Thai Chicken Pizza

This is one of our Rachael Ray FAVES (though I think our recipe has evolved slightly from her original)!

Thankfully I actually watched the show where she made this pizza and saw how easy it was, because just seeing the long ingredient list would have been enough to keep me from attempting what turned out to be a Wonderful Treat! This is the perfect pizza if you are looking for something totally different- it’s sweet, spicy, savory, fresh and full of flavor! It you are feeling adventurous give it a try, I’ve found it to be quite the crowd pleaser!

Ingredients:

(for pizza)

1 pizza dough

½ cup duck sauce

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 cups shredded monterey jack or provolone cheese

½ red bell pepper thinly sliced

(for chicken)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 rounded teaspoon peanut butter

2 teaspoons hot sauce

2 teaspoons steak season (montreal steak seasoning- or another that you like)

½ pound thinly sliced chicken (about 4 breast cutlets)

(cucumber garnish- after pizza comes out of the oven)

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or cider vinegar

¼ seedless cucumber peeled and cut into matchsticks

( garnish- after pizza comes out of the oven)

1 cup bean sprouts

4 scallions chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

Form pizza crust on pizza pan or cookie sheet. Top with duck sauce - spread it around like you would pizza sauce. Sprinkle the pizza with some crushed red pepper flakes then top with cheese and peppers. Bake until golden and bubbly, 15 to 17 minutes.

Preheat a frying pan over medium-high heat. Combine vegetable oil, soy sauce and peanut butter with hot sauce and grill seasoning. Use the microwave to loosen up peanut butter if it is too cold to blend into sauce, 10 seconds ought to do it. Add thinly sliced chicken and coat evenly with mixture. Let stand 10 minutes then pan fry chicken until cooked through.

While chicken cooks, mix honey and vinegar and add the cucumber. Turn to coat evenly.

Top the hot, cooked pizza with chicken, scallions, and sprouts. Drain cucumbers and scatter over the pizza. Enjoy!

Hayes Family Pizza Night!

Pizza night is a weekly thing around here and has been for the last 4 years or so. We're always looking for new ways to make the crust and new toppings. We usually have a simple green chile and turkey pepperoni pizza and them something else like a Philly Cheese Steak pizza or maybe BBQ Chicken (my husband's favorite!). For now I will share our crust recipe and then later add now we make the toppings for our specialty pies.

The recipe below can be split in half for two smaller pies or used for one larger pie. You can use half wheat and half white if you'd like. I often add ground flax or wheat germ for an added nutritional boost. You can also substitute garlic salt for regular salt and add in whichever herbs you like.

Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

1 packet yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons

1 cup warm water

Sprinkle of sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp oil

2 1/2 cups flour

Directions:

Add yeast to the warm water and sprinkle with sugar. Allow the yeast to activate for a few minutes.

Mix together 1 cup of flour with the salt. Once the yeast has activated, add to the flour and mix. Add the rest of the flour little by little until you have a nice dough. It may not take all of the flour!!

Roll out the dough and place on a greased pizza sheet. (At this point you can roll the edges out a bit thinner and then add cheese to the outside of the crust. Roll the crust over and seal with water. Now you have a cheesy crust! Yum! I will then add some butter, garlic salt and Parmesan cheese to the crust just before baking.) Prick wholes with a fork in the dough. Allow the dough to rise for 15-30 minutes.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Add your toppings and then cook for another 15 minutes or until your cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Pizza A La Fridge Clean Out

Ah, the forgiving pizza crust. Add whatever to it, cover it in cheese, bake, and you've got dinner! Tonight's crust is another generous recipe from Sydni. It has been my favorite homemade recipe yet and it was so very quick and easy. Truly, I made this pizza faster than it could have been delivered. And the best part? I used a bunch of leftovers for toppings. Half a grilled chicken breast, chopped tomatoes, leftover basil, red onion, capers, a bit of olive salad, fresh spinich from today's LPO box. It was good. And don't worry if you don't have spaghetti sauce. Just brush the entire crust with olive oil and chopped garlic instead.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups flour ( I use one c. fresh ground whole wheat, one c. unbleached white)
3/4 cup warm water
1 T. yeast
1 t. sugar
1 T. olive oil
1/2 t. salt
1 T. parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

In large mixing bowl fitted with dough hook, dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/4 c. of warm water. Let the mixture sit 5 minutes until yeast has expanded and is bubbly. Add flour, oil, salt, and cheese to the mixture. Turn on the mixer and mix and knead the ingredients adding the remaining water until the dough scrapes the sides of the bowl and you have a smooth and elastic ball of dough. (You may need to add water 1 T. at at time until dough cleans the sides of the bowl.) Place dough ball on greased baking sheet turning over once to grease the top of the dough. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let the dough rest 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. After dough has rested, shape into desired pizza shape. Add toppings, brush crust with olive oil and bake for 18 minutes.