This Jamaican Jerk Chicken Pizza, a California Pizza Kitchen copycat, has slices of jerk- seasoned chicken breast, a sweet and spicy sauce, crispy bacon, roasted red peppers, and onion. This is not your ordinary pizza!
I love doing knock offs of California Pizza Kitchen pizzas. Their pizzas have such amazing combinations of flavors. I’ve made both the Chipotle Chicken Pizza and the Thai Chicken Pizza.
I especially like that California Pizza Kitchen pizzas are topped with nontraditional toppings. Their pizzas are fun and creative.
Jamaican Jerk Chicken Pizza
If you’re getting bored of regular pepperoni pizza, give this Jamaican Jerk Chicken Pizza a try.
This pizza is right up my ally. Jamaica is maybe my favorite place on earth. I love the people, the music, the food. You just can’t beat an authentic piece of jerk chicken.
Now the chicken on this pizza is by know means authentic. Not even close. That would be too large an undertaking for a weeknight meal.
But nonetheless, this chicken has plenty of flavor. It is coated in a spice rub made from brown sugar, paprika, allspice, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper, and then grilled.
In addition to the chicken, roasted red and yellow peppers, red onion, bacon, and green onion give the pizza tons of flavor. It’s restaurant quality pizza at home.
Don’t be scared by the long list of ingredients. The jerk seasoning and sauce can be made several days in advance and the peppers can be roasted and sliced ahead of time too.
Recipe Tips:
Either use store-bought pizza dough or make your own. I love the recipe in this (free) Perfect Pizza at Home class on Craftsy.
If you have a difficult time getting the dough to roll or stretch, let it rest for 5 minutes and try again. Sometimes a little patience is needed to get a great result.
For best results, use a pizza stone. It will help get the pizza crust really crispy. Preheat the stone in the oven for at least 30 minutes.
Can Parts of This Recipe be Made in Advance?
Absolutely. To save time on a busy night-
- Mix the jerk seasoning ingredients together. This can be done a week or so in advance. Just be sure to store in an airtight container.
- Make the sauce a day or two in advance.
- Grill the chicken and roast the peppers a day or two in advance.
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Jamaican Jerk Chicken Pizza
Equipment
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/4 cup minced onion
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Jerk Seasoning
- 1 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Remaining Ingredients
- olive oil
- 2 chicken breasts, pounded thin
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 pound pizza dough
- 2-3 cups shredded mozzarelle cheese
- 4 slices bacon, cooked
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced onion, yellow or red
- 1 green onion, sliced
Instructions
- To make sauce, combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Simmer for 6 to 8 minutes. Let cool and then puree in a blender. (Sauce can be made a day in advance.)
- In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for jerk seasoning. Sprinkle chicken breasts with seasoning and drizzle with olive oil.
- Grill chicken for 4 to 5 minutes per side, or cook in a pan over medium heat. Let cool and then thinly slice.
- Roast both peppers by setting them directly over the flame of a gas burner. Turn every few minutes until all sides are charred. Plunge them into ice water and remove the skins. Slice into thin slices. Alternately, you can roast the peppers in a 450 degree oven for 45 minutes.
- Divide dough in half. Making 1 pizza at a time, roll or stretch dough into a 10-inch circle. Place on a lightly floured pizza pan or pizza peel.
- Brush the dough with olive oil. Spread desired amount of sauce on dough. Sprinkle with 1 cup mozzarella cheese and half of all toppings. Sprinkle with a little more mozzarella cheese.
- Slide pizza onto pizza stone and bake until crust is golden, about 9 to 10 minutes.
Notes
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees with a pizza stone in it for 45 minutes.
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Originally published August 30, 2015.
Recipe adapted from: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2: More Amazing Clones of Famous Dishes from America’s Favorite Restaurant Chains
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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
This is the BEST pizza I have ever made/tasted in my life lol. We do pizza Fridays and since this pizza is a lot of work I only do it once (maybe twice) a month and my husband gets SO excited when I make it. It is so much better than the CPK one, we can’t even enjoy that one anymore lol. Thank you for this awesome recipe!! Can’t wait for dinner tonight!
Just had the Aldi version of the California Kitchen original — if this is as good, I will be passing this recipe to all my friends!
It looks great, sounds great, but as-is I found this disgustingly sweet. My wife who also loves her sugar and sweets found this unpalatably sweet. Both the sauce and the chicken rub are way out of wack for Jamaican Jerk. They do have the traditional ingredients but the sugar load is way overdone.
Yes – I would make this again, but with my own approach. I would reduce all the sugar content by at least 50% but probably closer to 70% to be more Jerk like.
Good concept, but poor execution IMO.
I agree – too sweet. Try leaving out the corn syrup, it doesn’t need it as it already has plenty of brown sugar. I also make my own allspice leaving out the cloves. This recipe is now a family favorite. 10/10 with these minor changes
Very interesting recipe. Tomorrow I’m going to cook. I cook different recipes. I love to experiment. This was very interesting: http://www.legenrecipes.com/recipe/barbecued-chicken-tortilla-pizzas Now your going to try. Thank you very much.
I’m pretty sure I could live off of pizza, especially if it looked like this! I love that you used the jerk chicken on it, such a great idea!
We used to go to CPK frequently but I haven’t been in so long! Love this copy-cat pizza – jerk chicken anything is always so good!
Love everything about this recipe and your photos are so beautiful!! Jerk chicken is a favorite of mine (and pizza!) so making this very soon 🙂
Yes !!!!
I am from west Indies (French Island…. Martinique) and we used to do Jamaïcan jerk chicken.
The way you prepare jerk seasonning and sauce make is the good one !
thks
Girlfriend this pizza is everything I dream of and more!!!
Eeeee! I love CPK and I am seriously looooving your copycat pizza! Jamaican jerk chicken ON pizza? OMG YES! SO much YES! This looks crazy delicious! Pinned! Cheers, my dear!
Yours looks amazing, even more appetizing than CPK. And they do come up with the best toppings! They have this one pizza with pear and gorgonzola topped with a salad. It’s so good. I can’t order it or I eat the whole thing. Love how colorful this is!
What great flavors for pizza! This needs to make an appearance at our next pizza night!
Jamaican jerk chicken on a pizza?! This sounds incredible! I have to make it.
I love, love, love jerk seasoning Christin – so putting this on a pizza was a brilliant idea!
This pizza looks amazing, simply perfect. My family would love it, I have to save this recipe.
Perfect for pizza night! I love CPK and definitely want to try this pizza at home!
Jerk chicken is seriously my favorite chicken on EARTH, so this pizza is kinda right up my alley! So wishing I had a slice right now!
You make the best pizzas, Christin! This jamaican jerk one sounds fantastic! Love the zesty flavors!
This pizza looks so good! Can I have a slice?
It hasn’t even been that long since I ate dinner, but I am totally drooling over this pizza! It looks so packed with flavor!