Published: Mar 8, 2019 · Modified: Jan 20, 2023 by Amanda McGrory-Dixon

Coq Au Vin Pizza

Let's upgrade our pizza game and get fun and creative with a pizza recipe like no other! This coq au vin pizza uses leftover coq au vin sauce to make a delicious, rich red wine base topped with gooey mozzarella, buttery mushrooms, braised chicken and fresh red onions. With that unique, flavorful red wine sauce, there's no other pizza like this.

Have you ever made a big batch of coq au vin and found yourself with loads of leftover sauce? That's pretty much how this recipe was born. I first created this pizza recipe when I made my favorite coq au vin for Matt and me last winter. If you've tried my recipe, you know it makes a big batch --- much more than two people can eat in one sitting --- but that was OK because I planned to shred and freeze the chicken we didn't eat.

But what about all that delicious leftover sauce? In the past, I've always dumped the leftover sauce, but I hate wasting food, especially something that tasty. My stubborn side got the best of me, and I was determined to finally find a use for that leftover coq au vin sauce.

After a little brainstorming, it suddenly hit me --- hey, you love pizza! What if you thickened the sauce for a pizza base and then used the leftover chicken to make a coq au vin pizza? I'll be honest. This was one of my finer moments in life because this pizza is legit.

An aerial view of the chicken pizza with fresh parsley and mushrooms around it.

How to Make

Let's chat ingredients. Obviously, you'll need some leftover sauce from my coq au vin as well as chicken, mushrooms, red onions, mozzarella, an egg yolk and pizza dough. I highly recommend my beer pizza dough, and for the chicken, I always use leftovers from the coq au vin. However, if you devoured the chicken from your coq au vin and only have leftover sauce, a store-bought rotisserie chicken is a delicious and easy option.

When saving the leftover sauce for this pizza, strain the sauce first and then refrigerate it if you plan to use it within a few days or freeze it if you won't use it right away. Before turning the coq au vin sauce into a pizza base, I also recommend quickly heating it up in the microwave and giving it a quick stir.

Now that we have our ingredients, let's put together the pizza. As I mentioned in my beer pizza dough recipe, I'm a huge fan of using a pizza stone, so about 45 minutes to an hour before we plan to bake, we put our pizza stone in a cold oven and heat it to 500 degrees. If you don't have a pizza stone, you can use a large baking sheet instead.

Next, I like to start on our coq au vin pizza sauce. You'll notice the sauce is a bit too thin as is for a pizza, so we thicken it with a roux, which is a fancy way of saying we whisk in the sauce with a little flour and butter until it's smooth with just the right thickness.

Making a roux in a cast-iron skillet and whisking right as the flour goes into the skillet.

In the recipe, I call for a cup of leftover coq au vin sauce. You won't actually need a full cup of sauce for one pizza, but I like to make a little extra because you can make more than one pizza and use the extra as a delicious dipping sauce for your crust. Go with me on this. Hey, you were about to toss that sauce anyway before this coq au vin pizza came into your life, so you might as well make a little extra, right?

Along with the sauce, I also like to cook some sliced mushrooms in butter as an ode to the original coq au vin. And I most definitely recommend cooking in butter first rather than just topping on the pizza raw for obvious reasons.

Browning the mushrooms in a cast-iron skillet with butter.

Now that our cooked toppings are ready, we hand stretch our dough and layer the coq au vin pizza with sauce, shredded mozzarella, chicken, mushrooms and red onions.

Oh, and please don't use pre-grated mozzarella. The pre-grated cheese is coated in an additive that keeps the cheese from clumping, so it doesn't melt as well as anything freshly grated. Grating the mozzarella literally takes about a minute. Trust me. It's worth an extra minute of your time.

Unbaked coq au vin pizza with all the toppings.

From here, we finish our pizza with a quick egg wash and pop it into the oven for eight to 10 minutes. Let's give our pizza a few minutes to cool and then cut into this cheesy goodness. Bonus points for garnishing with some freshly grated Parmesan and chopped parsley.

A close-up of a slice of coq au vin pizza with fresh parsley framing the pizza on a cutting board.

Perfect Pairing

No need to reinvent the wheel here. Those same coq au vin pairings are perfect for this pizza. In case you need a refresher, a Burgundy, pinot noir or Beaujolais are delightful wine options while a biere de garde is a tasty beer pairing.

If you're looking for a fun and different pizza option, I hope you try this coq au vin pizza.

Cheers!

Several slices of the coq au vin pizza on a cutting board.

Need More Unique Pizza Ideas?

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