pizza.
Homemade sauce: To be fair I always make my own pizza sauce, and that’s the way to go! You avoid preservatives, artificial colour dyes, and who knows what else. Plus, it’s easy and tasty!
Moderate amount of cheese: Yes, cheese pulls are fun, but even part-skim mozzarella cheese is high in calories and saturated fat, and each little bit will add up quickly.
Olive oil: Although calorie-dense, olive oil is excellent for your heart health. This reduces bad cholesterol and raises the good one. We’ll be brushing some olive oil on the crust and drizzling it over the pizza.
What Kind of Pizza is Bad for heart health?
As much as I love to order Pizza Hut and Domino’s online, those are honestly the bad ones for heart health. They are factory-made and full of chemicals that we can’t pronounce, especially in their meats! If you’re going to order from a pizza chain, then your best bet is to order as little toppings as possible to keep the ingredient list small. However, let’s be honest and admit that the doughs are very crusty and buttery unless you get the thin crust. Pizza from your favourite pizza chain can be a special occasion when you don’t want to cook dinner and get delivery, but you really should make it a once-in-awhile situation.
Let’s be fair and not only demonize the pizza chains. Even if you’re making a pizza yourself, you can still make it unhealthy. For instance, by packing on high fat cheeses, processed red meats like sausage and pepperoni, and loading up the butter on the crust, you’ve probably got the most delicious masterpiece ever, but it will not help with your heart health!
What kind of pizza dough is used for Heart healthy Pizza?
The dough I’m using is the Napoletana pizza dough. If you’ve seen my other pizza recipes, then you know that it’s my absolute favourites! I know that I need to try others, but for the purposes of the heart-healthy pizza, then this was the best choice. I’ll quickly go over it, but if you want more details, then be sure to check out the complete recipe.
What I will be doing here to enhance the “healthiness” of this pizza is adding a “poolish” to the dough. A poolish is a starter that ferments for 18 hours, made with water, salt and yeast. Fermentation aids with digestion, and with respect to the flavour of the crust, it definitely helps with that!
What about toppings?
Here’s what to keep in mind for toppings on your healthy pizza:
Cheese: As much as I love cheese, when we need to moderate the amount of cheese for our pizza in this case. After being to Italy, I noticed that they hardly put any cheese on their pizzas! I’m using part-skim mozzarella, which has protein and a lower amount of fat, plus calcium to support strong bones.
Vegetables: Here we have tomatoes, onions, and green peppers.
Protein: We’ll add pan-fried chicken breast, cut into cubes.
Greens: Arugula and basil for garnish.
Other Topping Ideas
Vegetables: You could also do cherry tomatoes, other pepper colours, mushrooms, or zucchini.
Greens: Spinach or kale.
Protein: For vegetarians, you can do tofu. For meat-eaters, another lean protein is extra lean ground beef, turkey breast, or pork tenderloin. For pescatarians, shrimp is a lean protein choice!
What Temperature do we need to cook the pizza?
To get the perfect pizza crust, you want to preheat your oven to 500 F, or the highest temperature your oven can reach. Then, when you will be cooking the pizza, change your oven to the “Broil” setting.
Tools Needed to Make Heart-Healthy Pizza
Baking steel and/or baking stone
Wooden pizza peel and a metal peel
Ingredients for a heart-healthy pizza
Scroll to the bottom of this post or press the “Jump to Recipe” button for FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD that has all ingredients and their quantities, plus you can save the recipe for later. You’ll also be able to scale the recipe based on how many pizzas you’re looking to make so that you have the right amount of toppings!
For the Pizza Dough
00 flour or bread flour: The preferred choice is 00 flour, but if for whatever reason you can’t find it, then feel free to substitute with bread flour.
Salt
Lukewarm water (60-70F) + ~200 g/mL lukewarm water (60-70F)
For the sauce
For the healthy pizza
Mozzarella cheese: Part-skimmed mozzarella is key here so that you get the flavour of a classic pizza but without overdoing the greasiness.
Chicken: We’ll first pan-fry our chicken breast and then we’ll cut this into small pieces to add over the pizza.
Vegetables: Tomatoes, green peppers, and onions.
Arugula: Some greens to be added at the end so that you keep the crunch!
Olive oil & minced garlic: To brush on the crust when the pizzas have finished baking.
00 flour or bread flour: As required for dusting.
How to Make heart-healthy pizza
For the Poolish
Add the yeast and water to a bowl and whisk well until the yeast is dissolved and you see bubbles at the top. If you don't see bubbles, the yeast is dead and you need to restart with a fresh batch of yeast.
