7 Pizza Toppings You Should Try At Your Next Party
When it comes to pizza toppings, you can never really go wrong. You are only limited by your imagination, which can lead to some creative ideas for toppings that you might not have thought of. The next time you are serving up pizza at a gathering, try tossing on these toppings to get your guests talking.
1. Banana Peppers
Known for their bright yellow color and banana-like shape, these peppers taste great as a pizza topping. It might not be that unusual to see banana peppers as an option at your local pizza restaurant, but they are still a pretty underrated choice when it comes to toppings. They contain a sweet mild flavor and sit right in the middle of the scale in terms of spiciness. By adding a couple of slices on your pizza, you can enjoy the right amount of spice and the perfect amount of flavor.
2. Thai Chicken
If you are a fan of Asian-inspired cuisine, this one’s for you. Thai chicken incorporates many flavors such as sweet chili, soy sauce, garlic, and the spiciness of sriracha. On its own, the taste is incredible. Now imagine that on a pizza. The chicken itself is pretty easy to prepare, so it’s best to get everything ready with this recipe. Once the Thai chicken is ready, slice them into smaller pieces and sprinkle them across your pizza and bake in the oven. Feel free to add additional toppings such as onions, cilantro or anything else that would complement the rich flavor of Thai chicken.
3. Buffalo Chicken
Sticking with the “chicken as a pizza topping” idea, you can go even spicier with buffalo chicken. Buffalo chicken is already considered a crowd favorite in terms of appetizers and party food. So why not combine it with pizza fresh from the oven? Once again prepare the chicken in advance and by the time you have your pizza ready to bake, you can just place the chicken pieces on top. Extra pizza toppings like sliced or diced red onions and jalapenos are great additions as well as a few drizzles of ranch dressing or even extra buffalo sauce. You might want to have extra napkins handy for this one.
4. Shrimp Scampi
Seafood options for pizza toppings are no longer limited to just anchovies. Shrimp scampi makes for a great addition to your pizza. Although for this recipe, you may or may not want to alter the traditional pizza recipe slightly. Some recipes might not include the traditional marinara sauce to make the pizza a bit lighter and focus less on sauce and more on toppings. If you feel like you would miss the flavor of marinara, go ahead and add it to your recipe or substitute it with another type of sauce. If you are a fan of dipping shrimp in cocktail sauce, why not include it in this pizza recipe as a base? This shrimp scampi pizza will be filled with zest while also being great as a light snack. Include a squeeze of lemon for added freshness.
5. Taco Meat
Once again, by combining two crowd favorites, you will have a guaranteed crowd-pleaser at your next party. This time, we are combining the classic taco ingredients of seasoned beef, tomatoes, lettuce and sour cream with pizza. A taco pizza can be made in a couple of different ways. One of which is to place all your favorite ingredients on top and bake everything all together. The other is to change the style of the pizza to more of a flatbread style and bake it before adding your ingredients. This keeps them fresh while making it seem like you are eating a taco. It’s best to cut the slices into a square or rectangular shape instead of a triangle to make it easier to fold and keep ingredients inside. Just fold each slice to make sure the ingredients stay inside and you will be good to go.
6. Eggs and breakfast sausage
While leftover pizza from the night before could be considered the breakfast of champions, you can actually make a pizza that you wouldn’t mind making for breakfast. A breakfast pizza that includes a sunny side up egg and your choice of bacon or breakfast sausage (or both) will be great to serve at your next brunch party. Think of it as a breakfast sandwich with the same basic ingredients. For a pizza like this, you can go easy on the marinara sauce or use a normal amount if you like the tomato flavor. This recipe also works well with eggs scrambled beforehand and added as a topping. This is probably the safest way to prepare them as the eggs might not remain intact while baking in the oven. Before serving your guests, sprinkle some pepper on the pizza and make sure there are plenty of mimosas and coffee to go around.
7. Blackberries
Fruit on pizza is not the craziest idea out there, at least if you believe pineapple belongs on pizza which is the correct answer by the way. Another fruit that can make its way as pizza toppings are blackberries or any other type of berries. A blackberry pizza does not necessarily mean changing up a lot of ingredients. Unless you insist on keeping marinara, all you will need for the base of the pizza is dough and your choice of cheese. You can go with the traditional mozzarella or maybe even ricotta. Ricotta cheese is extremely versatile and always goes well with in-season fruit. This combination is guaranteed to elevate what you previously thought of pizzas. After your pizza is finished baking, the blackberries will have melted releasing their purple juices all over the pizza which will add some nice color. The purples will contrast the green of the basil and the white of the cheese. This makes this pizza worthy of snapping a picture of before eating. For a fresh taste of summer, you should definitely consider this type of pizza as a main course or dessert for your next gathering.
