Drive-Thru Gourmet: Now Pizza Hut is putting bacon in its crust
This week I reached out for a new Bacon Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza, available for a limited time only from the No. 1 pizza twirler, Pizza Hut, with 10,000 restaurants making the world just a little bit cheesier. Yeah, like the Kardashians need any help.
The Hut’s obsession with finding new and different ways to hide more cheese on its pies may qualify as a psychological disorder. First came the original Stuffed Crust Pizza in 1995. Since then: 3-Cheese Stuffed Crust, Crazy Cheesy Crust, Stuffed Crust Pan Pizza and that zany Cheesy Bites Pizza. Now comes Bacon Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza.
This is not going to end well. Over in England, Pizza Hut is shoving hot dogs in its Stuffed Crust Pizza. Secure our borders!
Here’s the blueprint: Bits of hardwood-smoked bacon mixed with three cheeses — mozzarella, provolone and white cheddar — jammed into the outer edges of Pizza Hut’s hand-tossed crust and topped with more cheese, pizza sauce and one topping of your choice.
Total calories: 370 (for one slice of Bacon Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza with pepperoni). Fat grams: 19. Sodium: 980 mg. Carbs: 34 g. Dietary fiber: 2 g. Protein: 16 g. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: $11.99 for a one-topping large.
Everybody loves bacon. It’s one of those magical ingredients, like butter and cinnamon, that makes everything it’s in taste better. I’ve been ordering bacon as a topping on my Pizza Hut pies for years. It’s only natural that Pizza Hut would seek to rev up the cheese socked away in the crust. Enter crumbled bacon, giving the three-cheese blend an extra kick in the pants.
Bacon? Inside the crust? Pizza Hut, now you’re playing dirty.
This is clearly a cry for help from the research and development team, locked in the basement of Pizza Hut’s headquarters. Bang on the pipes two times if that’s you, Dilton.
If you don’t think bacon and cheese will put you in a heavenly, cholesterol-induced trance, try sneaking a few strips of bacon inside your next grilled cheese sandwich. There’s no going back.
You might have seen the TV commercial, with country crooner and game-show celebrity Blake Shelton taking credit for Pizza Hut’s latest concoction.
“There’s bacon. In the crust! You’re welcome, America!” Like he had something to do with anything. And William Shatner will be working the front desk of your hotel in Branson, Mo.
Bone to pick: The Bacon Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza comes only on Hut’s most popular crust — hand-tossed. Hand-tossed is a bit too doughy and heavy for my purpose, which is to finish the whole pie without hating myself or curling up for a nap at work.
My Pizza Hut fave is Thin Crust. It’s practically pizza on a Saltine. Eat the whole thing, get up, shake the crumbs off your pants, and be on your way, lad.
If Pizza Hut could figure out a way to stuff bacon-infused cheese into a Thin Crust, well, Domino’s could just lock up the joint and walk away. Don’t worry about the lease — a Supercuts will take over the space within a week.