Add flour and mix well with a spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Cover with a plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft free place for 18 hours. If you will not be using the poolish immediately after, store in the fridge. Before using, allow the chill to come off by setting the poolish on the countertop for at least 30 mins.
for the pizza dough
Add yeast and 70 g of lukewarm water to a bowl and whisk until water is bubbly. Mix until you see no granules of yeast floating on the water. If the yeast doesn't dissolve, the yeast is likely dead and you will have to start over with fresh yeast.
Add flour to the bowl of your kitchen aid mixer and add all of the yeast-water mixture. Then, slowly add most of the cold water while continuing to knead with the dough hook. Add the remaining cold water back in the bowl of yeast water and swirl and add to the dough.
Knead until the dough comes together and there is no dry bits of flour. Stop the mixer and add the poolish, continue to knead until you have a soft, pliable dough which is not sticky to touch. Add more flour/water as required to reach this consistency.
Stop the mixer and add the salt. Knead on low speed for 1 minute.
Stop the mixer, add the olive oil and knead on low speed for 1 minute. After 1 minute, remove the dough from the dough hook, place in the bowl of the mixer and knead for 30 seconds to a minute.
Then, transfer the dough to your countertop and continue kneading, stretch and fold the dough for 1-2 minutes.
Form the dough into a ball and set aside on the countertop/bowl. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rest for 20 minutes.
Then, portion the dough into 3 equal parts and for each portion fold the dough onto itself to create a tight surface tension as you seal/pinch the folds. Be careful not to de-gas the dough too much. The portions should resemble a ball of fresh mozzarella. This is a great time to freeze any dough you are not planning to use right away.
Transfer the dough portions to a baking sheet or plate and cover with 2 layers of plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for at least 24-72 hours in the refrigerator.
For the sauce
In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for the sauce, mash the tomatoes and mix well. Adjust with salt for seasoning.
For the Toppings
Place one baking steel/stone on the second highest rack of the oven and another one at the bottom most rack. Preheat oven at 500 F for 1 hour. Remove the pizza dough and sauce out to come up to temperature while the oven preheats.
Dust your countertop with flour and starting with one portion of dough at a time, add the dough ball over the dusting mixture. Starting from the centre of the dough, press down on the dough and create a rim around the side.
Continue pressing down the centre to stretch the dough. Then, hold the dough from the rim and rotate to let gravity stretch if further. You can also you use knuckles to stretch the dough, until the diameter is about 10 inches.
To Cook the Pizzas
Set oven to Broil mode, let top steel/stone heat for 8-10 minutes.
Dust a wooden pizza peel with flour and place the stretched dough on the peel.
Add 1/3rd of the tomato sauce and spread until the edge of the pizza. Add the mozzarella and spread evenly.
Add the chicken, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and olive oil. Spread evenly over the pizza.
In a swift push and pull motion, place the pizza on the top baking steel/stone.
Bake for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes or until the crust has some char or brown spots and the cheese has molten.
Then transfer the pizza to the bottom steel/stone to finish off the crust of the pizza, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Remove the pizza from the oven and top with garlic oil. Slice the pizza and then top with arugula.
Serve hot and enjoy!
Tips for For a tasty and nutritious pizza
If the yeast doesn’t dissolve after mixing, the yeast is likely dead. As a result, it’s best to start over.
Avoid degassing the dough too much as you are folding the individual portions onto itself. If you over-work the dough, it will start to resist as you start to stretch the dough for the pizza.
To continue on your pizza-making journey after this recipe, I highly recommend you invest in a baking steel and/or baking stone. They are cheap, and an essential tool for pizza makers.
You want to preheat your oven to its highest temperature for at least one hour before baking the pizza. This will mean that your baking steel and/or baking stone is hot and ready for pizza, giving you the crispiest crust.
Use a pair of baking steels/stones if possible, setting up one of them towards the top rack of the oven and the second one at the bottom.
Turn the oven to the “Broil” mode 10 minutes prior to cooking the pizzas (I do this right before topping the pizza) to make the top steel/stone scorching hot. This will help rapidly cook the crispy crust.
Finish the crust by transferring the pizza to the bottom stone/steel.
Keep the arugula chilled in the fridge until ready to serve to keep it nice and crisp.
How to Store Leftover pi day Pizza
If there are leftovers, then don’t worry about it! The way that I store my leftover pizza is by wrapping the individual slices in plastic wrap and keeping it in the fridge. Your best bet is to reheat pizza slices in a microwave or air fryer.
You only need about a minute for your pizza to be completely warmed through if reheating in a microwave. To reheat your pizza in an air fryer, I would heat at 400 F for about a minute or two. To reheat in the oven, I would follow the same steps as in the air fryer, but the process will take longer since your oven will require time to preheat.
