Recipe #27: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

As you can tell from this blog, we're a fan of pizzas. Instead of doing the usual veggie pizza for myself and meat-loaded pizza for my husband, I went in a different direction. I grilled the chicken, and spiced up the sauce (by a lot), and we got a winner. If this preparation is too spicy for you, feel free to change the ration of hot sauce to Frank's Red Hot to be more your liking.

Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Cooking time: 30 minutes (total)

Ingredients
1 package of prepared pizza dough*
1 tablespoon salted butter
1/3 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons Frank’s Red Hot sauce
4 ounces cheddar cheese
12 ounces chicken tenders*
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
Salt and pepper to taste

Tools
Grill (gas or charcoal)
Pizza stone*
Small saucepan

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. (If using pizza stone, allow stone to sit in hot oven while preheating, up to 45 minutes)

Stretch dough into any shape, ensuring it’s no thicker than one inch in any section. Coat pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal, to prevent stickage and give pizza a restaurant taste and feel.



Season chicken tenders with salt and pepper. Grill on high for 4-5 minutes, turning once, or until chicken is cooked all the way through. Remove, let cool.



While chicken is cooling, in small saucepan, simmer Frank’s Red Hot, butter, tomato sauce, garlic, and onion powder. When butter has melted and mixture has been evenly combined, set aside.

Place untopped dough into the oven for 5 minutes to rise slightly. Remove from oven and carefully pierce with fork.*

Chop chicken into 1-inch pieces (roughly), and toss with two tablespoons of sauce in a separate bowl.



Coat pizza dough with the sauce, not allowing sauce to pool too much in any one spot. Add chicken, top with cheddar cheese.

Cook at 450 for 15-20 minutes, until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.



Comments
*Pizza dough: The type of dough I used for this is not the type you can roll out from Pillsbury, but the type usually sold in the dairy section in plastic bags. The amount of pizza you'll end up with obviously depends on how much you buy, but with a typical bag from the grocery store, I can usually get about 8 pieces of pizza. If your local store doesn't have that, that's OK. You can use Pillsbury pizza dough (it comes in the same type of container as crescent rolls). Just know that you'll have to do much less stretching and much more rolling to avoid breaking the dough. Also, the reason I slightly bake the crust before topping it is to avoid ending up with a crust that's not cooked on the bottom or in the middle because I loaded it with too many toppings when it was raw.

*Chicken tenders: When I use this phrase, I mean “chicken tenders” as “raw chicken.” I do not mean breaded chicken fingers. If you would prefer to use chicken tenders, you’d have to pre-cook them, then cut them into small pieces and skip the grilling portion. Up to you, but just wanted to clarify.

*Pizza stone: Just a reminder for stone newbs, or in case you were just looking for some hints. Here are my best pizza stone tips. If you don't have a pizza stone -- a round terra cotta stone that can be heated to very high temperatures to give food a crisp -- that's okay. For this, you can use parchment paper on a cookie sheet, but you may need to slightly adjust the cooking temperature and time for whatever the parchment paper degree limit is. If you have a pizza stone and (like me) hadn't used it until recently, here are a few things you should know:

-Always let your pizza stone stay in the oven "baking" for about half an hour to 45 minutes before adding food to it. Otherwise, the stone can break if it's subjected to too much heat too quickly. Not allowing it to preheat can also cause whatever you cook on it to stick. In this case, sprinkle additional corn meal on the stone before you put the dough on it.

-Double up on the pot holders. You'll burn your hands very, very easily if you attempt to grab a 450-degree inch of terra cotta. Do yourself (and your fingerprints) a favor, and use two. Before you take the stone out of the oven to place whatever you plan to cook on top of it, make sure you have a plan for where you'll set it down to do that. You don't want to end up melting whatever you set it down on.

-Don't worry if oil gets onto the stone. That's actually good. The more oil bakes into the stone, the more "seasoned" and "weathered" it is for baking.

-Don't wash your pizza stone with soap. If you do, it will have the same effect as if you dumped oil all over it -- you'll taste Palmolive in all your foods from now on. Just use cold water, and let the stone cool completely (even overnight) before "washing."

Recipe #21: Garlic Knots

If you don't LOVE garlic, don't read any further. This recipe isn't for the faint of heart (or breath). You WILL smell like garlic after you eat these. This is a quick, cheap and easy recipe, and I can assure you -- as can my husband -- that these garlic knots are delicious. One other warning though, you will definitely get your hands dirty, so keep some dish soap nearby. Aside from the dough (which you can buy or make, if you have a favorite pizza dough recipe) most of these ingredients are likely things you already have in your refrigerator and spice cabinet. They're a quick appetizer and an alternative to regular bread with pasta. Enjoy!

Garlic Knots
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
pre-made store bought pizza dough
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp minced garlic*
6 tbsp butter, melted (30 sec. in microwave in glass measuring cup)
1 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp onion salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
pinch salt
pinch dried parsley
marinara sauce for dipping (optional)


Tools
parchment paper
baking sheet pan
glass measuring cup
mixing bowl
barbecue brush or spoon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll/press pizza dough into a 9x12 rectangle (approximate).



