Andouille Po'Boy French Bread Pizza Recipe

Developer Patterson Watkins, like many a '90s kid, grew up eating various frozen pizza–related products, among them Stouffer's iconic French bread pizza. With this favorite in mind, she tells us, "It wasn't much of a leap, at least for my overly pizza'd brain, to associate po'boys served on French bread with French bread pizzas and imagine how tasty-cool that combo could be." In place of pepperoni, she uses the Cajun classic Andouille, a sausage she describes as "porky, smoky, moderately spicy ... super savory and absolutely magical as a pizza topping."

The other toppings, while they may be somewhat less pizza-like, are meant to maintain what Watkins calls "the essence of po'boy": lettuce, tomatoes, and a creamy, spicy sauce. She also manages to mix in the Cajun "holy trinity" of bell peppers, onions, and celery to give the dish a little extra authenticity. While these pizza 'wiches would go great with either a salad or fries on the side, you could also keep that Louisiana theme going by opting for any flavor of Zapp's New Orleans-style chips (although we highly recommend the Voodoo ones).

The base of these pizzas is French or Italian bread flavored with olive oil and garlic, while the toppings include pizza sauce, hot sauce, onion, bell peppers, celery, lettuce, tomatoes, mozzarella, and Andouille sausage. Even though Andouille is right in the recipe's name, you needn't pass on it if you can't find this sausage — kielbasa, Spanish-style chorizo, linguica or another smoked sausage would also work.

You'll also be making homemade po'boy sauce to top the pizza. For this, you'll need mayonnaise, whole-grain mustard, lemon juice, capers, Cajun seasoning, and pickles (either bread and butter or dill).

Place the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, pickles, capers, and Cajun seasoning in a medium bowl.

Whisk to combine the sauce, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly spritz with cooking spray.

Place the halves split-side up on the prepared baking sheet.

Drizzle the loaf with olive oil and sprinkle with the minced garlic.

Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and cover the halves with pizza sauce.

Drizzle with the hot sauce.

Sprinkle the halves with 1 cup mozzarella.

Top with the chopped Andouille sausage.

Top with the onion, bell pepper, and celery.

Cover the toppings with the remaining mozzarella and place in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the loaf is golden and crisp.

Top the baked pizzas with shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes.

Dollop the pizzas with po'boy sauce before serving.

It's perfectly okay to use store-bought Cajun seasoning in this recipe, and Watkins herself has a few favorite brands: Weber's N'Orleans Cajun Seasoning (which is technically a grill rub but can also work for this recipe) and Ragin' Cajun Original Cajun Seasoning. If you prefer a DIY approach, though, you can check out our homemade Creole seasoning and easy Cajun spice mix recipes to see if either one suits your taste or corresponds with the contents of your spice cabinet.

Watkins, too, has her own formula for DIY Cajun seasoning. To make it, you combine six parts sweet paprika, four parts kosher salt, two parts each garlic powder and onion powder, one to two parts cayenne pepper, and one part each of dried oregano, dried thyme, and black pepper. If you wind up making way more seasoning than you'll need for the recipe, you can always sprinkle it on fries or use it as a dry rub for other meats and seafood.

The po'boy sauce you'll be making for this recipe is a type of spicy remoulade. If you make it with store-bought mayo, it should last for up to two weeks in the fridge. If your mayonnaise is homemade, you only have three days to use it. Even so, you may want to stir up a double batch since there are many ways to use it besides as a pizza topper. 

The po'boy sauce makes a fantastic sandwich spread and can stand in for ketchup if you want to try making Cajun-style burgers. It can also be used as a dip for chips, raw vegetables, steamed artichoke leaves, cooked shrimp, french fries, and onion rings, and it would be the perfect sauce for our Cajun-spiced turkey legs. If you're thinking about repurposing the remoulade as a salad dressing, though, you might want to tone down the spicy flavor by stirring in some sour cream and thinning out the mix with a little more lemon juice.