If you're a foodie, then you've probably heard– or better yet, tried– Papa John’s taco pizza. If you haven’t, then you're in for a treat. It is undisputed that pizza holds a special place in the history of humankind; Mexican food, on the other hand, brings about a delicious vibrance I'm always craving. So imagine how delighted I was when taco pizza became a thing with Papa John's Pizzas. So, if you're planning to try Papa John's taco pizza, here's all you should know, my fellow foodies.
Papa John’s taco pizza gives you the best of both worlds, where the Mexican and Italian flavors blend so well. I was pleasantly surprised when I finally tried it. Papa John’s Pizza offers a wide range of toppings and flavors, including the spicy chicken tinga taco pizza– a great alternative to Papa John’s taco pizza. Even then, the original taco pizza is still a cult favorite; you also get more toppings, which equals better taste.
You must be wondering what's all the rant on the toppings and mindblowing taste, so let's get to it!
What Are the Top-rated Flavors at Papa John’s Pizzas?
Papa John's pizzas offer a wide range of flavor options. The ingredients stay constant, but the extras and sides vary from place to place.
Image Credit: papajohns.com
These are the top-rated ones:
A. The Original Papa John’s Taco Pizza
I am happy to report that the list of toppings on this one is quite extensive. It covers everything from tacos to a whole host of other things, which makes a serving quite filling as well.
Image Credit: papajohns.com
The toppings and ingredients on the original Papa John's taco pizza include:
- Minced beef mince
- Corn chips
- Refried beans
- Diced tomatoes
- Sliced onions
- Nacho cheese corn chips
- Mozzarella cheese
- Cheddar cheese
- Nacho chips
- Sour cream (at times comes as a side)
- Taco sauce (at times comes as a side)
- Shredded lettuce
Quite filling– right?
B. Spicy Chicken Tinga Taco Pizza
'Tinga' refers to a Mexican dish made from chicken or beef and red chili sauce. Instead of the red chili sauce, Papa John’s Spicy Chicken Tinga Taco Pizza takes things a notch higher and uses cayenne chilies. If this is not your cup of tea, you can always ask them to exclude the cayenne chilies, but remember, this entails a larger part of the pizza’s overall taste.
Image Credit: papajohns.com
The toppings and ingredients on Papa John's Spicy Chicken Tinga Taco pizza include:
• Flame-charred pulled chicken
• Fresh pineapple chunks – yes, pineapple could actually have a place in the pizza
• Red cayenne chilies
• Sliced onions
• Aji Verde salsa drizzle
For an authentic taco experience, this delicious Mexican-inspired pizza comes with a sauce-free base. Besides the Aji Verde salsa, flame-charred pulled chicken, and red cayenne chilies, the base also retains a thin crust, which ensures you get the tacos' full taste.
As mentioned earlier, this pizza also includes pineapple slices, which may sound a little misplaced or blasphemous to some people, but trust me, it really works! Fewer ingredients may also mean that you'll end up with a lot of pineapple slices on your pizza, which interestingly works quite well with some mayo and a little mustard.
The Spicy Chicken Tinga taco pizza has less of a taco flavor than the original taco pizza. Still, the combination of the pineapple, the flame-charred pulled chicken, and the rest of the flavors makes it an interesting option.
Not every Papa John's Pizza place offers the Spicy Chicken Tinga taco pizza, so hopefully, your local pizza place offers it.
C. Papa John’s Garden Fresh Pizza
If you are vegan or prefer your pizza meatless, Papa John’s Pizza offers the Garden fresh pizza, one of their best meatless specialties and bestsellers.
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The mix of flavors on this pizza gives such an incredible taste. Its ingredients include:
• Fresh-cut onions
• Ripe black olives
• Green peppers
• Vine-ripened Roma tomatoes
• Mushrooms
• Mozzarella cheese
This delicious Garden Fresh pizza proves that you do not always need meat for a great pizza. I would definitely recommend trying it.
D. Papa John’s Double Cheeseburger Pizza
Another fan favorite at Papa John's Pizza place is the Double Cheeseburger pizza. This cheese pizza is perfect for you if you love that extra cheese-y flavor.
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I would recommend eating it with mayo or some barbeque sauce on the side. Nothing beats this on a well-seasoned extra cheese pizza and a cold drink on a Friday night.
Like all the other pizzas at Papa John's, you can customize it to suit your buds, whether you like it a little extra spicy hot, or milder. You also get crust options, which include the thin or stuffed crust. I biasedly always go for the thin crust.
E. Papa John’s Spicy Italian Pizza
Like the Spicy Chicken Tinga Taco pizza, the Spicy Italian Pizza is also unavailable at all Papa John’s pizza locations. However, since they allow customization of the pizza, you can easily recreate it with all the right ingredients and toppings.
Image Credit: papajohns.com
If you like your pizza with some heat, this Italian pizza is also a great pick. A great way to stir things up on pizza night. Its ingredients include:
- Papa John’s spicy Italian sausage
- Roasted beef chunks
- Premium pepperoni
- Melted mozzarella cheese
- Sliced onions
We can all agree that mayo goes perfectly well with everything at this point. So, some mayo and barbeque sauce or hot sauce will do well with this.
The General Nutrition Advice per Serving of Papa John’s Pizzas
The number of calories in pizza slices varies depending on the type and toppings, but here is the general nutrition advice per serving; more specifically, the large Papa John’s slice with the original taco pizza crust:
- Total Fat - 18g 23%
- Saturated Fat - 8g 40%
- Trans Fat - 0.5g
- Dietary Fiber 3g 11%
- Total Sugars 5g
- Total Carbs - 46g 17%
- Cholesterol - 35mg 12%
- Sodium - 1000mg 43%
- Protein - 16g 32%
- Calories - 410 % Daily Value
PS: The percentage Daily Value (DV) helps you understand how much a nutrient in each serving of food contributes to your daily diet. The general nutrition advice for full-grown adults is 2,000 calories a day.