To measuring cup of melted butter, add garlic powder, salt, olive oil, onion salt, parsley. Mix until combined. Using either spoon or brush, spread about 3/4 of butter mixture evenly onto dough. Distribute 1/2 cup of garlic on top of dough.



Cut dough into six strips of about the same size.



Tie each one into knots repeatedly until untied edges are no longer than one inch. Place each knot into mixing bowl, and when all six are tied, pour remaining butter mixture over them, and toss to evenly coat. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Cover baking sheet in parchment paper. Place knots on parchment paper, and top each with a small amount of remaining garlic.



Bake at 325 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and let cool. Serve alone or with a side of marinara sauce.



Comments:
-Garlic: You have seen me post many times that I don't use fresh garlic when I cook, unless it's going to be almost raw in the dish. What I use instead is a huge jar of Spice World minced garlic. It saves me the time of having to chop (and have my hands smell like) garlic for any given recipe. Using this type of jarred garlic is highly recommended for this recipe. It has a slightly bitterness to it that gives a great flavor to the knots.

Recipe #20: Tuscan Chicken and Veggie White Pizza with Feta

I love making homemade pizza (see my first recipe as proof). Nothing against take-out pizza once in a while, but something about homemade pizza is just plain better. You can top it with whatever you like, as much or as little, throw any crazy toppings you like in and don't have to worry about tipping a delivery guy.

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers program, I received some free products from Bertolli -- a jar each of their Four Cheese Rosa and spicy Arrabbiata (pretty sure the translation is "cannot wait to use in a recipe") sauces. Normally, I'd do a red sauce with pizza, but this time I decided to shake things up and do a white pizza with the Four Cheese Rosa sauce. Though I normally shy away from jarred sauces as I like the purer flavor you get from making your own, I foresee a stocked pantry of Four Cheese Rosa in our future.

I used my pizza stone for this recipe, but you can also bake the pizza on a cookie sheet. Just be sure to drizzle with olive oil, make sure it's nice and hot, and coat with cornmeal. In case you do use a pizza stone, I've included my pizza stone maintenance tips at the bottom of the recipe.

Before I delve into my recipe, I just have to say that besides the taste, Bertolli impressed me in another way -- their serious packaging. Talk about intense, and beautiful at the same time.

The outside of the box is meant to resemble a menu...



...while the inside has cleverly-designed spaces for the sauces and offers a sample menu of ways they can be used.



Honestly, Bertolli -- bonus points for presentation. Now, onward with the recipe! Enjoy!

Ingredients
3 roma tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic, minced*
1 12-ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts
1/2 cup Bertolli Four Cheese Roma sauce
4 ounces grilled chicken breast*
1 cup feta cheese
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup cornmeal
premade refrigerated pizza dough*
salt and pepper to taste

Tools
pizza stone (optional)
2 cookie sheets or 1 sheet pan and a loaf pan

Prep: Chop artichokes into one inch sections. Grill chicken (season with salt and pepper) until cooked through; separate into smaller pieces. Set both aside.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. (If using pizza stone, allow stone to sit in hot oven while preheating, up to 45 minutes) Slice tomatoes into three our four half-inch slices each. Place in loaf pan or on cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and sugar and top with two cloves of minced garlic. Bake for 15 minutes.

Before:


After:


Stretch pizza dough to desired shape (I went for a rectangle that ended up being about a foot long). Coat pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal, to prevent stickage and give pizza a restaurant taste and feel.



Place untopped dough into the oven for 5 minutes to rise slightly. Remove from oven and carefully pierce with fork.*

Top pizza first with Four Cheese Rosa sauce, distributing evenly, but leaving area for crust. Top next with remaining minced garlic, then chicken, next tomatoes, artichokes, and finally, crumble feta over the top.



Bake at 450 for 20-25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese has browned. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.









*Comments:

-Garlic: I don't usually use fresh garlic when I cook, unless it's going to be almost raw in the dish. What I use instead is a huge jar of Spice World minced garlic. It saves me the time of having to chop (and have my hands smell like) garlic for any given recipe. For this recipe, if you use the jarred garlic, use three tablespoons (one for the tomatoes, the remaining two for the pizza).

*Chicken breast: I literally took about four ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders, seasoned with salt and pepper and stuck it on the grill. Once it was slightly charred, I removed it and broke it into smaller pieces. No fancy techniques here.

*Pizza dough: The type of dough I used for this is not the type you can roll out from Pillsbury, but the type usually sold in the dairy section in plastic bags. The amount of pizza you'll end up with obviously depends on how much you buy, but with a typical bag from the grocery store, I can usually get about 8 pieces of pizza. If your local store doesn't have that, that's OK. You can use Pillsbury pizza dough (it comes in the same type of container as crescent rolls). Just know that you'll have to do much less stretching and much more rolling to avoid breaking the dough. Also, the reason I slightly bake the crust before topping it is to avoid ending up with a crust that's not cooked on the bottom or in the middle because I loaded it with too many toppings when it was raw.

