buffalo chicken pizza

Last night I tried another new recipe and it was quite delicious, though I would change a couple things.

The biggest thing I'd change is to leave it as a pizza and not roll it up into a loaf.

I used THIS RECIPE but I will post it below as well with my changes.

1 large boneless chicken breasts
olive oil
1 pizza dough (I used Pillsbury but you could make your own)
shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup of Franks Wing Sauce (I used western family brand)
ranch dressing (or bleu cheese)

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 425°F.

Cut chicken into cubes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Heat teaspoon of olive oil in skillet and add chicken when hot.  Cook chicken completely and then add 1/3 cup of wing sauce.  Stir to coat chicken and let simmer for a minute or two.  Take chicken off heat and let cool. (at this point I shredded my chicken so it wasn't in big chunks)


Roll out your dough on a greased pan. If you are making a pizza and not a loaf go ahead and bake your crust for about 6 minutes. Remove from oven and top with ranch dressing (however much you want) and a little bit of wing sauce, maybe 1-2 T depending on how spicy you like it. Spread the sauce around so it mixes into the ranch. My sauce wasn't very spicy, in fact the pizza didn't taste spicy at all.
Anyway, top with your shredded chicken and however much cheese you want. If you roll it up into a loaf I recommend using less cheese than you would for a pizza.
Put it in the oven. For pizza cook for 6-9 more minutes, for a loaf cook for 13-17 minutes. Loafs can be a little tricky because you can't see if the inside is done, that's why I recommend just doing a pizza.


Next time I may add more wing sauce cause it didn't have a ton of flavor but it was still delicious! Enjoy!
 

California Club Pizza

If you know anything about my cooking, you know I LOVE pizza. I am not talking about plain old red sauce and pepperoni pizza {although I still think it is yummy}. I am talking about delicious specialty pizzas which usually include chicken.  I make a variety of different pizzas, but I am pretty sure this is my all time favorite. And lucky for you, it is also one of the easiest!

This pizza is a direct replication of the California Club Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. I always used to go there just for this pizza. I decided that I could try replicating it on my own and it tastes EXACTLY like it came from CPK.  Since making it on my own, I never have a reason to go there anymore!  This pizza tastes so fresh, it is perfect for summer.

Also, are you still buying your pizza dough? Give the recipe below a try! It is SO EASY! Don't be intimidated by the yeast. I think that pizza dough is the perfect place to start using yeast because if your dough isn't perfect, it doesn't ruin the pizza.

Pizza before toppings are added. This is how I store my leftovers as well.

California Club Pizza

1/2 recipe pizza dough (see below)

1 chicken breast cooked and cut into small pieces {cooking method is all preference here. I browned mine in a little olive oil and salt & pepper}
6 slices of bacon - cooked and chopped into small pieces
Grated Mozzarella cheese {I'm not putting a direct measurement here because 1- everyone has different preferences for how cheesy they like their pizza 2- does anyone actually measure cheese?}
2 Tomatoes, sliced and slightly salted
1 Avocado, sliced
1/2 head Romaine Lettuce, chopped into tiny pieces {like almost pulverized :)}
Mayonnaise - desired amount. I like a little, my husband likes a lot.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roll out dough onto pizza stone leaving the outer area slightly thicker to create a crust.  Poke holes in dough to prevent bubbles and leave standing for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare chicken and grate cheese.  After dough has slightly risen, layer chicken and cheese on the pizza. Put into oven and bake for about 10 minutes. Pull out and top with bacon. Put back into oven and bake until crust is golden and cheese is starting to get small brown spots (about an additional 5-10 minutes). When pizza comes out of the oven, let it cool just slightly for a few minutes. During that time, toss lettuce with mayonnaise. Top pizza with tomatoes and avocado and finish off with the lettuce/mayo mixture.

Pizza Dough
Note: This recipe makes enough for TWO pizzas. I always make the full recipe, let the dough rise, cut the dough in half, wrap it in plastic wrap and throw it into the freezer for another time. {When you are ready to use the frozen dough, just pull it out a few hours before you need it and let it rise until double in size.}

1 1/2 c. very warm water
1 Tbs yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbs oil - I use olive

3 1/2 - 4 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

Combine yeast, sugar and water in a bowl (or bowl of KitchenAid). Let stand for about 5-10 minutes. When the yeast is ready, the foam of the mixture will be about 1/2 inch thick. Add salt, oil and add flour in 1/2 c. increments until dough is fully combined. You want the dough to be slightly tacky, but not too sticky, so adjust flour measurements as needed. Knead by hand or mixer for 5-7 minutes. Cover with towel and let rise about 1 hour until doubled in size.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

above:pizza ready for the oven

I'm so excited to welcome Kari to the blog! She posted the great recipe below and I'm patiently waiting to see what else she will add to this neglected blog! Hopefully things will slow down for us so I can actually remember to take pictures of my dinner before I eat it. :)

Yes, another pizza recipe. But who doesn't like pizza? It's always a good go-to and since the dough is so easy, and there's a million variations that work to mix things up. BBQ chicken is one of my faves. Plus its easy.

