Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza

This Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza is an easy fall pizza to make for your homemade pizza Friday. It’s savory, sweet, and semi-spicy and has the perfect mix of fall flavors. You will be craving more from the first bite to the last bite of this pizza. It’s that delicious, and we think you will all love this autumn pizza recipe!

Repurpose Leftover Ingredients for this Pizza

When you make roasted butternut squash, caramelized onions, and chicken for meals, you may find yourself with leftovers. A great way to use these leftovers and save money and time is to make this delicious pizza! All you will need is a ball of pizza dough, cheese, and a couple of staple ingredients. And before you know it, you have a tasty meal, the ultimate comfort food too.

🍕 Ingredients

To make this fall-inspired pizza recipe, you will need some staple pizza ingredients, winter squash, herbs, and 2 kinds of cheese. All ingredients can be found easily at your local grocery store too. So let’s dive into what you need to make this yummy pizza.

• Pizza Dough. Either homemade dough or a store-bought pizza dough ball will do. We recommend resting the dough at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.

• Butternut Squash. We want to roast the butternut squash first if you don’t have any leftovers from another meal. To make roasted butternut squash, you will also need olive oil, salt, black pepper, and smoked paprika.

• Shredded Chicken. For this recipe, you can make shredded chicken, use leftover, or use shredded rotisserie chicken.

• Caramelized Onions. We recommend using sweet or yellow onions when making caramelized onions because they have a delicious sweet flavor. If you don’t have leftover caramelized onions from another meal, you will need butter, more olive oil (or apple cider for a robust flavor), and salt. We don’t recommend white onions or red onions for this pizza.

• Gruyere Cheese. This cheese has a ton of flavor. It pairs nicely with the butternut squash and caramelized onions on this pizza. Please don’t skip it!

• Sharp Cheddar Cheese. We love adding sharp cheddar cheese to this pizza with Gruyere cheese, but another great substitute is fresh mozzarella cheese. We also recommend making 2 pizzas. Try it with our Cheese combo for the first one, and for the second pizza, use Gruyere with Mozzarella.

• Garlic-Thyme Infused Olive Oil. To make this olive oil-infused pizza sauce, you will need extra virgin olive oil, 2 garlic cloves (minced), 1 tsp fresh thyme, and a pinch of salt and pepper. For additional heat, add a pinch of red pepper flakes.

• Honey. Once the pizza comes out of the oven, drizzle honey on top for a sweet flavor. We also recommend using Mike’s Hot Honey for a touch of sweetness and spice.

How to make Roasted Butternut Squash

The best way to ensure your squash is tender on pizza is to roast it first. Here’s how you make the perfect roasted butternut squash using 1 small to medium butternut squash (about 4-5 cups diced).

• Prep Squash. Peel and cut the squash into 1/2-inch cubes. 
• Season Squash. Add cubed squash to a baking sheet and toss with 2 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt, and a pinch of black pepper. If you want a touch of spice, add 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika.
• Bake. Preheat the oven to 425° F and bake for 30 minutes or until fork-tender.

How to make Caramelized Onions

To make perfect caramelized onions every single time, you will need 2 cups of thinly sliced onions, 2 tbsp butter, olive oil, or apple cider for a robust flavor, and 1 tsp of salt.

• Thinly slice the onions. Slice onions about 1/8-inch thick.
• Sauté the onions. Melt butter or add oil to a saute pan over medium-high heat; add the onions and salt, and saute until they become soft. This takes about 10 minutes.
• Continue cooking the onions until caramelized. Turn the heat to low-medium, and continue cooking the onions until they become dark in color. They will go through stages: golden brown, medium brown, and dark brown.

🧀 Instructions

This amazing pizza is easy to make. But first, you’ll need a few key items to make pizza at home a success. These items are parchment paper, a pizza peel, and a pizza stone.

• Prep Ingredients. Get all ingredients you need to make Caramelized Onions, Roasted Butternut Squash, and Shredded Chicken if you don’t have leftovers from another meal.

• Make Infused-Olive Oil. Add minced garlic from 2 cloves, 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, and 4 tbsp olive oil to a small bowl, with a pinch of salt and black pepper. If you like heat, add a pinch of red pepper flakes. Let the olive oil sit for at least 10 minutes.

• Preheat Oven. Preheat the oven to 550 °F or the highest temperature your oven can get with the pizza stone inside, and keep it running for about 10 minutes before adding pizza. Your oven temperature and the pizza stone need to be at the same temperature so the bottom of your pizza bakes nicely.

• Prep the pizza dough. Roll out the ball of dough on a floured surface into a thin layer and evenly spread the infused olive oil on top.

• Add Toppings. Add roasted butternut squash cubes, shredded chicken, and caramelized onions on top of the pizza.

• Add Cheese. Generously sprinkle shredded sharp cheddar cheese (or shredded mozzarella) and shredded Gruyere cheese evenly on top. 

• Bake pizza. Transfer pizza to the pizza stone in the oven using a pizza peel and bake it at the highest temperature (550° F) your oven can get for about 12-15 minutes, or until doneness.

• Serve. Once you remove the pizza from the oven, drizzle regular honey or Mike’s Hot Honey on top before cutting it into slices.

FAQs

This Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza is easy to make, savory, and sweet, has the perfect mix of fall flavors, and is very delicious. We hope you all love our fall-inspired pizza recipe. Enjoy!  ♡