*Pizza stone: Oh, pizza stone, what a mystery you are. If you don't have a pizza stone -- a round terra cotta stone that can be heated to very high temperatures to give food a crisp -- that's okay. For this, you can use parchment paper on a cookie sheet, but you may need to slightly adjust the cooking temperature and time for whatever the parchment paper degree limit is. If you have a pizza stone and (like me) hadn't used it until recently, here are a few things you should know.

*Always let your pizza stone stay in the oven "baking" for about half an hour to 45 minutes before adding food to it. Otherwise, the stone can break if it's subjected to too much heat too quickly. Not allowing it to preheat can also cause whatever you cook on it to stick. In this case, sprinkle additional corn meal on the stone before you put the dough on it.

*Double up on the pot holders. You'll burn your hands very, very easily if you attempt to grab a 450-degree inch of terra cotta. Do yourself (and your fingerprints) a favor, and use two. Before you take the stone out of the oven to place whatever you plan to cook on top of it, make sure you have a plan for where you'll set it down to do that. You don't want to end up melting whatever you set it down on.

*Don't worry if pesto or oil gets onto the stone. That's actually good. The more oil bakes into the stone, the more "seasoned" and "weathered" it is for baking.

*Don't wash your pizza stone with soap. If you do, it will have the same effect as if you dumped oil all over it -- you'll be tasting Palmolive in all your foods from now on. Just use cold water, and let the stone cool completely (even overnight) before "washing."

Recipe #1: Pesto Pizza With Goat Cheese

I love using pizza dough from the grocery store to create a bunch of different kinds of pizzas. The pizza below is one I've made a few times, and it just gets better every time. Please note -- wherever you see a (*) next to an ingredient or tool, there is a comment about it below the recipe. Enjoy!

Pesto Pizza with Goat Cheese

Cooking time: 12-15 minutes

You'll need:

Ingredients
2 cups basil leaves
6 cloves of garlic, chopped*
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of pine nuts*
1/2 cup cornmeal
5 1/2 ounces goat cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Premade pizza dough*


Tools
food processor
pizza stone*
paddle or large cutting board to transfer dough to stone
spoon


To prepare pesto: If pine nuts are whole, add them to the food processor before any other ingredients and pulse until finely chopped. Add basil, garlic, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Put lid on processor, and pulse, slowly adding 1/4 cup olive oil. When well-blended, add remaining parmesan cheese and remaining olive oil, continue to pulse. Remove lid, add salt and pepper to taste. Set pesto aside. Yields 1 cup.



Preheat oven to 450. Use 1/4 cup cornmeal to sprinkle on surface where you'll be preparing the pizza. Stretch pizza dough into a rectangle or square. Size will depend on dough purchased, but dough should be no more than 1/2 inch thick in center and 3/4 to 1 inch thick for crust. Use spoon or brush to apply 3/4 cup pesto to dough, leaving an inch around the edges for crust. With hands, crumble goat cheese onto pesto.



Place onto pizza stone into 450-degree oven for 12-15 minutes until crust is raised and golden brown, and cheese is slightly browned. Serve!




*Comments:
-Garlic: I don't usually use fresh garlic when I cook, unless it's going to be almost raw in the dish. What I use instead is a huge jar of Spice World minced garlic. It saves me the time of having to chop (and have my hands smell like) garlic for any given recipe. For this recipe, if you use the jarred garlic, use two tablespoons.

-Pine nuts: Sometimes, these are also called Pignoles. I can usually find them either in the produce section, or in the 'international foods' aisle at the store. If your store doesn't carry them, you can substitute walnuts for pine nuts in this recipe.

-Pizza dough: The type of dough I used for this is not the type you can roll out from Pillsbury, but the type usually sold in the dairy section in plastic bags. The amount of pizza you'll end up with obviously depends on how much you buy, but with a typical bag from the grocery store, I can usually get about 8 pieces of pizza.

-Pizza stone: Oh, pizza stone, what a mystery you are. If you don't have a pizza stone -- a round terra cotta stone that can be heated to very high temperatures to give food a crisp -- that's okay. For this, you can use parchment paper on a cookie sheet, but you may need to slightly adjust the cooking temperature and time for whatever the parchment paper degree limit is. If you have a pizza stone and (like me) hadn't used it until recently, here are a few things you should know.

*Always let your pizza stone stay in the oven "baking" for about half an hour to 45 minutes before adding food to it. Otherwise, the stone can break if it's subjected to too much heat too quickly. Not allowing it to preheat can also cause whatever you cook on it to stick. In this case, sprinkle additional corn meal on the stone before you put the dough on it.

*Double up on the pot holders. You'll burn your hands very, very easily if you attempt to grab a 450-degree inch of terra cotta. Do yourself (and your fingerprints) a favor, and use two. Before you take the stone out of the oven to place whatever you plan to cook on top of it, make sure you have a plan for where you'll set it down to do that. You don't want to end up melting whatever you set it down on.

*Don't worry if pesto or oil gets onto the stone. That's actually good. The more oil bakes into the stone, the more "seasoned" and "weathered" it is for baking.

*Don't wash your pizza stone with soap. If you do, it will have the same effect as if you dumped oil all over it -- you'll be tasting Palmolive in all your foods from now on. Just use cold water, and let the stone cool completely (even overnight) before "washing."

Enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions!