Sunday, September 12, 2010

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I was bad and made homemade pizza. There are a lot of yummy pizza crust recipes out there, but I usually make some sort of variation from Ree's recipe because I am too indecisive to choose another one. (Plus, a lot of recipes have too much yeast = beer taste, which I think is gross.)

Basic Pizza Crust (makes two crusts)

Ingredients
1 tsp instant or active dry yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup olive oil

Directions
See here for the non cheater, knead it yourself method (at the bottom of the post).

What I do: Put all of the ingredients in a bread maker in this order: water, olive oil, flour, salt, yeast. Press start! (Mine takes an hour and a half to make dough). You can use regular salt if you don't have kosher salt (I forgot and used regular tonight). You can also use different flours. I've done 4 cups all purpose, 2 cups all purpose + 2 cups whole wheat, and 4 cups bread flour. If you want a thicker crust, bread flour is the way to go (what I made tonight).

**This makes two pizza crusts. I usually make one BBQ chicken pizza and one pepperoni.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Ingredients (for one pizza)
1/2 of the dough from the above recipe
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
barbecue sauce
ranch dressing (optional)
olive oil
salt
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or 8 oz of the real stuff, sliced thin)
1/3 red onion, cut in half and sliced very thin
chopped cilantro, to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Salt chicken breast on both sides, then place in an ovenproof dish. Pour BBQ sauce over the breast and turn them over to coat. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until chicken is done. Remove from oven and cut into a fine dice. Set aside.

Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees.

Roll/stretch out one pizza crust. Lay it on a sheet pan drizzled with olive oil. Drizzle a little olive oil on the crust, then sprinkle on a little salt.

Spoon a couple of tablespoons of extra BBQ sauce on the crust and spread it evenly. (You can use ranch dressing if you don't want it too barbecue-y.) Top sauce with the mozzarella. Sprinkle on the diced chicken and thinly sliced red onion.

Sprinkle again with a little salt, then bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle on plenty of chopped cilantro. Cut and serve immediately.

**Note: If your crust is rock hard after 15 minutes, don't worry. It will soften as it cools. It happens to me every time I make pizza/calzone rolls.

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