Review: Papa John's - Chicken Parmesan Pizza

Papa John's Chicken Parmesan Pizza is their current featured pizza and, as such, is only available for a limited time. It features garlic parmesan and pizza sauce, sliced chicken strips, mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, and Italian herb seasoning.

As is the norm for Papa John's featured pizza, it costs $10 for a 14-inch large.

I didn't realize when the chicken was described as "sliced chicken strips" that it meant "sliced breaded chicken strips." It's not a bad thing, just a little surprising. I initially thought they were covered in parmesan cheese. They were also more like "breaded chicken cubes." Other than the slightly misleading description, the chicken itself was tender and moist, but the breading lacked any crispness.

The pizza sauce did not have much of a garlic flavor and there seemed to be less pizza sauce than on a normal pizza. What pizza sauce there was was mildly sweet and thick. I didn't mind the lack of garlic flavor too much since Papa John's always includes a lovely cup of buttery garlic dipping sauce with their pizzas. I wish Papa John's rolled their crust bigger so there's more to dip. It's not a bad size, but I want, like, breadstick-sized end crust.

The pizzas main flavor comes from the generous dusting of Parmesan and Romano cheese. The coverage is a somewhat uneven resulting in some overly salty bites here and there.

Papa John's pizza dough turns out much like warm bread with a just slightly chewy crust.

At the end of the day, I enjoyed Papa John's Chicken Parmesan Pizza more than I thought I would. It's a bit one dimensional with mostly Parmesan flavor, but it's pretty decent.

Nutritional Info - Papa John's Chicken Parmesan Pizza - Original Crust Large
Serving Size - 1 slice (156g)
Calories - 350 (from Fat - 120)
Fat - 14g (Saturated Fat - 5g)
Sodium - 970mg
Carbs - 41g (Sugar - 5g)
Protein - 15g