Start with my favorite pizza dough recipe.
Last time I made it I used half white flour half whole wheat flour to make it a little healthier.

Let it rise, roll it out- Here's what you can top it with:

-BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's is my favorite BBQ sauce right now)
-tons of mozzarella
-grilled chicken
-chopped onion: red onion is good, green onions, or shallots (david's favorite)
-chopped fresh cilantro
-sprinkle of salt and pepper
-sprinkle of red pepper flakes to give it a little spice
For a hawaiian twist you can even add some pineapple.

Bake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes- or until the cheese is bubbly and brown and the bottom of the pizza is browned.

Stuff that looks good

It's pizza day at our house. My dough rising as I type. I even made homemade sauce for the pizza this time! I was browsing through tastespotting.com and found 3 new takes on pizza dough I need to try SOON.

Pizza bites look fun and easy, just to mix things up from the normal pizza pie.

David loves homemade breadsticks so I'll need to give these a try as well.

And last but not least, I NEED to make this stromboli. Instead of the feta I'd use mozarella, since I'm quite picky about my cheese selections.

On a note completely unrelated to pizza, here's an image of a dinner I made last week. I barbecued chicken legs and vegetable kebabs. I'm so excited to get back into grilling now that it's finally warm.

Asian Chicken Pizza

Kristine showed me this recipe at a girl's night last year. At first I thought it sounded so strange- asian flavors on pizza with mozzarella. Well, I was wrong. It is delicious! We also have been using a new dough recipe I found on tastespotting.com. I recommend this dough recipe because it's the best one we've found and we've probably tried about 8 different ones in the past few years.


Topping:

2 chicken breasts
1 tablespoon oil (vegetable or olive oil)
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon corn starch

2-3 cups grated mozzarella

Make your dough and let it rise. In a bowl combine the oil, vinegar, soy, garlic and green onions. Chop the chicken breasts into bite size pieces and let them sit in the marinade for 30 minutes. Saute the chicken and sauce together in a pan after it's marinated. Cook the mixture for about 5-7 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink anywhere. Stir in the corn starch and turn the heat off.
Once the dough is risen, roll it out. I made two large-ish pizzas and topped them with the sauce, chicken + mozzarella cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until the cheese has started to brown and the bottom of the pizza is golden. You won't be disappointed!

english muffin pizzas

like i said before, we have pizza usually once a week. i try to mix it up between pepperoni, pesto or asian. when we're really busy or i do not feel like waiting for my breadmaker to mix up some dough, we make pizzas on english muffins or bagels. you can add whatever toppings you like and even us whole wheat bagels or english muffins as the base. they are so good! and i can imagine kids liking the individual portions and even helping assemble the toppings.

english muffins or bagels
pizza sauce (i like the jarred kind)
mozzarella cheese
pepperoni
i also like to add pineapple to mine
a sprinkle of salt and pepper, or garlic salt

i toast the base before putting the toppings on, to ensure that it is crispy and not soggy. bake at 400 until the cheese is bubbly and the bottom seems crisp. keep an eye on them, they're done fast. never gets old :)

what we're having tonight

Pizza! Lately I've been making homemade pizza once a week. Kristine introduced me to the pesto pizza which is delicious, but tonight I'm making regular pepperoni. I use our breadmaker to make the crust.

Dough:

Throw all of this into the breadmaker and set on the dough setting

2 1/4 c flour
1 T dry milk
2 T olive oil
1 T honey
1 1/4 c warm water
1 t yeast (heaping)
2 t salt

another option for the dough is stopping by your favorite pizza joint and asking them if you can purchase some of their dough. usually it's cheap and delicious.


Sauce:

1 can pizza sauce
4 garlic cloves chopped

Cheese:

3 c grated mozarella

I add pepperoni to the top or sometimes I add pineapple pieces too.

For the sauce I buy canned pizza sauce and add chopped garlic to it. The dough makes enough for about 3 personal pizzas.