I would really avoid reheating your pizza in the microwave since the crust definitely gets soggy!
Watch How to Make Heart Healthy Chicken & Veggie Pizza Here:
Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cooking.with.anadi. Thank you!
Heart Healthy Chicken & Veggie Pizza
Ingredients
- 47 g 00 flour
- 47 g lukewarm water
- 0.12 g active dry yeast (1/3rd of 1/8th tsp of yeast)
- 460 g 00 flour
- 2.2 g active dry yeast
- 10 g salt
- 5 g olive oil
- 70 h/mL Cup lukewarm water (60-70F)
- 200 g/mL cold water
- 90 grams Poolish starter
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 8-9 whole San Marzano tomatoes from a 28 oz can
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
- chilli flakes, to taste
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Add the yeast and water to a bowl and whisk well until the yeast is dissolved and you see bubbles at the top. If you don't see bubbles, the yeast is dead and you need to restart with a fresh batch of yeast.
- Add flour and mix well with a spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Cover with a plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft free place for 18 hours. If you will not be using the poolish immediately after, store in the fridge. Before using, allow the chill to come off by setting the poolish on the countertop for at least 30 mins.
- Add yeast and 70 g of lukewarm water to a bowl and whisk until water is bubbly. Mix until you see no granules of yeast floating on the water. If the yeast doesn't dissolve, the yeast is likely dead and you will have to start over with fresh yeast.
- Add flour to the bowl of your kitchen aid mixer and add all of the yeast-water mixture. Then, slowly add most of the cold water while continuing to knead with the dough hook. Add the remaining cold water back in the bowl of yeast water and swirl and add to the dough.
- Knead until the dough comes together and there is no dry bits of flour. Stop the mixer and add the poolish, continue to knead until you have a soft, pliable dough which is not sticky to touch. Add more flour/water as required to reach this consistency.
- Stop the mixer and add the salt. Knead on low speed for 1 minute.
- Stop the mixer, add the olive oil and knead on low speed for 1 minute. After 1 minute, remove the dough from the dough hook, place in the bowl of the mixer and knead for 30 seconds to a minute.
- Then, transfer the dough to your countertop and continue kneading, stretch and fold the dough for 1-2 minutes.
- Form the dough into a ball and set aside on the countertop/bowl. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rest for 20 minutes.
- Then, portion the dough into 3 equal parts and for each portion fold the dough onto itself to create a tight surface tension as you seal/pinch the folds. Be careful not to de-gas the dough too much. The portions should resemble a ball of fresh mozzarella. This is a great time to freeze any dough you are not planning to use right away.
- Transfer the dough portions to a baking sheet or plate and cover with 2 layers of plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for at least 24-72 hours in the refrigerator.
- In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for the sauce, mash the tomatoes and mix well. Adjust with salt for seasoning.
- Place one baking steel/stone on the second highest rack of the oven and another one at the bottom most rack. Preheat oven at 500 F for 1 hour. Remove the pizza dough and sauce out to come up to temperature while the oven preheats.
- Dust your countertop with flour and starting with one portion of dough at a time, add the dough ball over the dusting mixture. Starting from the centre of the dough, press down on the dough and create a rim around the side.
- Continue pressing down the centre to stretch the dough. Then, hold the dough from the rim and rotate to let gravity stretch if further. You can also you use knuckles to stretch the dough, until the diameter is about 10 inches.
- Set oven to Broil mode, let top steel/stone heat for 8-10 minutes.
- Dust a wooden pizza peel with flour and place the stretched dough on the peel.
- Add 1/3rd of the tomato sauce and spread until the edge of the pizza. Add the mozzarella and spread evenly.
- Add the chicken, onions, peppers, tomatoes and spread evenly over the pizza.
- In a swift push and pull motion, place the pizza on the top baking steel/stone.
- Bake for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes or until the crust has some char or brown spots and the cheese has molten.
- Then transfer the pizza to the bottom steel/stone to finish off the crust of the pizza, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Remove the pizza from the oven and top with garlic oil. Slice the pizza and then top with arugula.
- Serve hot and enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
Calories
1090.94Fat (grams)
35.31 gSat. Fat (grams)
16.23 gCarbs (grams)
141.93 gFiber (grams)
6.1 gNet carbs
135.81 gSugar (grams)
3.69 gProtein (grams)
48.21 gSodium (milligrams)
2153.33 mgCholesterol (grams)
98.95 mgNutrition info is an estimate.
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Welcome to Cooking With Anadi. This platform is all about making cooking exciting and finding new ways to bring classic flavours and recipes at your service. Join me in my personal journey in the world of cooking. Hope you have a great ride!