The Calorie Burn Time (CBT) refers to how long it would take to burn off the number of calories in a serving (a large slice of Taco Pizza). The time needed to burn off calories would depend on the exercise chosen to burn off calories.
Typically, this amount of calories (410 calories) would need; 2 hours, 59 minutes of walking or 51 minutes of jogging or 51 minutes of cycling, or 1 hour and 12 minutes of swimming to burn off.
Factors to Consider When Ordering Papa John’s Pizzas
Before you order any of your favorite pizzas so far, here are a few tips and factors you need to consider for the best purchase:
a) Pizza Shop Locations
Papa John’s Pizza ranks as one of the top pizza places globally, with more than 2600 delivery hubs in the USA and an additional 5000 restaurants globally.
Of these, Texas hosts the highest number of hubs in the USA. Florida comes in the second spot with 286 pizza shops and franchises. With this in mind, you'd understand why Papa John’s pizzas in the USA pizza shops significantly vary from those offered in the rest of the world. However, since they allow customization, you can always recreate any of your favorite picks.
b) Pizza Sizes
Unlike the normal pizza sizes, Papa John's pizzas run from a small to an extra extra large size.
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The small pizza runs 9.5 inches across and is cut into 6 perfect slices. The medium pizza runs 11.5 inches across and cuts into 8 slices. The large-size pizza runs 13.5 inches across and cuts into 10 slices. The extra extra large pizza runs 15.5 inches across and cuts into 12 slices of pure deliciousness.
c) Pizza Types
Besides the major fan favorites, Papa John's pizza has a wide variety of interesting pizza choices. I am a fairly decisive person, but I am always spoilt for choice, which can be a good problem to have at times, especially if you want to try something different every other time.
The rest of the pizza types you can choose from include:
- BBQ Chicken Bacon Pizza
- Double Bacon six Cheese pizza
- Tropical Luau pizza
- Original Buffalo Chicken pizza
- Cheesy Chicken Cordon Bleu
- Spinach Alfredo
- Grilled Chicken and Canadian Bacon pizza
- Tuscan Six Cheese pizza
- Original the Meat pizza
- Hawaiian BBQ Chicken pizza
- Chicken and Veggie pizza
- Grilled Chicken Club pizza
- Original the Works pizza
- Original Pepperoni pizza
- Original sausage pizza
- Original pizza pizza
See what I mean? You're welcome!
d) Number of Pizzas to Order
You have pizza night at your place; how many pizzas should you order?
The number of pizzas to order will depend on factors such as:
- The number of people (children and adults) you will have over
- Whether it is a pizza-only eating event
- Do you want a few leftovers to keep
In an ideal situation, most adults would have three to four slices of pizza; on the other hand, most kids would have a maximum of two slices. But if your friends are like mine, you should definitely add a slice or two of pizza for every person, especially if you plan to order the small size or the thin-crust pizza.
On most occasions, one large pizza is enough for two to four adults, depending on whether you'll pair it with anything else. The perfect pairings and snacks would include wings and french fries. If you were hanging out for a while, an extra pizza would come in handy.
For more precise results with a larger crowd, for instance, ten or more than 50 people, you can use an online pizza calculator to determine the precise number of pizza boxes you need.
e) Papa John’s Pizza Prices
On average, Papa John's pizza prices range from $4 to $35. These prices will vary depending on the toppings and type you pick. The prices will also vary depending on your state and region. For instance, the prices in California are slightly higher than in other states.
Besides pizza, Papa John's Pizza place menu also includes drinks and other types of food, such as chicken drumsticks.
Are there Any Downsides to Papa John’s Taco Pizza?
We can all agree that Papa John’s got the taste and blend of flavors quite well, but the one thing that always comes up repeatedly is the placement of the nachos.
Most people complain that too many nachos are loosely placed on top of the pizza, which means you will probably make too much of a mess while eating.
Another thing that usually comes up is the dryness of the pizza. With no tomato sauce base, the combination of ingredients can get a little dry, and you will need a drink to wash it down.
Despite all this, the taco pizzas are better than anything else you might have tried. I am always pleasantly surprised by the Spicy Chicken Tinga Taco pizza, but this far, I like the original taco pizza more.
Is Papa John’s Pizzas Worth Trying?
There are a lot of pizza places, but we can all agree that pizza is not just pizza, and not many pizza places have nailed it yet.
If you love Mexican cuisine and tacos, the taco pizzas at Papa John’s are definitely worth trying. Papa John’s pizza perfectly recreates a great taco experience with an interesting blend of flavors, but on a pizza. The refried beans, nachos, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, taco sauce, and lettuce really bring out the Tex-Mex flavor.
Papa John's pizzas give you the best of both Italian and Mexican cuisines. The hand-tossed crusts are topped with a rich amount of toppings that give it a diverse and rich flavor.
Papa John's pizza places offer full customization options that allow you to recreate your experience on different pizza sizes using various options. This allows you to customize the kind of flavor you want to end up with. You can choose everything from the type of crust to the type of toppings you want.
Additionally, you can order Papa John’s pizza either online or physically if you prefer to have the pizza at the restaurant.
In conclusion, Papa John's Taco pizza offers you something different from ordinary everyday pizza. Unlike regular pizza places, they go the extra mile to create a pizza experience like no other by giving you the best of both Mexican and Italian cuisine worlds. I would definitely recommend trying both the Original Taco pizza and the Spicy Chicken Tinga Taco pizza –the former being my favorite. Enjoy!
