The One Dish Ree Drummond Regrets Making On The Pioneer Woman

If you thought culinary superstars were exempt from faux pas in the kitchen, think again. Julia Child once served James Beard raw roast chicken; Emeril Lagasse blew up a pineapple upside-down cake at a potluck; and in perhaps the biggest blunder of them all, Jamie Oliver sliced off (and served!) part of his finger during a cooking demonstration on live television. Another victim of her very own kitchen nightmare — albeit, a less frightful one than these — is Ree Drummond, who once made a fried chicken pizza that she reveals in her book, "Frontier Follies: Adventures in Marriage and Motherhood in the Middle of Nowhere", was her "least-favorite recipe I've ever filmed."

Fried chicken pizza certainly doesn't sound like a bad idea. It sounds like a delicious way to upgrade fried chicken, which is exactly the vibe Drummond was going for when she combined these two fast food legends during a segment for her cooking show "The Pioneer Woman" back in 2018. The concept seemed simple enough, with Drummond slathering a frozen dough base in barbecue sauce and mozzarella cheese before cooking it in the oven, then piling it high with pickles, jalapeños, coleslaw dressed in chipotle mayo, and the pièce de résistance — frozen fried chicken strips. However, the resulting dish was one of her biggest regrets in the kitchen to date. "I figured it would look better on TV when it aired," she says. "I was wrong."

The reviews on the official Food Network website tell a different story, revealing a number of positive comments pertaining to the pizza's unique flavor and overall deliciousness. A video for the recipe also received more than 2,000 likes on Facebook (though it definitely had some less positive reactions, too). All of this to say Ree Drummond's "least-favorite recipe" isn't quite the disaster she thinks it is.

However, she was right about one thing: any suggested improvements seem largely centered around the pizza's appearance — namely, the size of the chicken strips. For example, chopping them up into smaller pieces as a way of making the pizza easier to eat (not to mention a whole lot less awkward to cut!). Another way to avoid this problem would be to shred the chicken — you could even use slow cooker pulled pork or chicken as a fun and tasty alternative.

The flavor profile of this pizza seems bang on, but if you like the idea of elevating things just a little, consider using one or more homemade components. An obvious place to start is by whipping up a batch of pizza dough. You could use one of Drummond's own pizza crust recipes to really double down on The Pioneer Woman theme, or you could opt for an easy two-ingredient yogurt pizza dough. Other ideas include making your own barbecue sauce or using a different kind of slaw. However you decide to make it, you won't know whether to give Drummond's fried chicken pizza a solid thumbs up or thumbs down without actually trying it.