This carnitas pizza is seriously one of the best homemade pizzas we’ve ever made! It was inspired by our love of our spicy salsa verde and of course carnitas. The combination of salsa verde as the base for pizza topped with crispy carnitas makes for a delectable gourmet carnitas pizza. Truly! I will say though, if you don’t use a spectacular salsa and the best carnitas it won’t have quite the same effect. Pizza can only be as splendid as it’s ingredients, so use the good stuff if you’re going through the trouble of making your own pizza. It’s so worth the extra effort, let me tell you…
Salsa Verde Sauce
Ditch the red sauce for this carnitas pizza recipe, you must make it with salsa verde as your base to truly appreciate the amazing taste. Beware though, if you make this pizza with our beloved spicy salsa verde recipe (which we hope you do) then it will have a good spicy kick to it. The flavors are balanced beautifully with the heat of the salsa and the creamy queso fresco cheese.
Easy Carnitas Pizza
Once you’ve got your pizza dough made, carnitas and salsa verde all prepped ahead of time you’re on board to build this carnitas pizza lickety split. The key is to prep all your ingredients ahead of time; the day before is highly recommended. If you’ve done all that you’re going to have this heavenly pizza on your plate in less than 30 minutes from rolling out the dough time. That’s faster than most pizza delivery times!
Also, we find a large half sheet pan turned upside down to be the easiest way to make this type of pizza. One of the main reasons we like the rectangle pizza’s is because…I have trouble getting my pizza dough round! Make your pizza on the bottom side of the sheet pan and then slide in directly onto the oven rack to finish. It’s easy with little hassle.
Carnitas Creation
You don’t know what you’re missing if you haven’t tried carnitas yet as a pizza topper. The beauty of carnitas is that it’s easy to make. We make our Slow Cooker Carnitas recipe a day or two ahead for tacos and then use the leftovers for the carnitas pizza. You then have got a fabulous meaty pizza topping without a ton of grease and extra effort. Try it as a BBQ pizza topper as well. It’s quite versatile and great on many other things besides just tacos.
Give this delectable carnitas pizza a try and let us know what you think. It’s a keeper for sure!
PrintLeftover Carnitas Pizza with Salsa Verde Sauce
Carnitas pizza with Salsa Verde sauce is so delicious and a nice change from your typical pizza. This has become a family favorite at our house!
This recipe makes 1 large half sheet pan pizza (about 16 small square slices).
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 16 small square slices 1x
- Category: Pizza
- Cuisine: Gourmet Pizza
Ingredients
- 1/2 of our Pizza Dough Recipe (Or pizza dough of your choice)
- 1 cup Salsa Verde
- 3/4 –1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded (we use 3/4 cup, but if you like it cheesier, add a tad more)
- 1 cup leftover Carnitas, shredded
- 1/4 cup queso fresco cheese, crumbled (semi-soft Mexican cheese)
- 1–2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil for dough and carnitas
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees
- Roll out pizza dough large enough to fit onto a 18 X 13 half sheet pan
- Carefully transfer pizza dough to upside down sheet pan
- Drizzle a little olive oil onto the edges of the pizza and spread the oil with your fingers about 1 inch around the edge making sure to cover that 1″ edge strip all the way to the very edges.
- Spoon out some salsa verde onto the dough and gently spread the sauce to about 1/2 inch away from the edges.
- Now sprinkle the mozzarella over the salsa verde, spreading it evenly throughout
- Toss carnitas with1 Tbsp of olive oil to just lightly coat, then spread the carnitas evenly over the mozzarella
- Lastly sprinkle the queso fresco over the carnitas
- Place topped pizza into pre-heated oven on the middle rack and bake for 8 minutes, watching closely
- After the 8 minutes are up, check to see that the pizza will slide off the pan. (Use a spatula to carefully try to unstick the pizza from the pan and slide it gently directly onto the oven rack.
- Bake another 2-3 minutes, watching the pizza closely to avoid burning.
- Once out of the oven, let the pizza rest at least a couple minutes before slicing and then enjoy!
Notes
This recipe makes 1 large half-sheet pan semi-rectangular pizza. You can easily double it. Our basic pizza dough recipe mentioned in the recipe will make 2 large pizzas.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 3-4 small square slices
Keywords: Carnitas Pizza, Carnitas, salsa verde
Looks delish!!! Can fresh mozzarella be used? And…is there a good sub to the queso fresco?
Absolutely! We love and prefer using fresh mozzarella always. I’m not a fan of pre-shredded cheeses either because of all the additives. I hope you enjoy the pizza and the salsa verde!
Oh my goodness this looks SO good! All of my favorite things. Love it!
Thanks! You must try it then. It’s our new favorite homemade pizza for sure.