Chicken Béchamel French Bread Pizza
Chicken Béchamel French Bread Pizza is a quick and easy family favorite recipe. One of the best homemade pizzas that is perfect with rotisserie chicken or leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Simple ingredients and takes only minutes to bake.
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Ok, I will admit it. I am not the hugest fan of Thanksgiving.
There are elements that I do very much enjoy about the Holiday like family time and I love that it is the start of the Christmas season (LOVE Christmas!!!).
What drives me crazy though is the 7 days and 7 nights of food shopping.
And then it takes another 3 days just to make all the Thanksgiving recipes and about 2.5 seconds to eat it.
Oh and then the clean up while working through the food coma.
Also my family has ALWAYS made such huge amounts on Thanksgiving that we could feed an army and things have not changed since getting married.
My husband loves the leftovers.
Me…I don’t particularly enjoy having so much turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes that they are practically coming out of my ears for days on end.
So, like most people, it is a quest for us to find creative ways to use up the Thanksgiving leftovers without turning into a turkey myself.
Last year I was very impressed with my husband’s creation of Thanksgiving Man Pies. I think he fell more in love with these than the actual Thanksgiving dinner.
I personally like adding the leftover turkey to recipes like Simple Angel Hair Pasta, or substituting the chicken for turkey in my Creamy Italian Chicken Salad Wraps or this Chicken Béchamel French Bread Pizza.
How to make French Bread Pizza not soggy:
There are a couple of different tricks to keeping your french bread pizza from being soggy. Trick number one is to use a thick enough sauce similar to the thicker béchamel sauce in this Chicken Béchamel French Bread Pizza. The second trick that many delicious recipes using a red sauce do is to add an initial layer of cheese and then pre-toast the bread. This helps to prevent the bread from absorbing too much of the liquid from the sauce. Here is a great red sauce recipe using this technique.
Tips about Chicken Béchamel French Bread Pizza:
- Skip the baguette and go for the larger more American French bread to make this Chicken Béchamel French Bread Pizza recipe. Using the baguette will result in an extremely chewy pizza.
- The béchamel in this recipe is definitely on the thicker side. If you prefer a little bit thiner sauce then leave out 1 tbsp of flour but keep the rest of the measurements the same.
- Switch up your toppings with your favorites. Other options are arugula, goat cheese, bacon, prosciutto, spinach and caramelized onions.
- This cookie sheet or this one makes for easy baking and movement of the pizzas on and off the cookie sheet. (affiliate)
- Leftover rotisserie chicken or Thanksgiving turkey works great for this Chicken Béchamel French Bread Pizza.
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 6 large garlic cloves *minced or crushed
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup milk or half & half
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan
- 1 large French bread
- 1 baked chicken breast *about 2 cups sliced
- 1 cup small broccoli florets
- 3-4 oz sun-dried tomatoes in oil *drained
- 1 can artichoke heart in quarters *drained
- 2-3 oz sliced black olives *drained
- 1 tbsp olive oil *optional for sautéing mushrooms
- 8 oz sliced mushrooms
- 1/2-1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425℉.
- In a medium sized pan melt butter over medium-high heat. Stir salt and garlic and cook for about 1 min. Add flour and whisk until a paste like consistency, about 1-2 mins. In 1/3's whisk in milk and cook until sauce is thick and smooth, about 2-3 mins. Stir in parmesan and continue whisking another 1-2 mins. Take off heat and set aside.
- In a medium sized frying pan over medium-high heat sauté mushrooms in olive to desired tenderness. Sautéing is an optional step.
- Cut bread in half length wise. Spread half of béchamel on each cut half. Top with chicken, broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, mushrooms and cheese.
- Transfer to a cookie sheet and bake for 10 mins.
Notes
Nutrition
Follow along on Facebook and Pinterest for more savory inspirations.
If you love Italian food than checkout these recipes:
Bruschetta with Balsamic Reduction
Caramelized Onion Steak Naan Pesto Pizza
