BBQ Chicken Pizza

Thank you California Pizza Kitchen for turning me onto the wonder that is Barbeque Chicken Pizza.  If you have ever had this pizza, it's phenomenal.  It's also very, very easy to recreate at home.

Or your home away from home for a weekend in Vermont. 

Which, by the way, had a full kitchen and counterspace. And a dishwasher.  And a full stove.  It was magnificent.  I didn't want to come home to my little (cockroach infested) studio kitchen. 

Sob, Sob.  Cockroaches.  I digress.

Behold: A little red onion that had big dreams of becoming something bigger than his little onion self.  Like a caramelized onion.

Start by halfing the whole onion.

And chopping into perfect little red onion slivers.

And toss the entire slivered onion into a moderately hot pan filled with a dash of EVOO.  Cover and allow to cook for approximately 30 minutes.  Stir on occassion.  Enough to keep from burning the onions to the bottom, but not too much that you keep the onion from getting a gorgeous brown color.  During this process, the sugars from the onion are releasing and making caramelized amazingness.

Like this.  Mmmm.... mmm.... If you find the onion sticking to the bottom, simply toss a tablespoon or two of water into the pan to destick and deglaze.  Be patient.  Caramelizing an onion is a process that takes patience.  While your onions are caramelizing, start the pizza.

This is a wheat Boboli crust, topped with plain old generic BBQ sauce.  Find a perfect balance of sauce.  You want enough sauce so that it's not dry, but not too much that your toppings slide straight off.  If you decide to use a dough crust, make sure you prebake your crust before putting on the toppings.  This will ensure that your pizza crust has enough time in the oven. 

Soggy crust and overcooked toppings are a bad combo.

Top with all those caramelized onions.  I thought this might have been excessive, but in the end, it was the perfect amount.

Add in your chopped cooked chicken.  I didn't do anything fancy to the chicken.  I marinated and then cooked in the BBQ sauce.  Careful not to overcook or the chicken will be chewy.

Cover entire pizza with cheese of choice.  Mine was about 5 ounces of white Cabot cheddar from Vermont.  (Note: A significant amount of cheese was sacraficed in the shredding of this block.)  So tasty.

Drizzling of BBQ sauce for effect.

Bake in the oven until the toppings are cooked to your liking. Basically, since everything is already cooked, you're just melting the cheese. I like mine nice and brown.  This was about 10 to 15 minutes.  I then topped with chopped parsley and served.

The caramelized onions were the key to this pizza.  Along with the freshly shredded Vermont cheddar cheese.  Using regular mozzerella probably wouldn't have been as good.

I didn't take any pictures after this because I was too busy stuffing my face. 

We at My Kitchen, My Sanctuary love our pizzas.... for more pizza, see here and here.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

I absolutely love spicy food. It feels like a fun challenge for me to eat the spiciest thing on the menu at restaurants, and I add hot sauce to a lot of recipes.

This Buffalo Chicken Pizza recipe did not require me to add any spice! It was pretty hot.

Now, whenever you make pizza, you could make your own crust. I have made it from scratch for other pizzas, but I was short on time for this meal. It was just easier to use a purchased crust.

Ingredients:
2 cups of chicken breast, cooked and cubed
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup of hot sauce (I always use Frank's)
8 oz bottle of blue cheese salad dressing
1 (16 inch) pizza crust
2 cups of shredded mozzarella
crushed red pepper

Combine the chicken, melted butter, hot sauce, and red pepper. Next, spread the blue cheese salad dressing on rolled out pizza crust. I love blue cheese dressing. Hot sauce and blue cheese are always a great combo.

Be careful if you shred your own cheese. I had a little accident. There goes my hand modeling career...

No cheese was contaminated in this accident.


Add the chicken mixture and shredded mozzarella.


Cook at 425 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Isn't that quick?

Finished pizza!! Doesn't that melted mozzarella look delicious?


A trick for reheating pizza-- don't use the microwave. Reheating pizza in the microwave leads to soggy pizza. To regain the crispy crust, toss the leftovers on a cookie sheet or pizza pan at 425 until is starts bubbling again.

Pepperoni Pizza Quiche

It is almost wrong to call this dish a quiche because it is so pizza-y. It's very savory and delicious. I have always made it for breakfast, but it could definitely be eaten for lunch or dinner.

This was another recipe that I had prepped and brought in a cooler to the BF's cabin. I mixed the evaporated milk, egg, flour, basil, and garlic powder before making the trek to northern Wisconsin.


Ingredients:
1 unbaked 9-inch frozen pie shell
2 cups of shredded Italian-blend cheese
20 to 30 pepperoni slices cut into quarters
1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk
3 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Start by layering 1/2 of the cheese and 1/2 of the pepperoni quarters on the frozen pie shell.
Next, add the egg mixture. Then, top with the rest of the ingredients. The egg mixture definitely leaks over the edges of the pie shell. I'd definitely cook it on a cookie sheet or pizza pan. If you have extra veggies in your refrigerator, add them to the pizza toppings. The BF's mom had some extra green onions. I placed those on top.


Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees. Do the knife test.

My only regret is that I didn't make two. The recipe supposedly serves eight, but it didn't seem like it was filling enough for our group of six adults.

Breakfast Pizza

Do you like fruit pizza? How about breakfast?

Well, this recipe combines the two.

I love this pizza, and I have made it at least five times now. It's to the point where I could complete the recipe by memory.

I first found out about this recipe while watching Giada on the Food Network.

The ingredients are simple. Have you cooked with mascarpone cheese? If you haven't, I recommend making this recipe to become familiar with the ingredient. That way you will be able to participate in conversations with food snobs.

I'm a big fan of prepping. I'm a planner. When I made this recipe recently, I had all of the ingredients chopped and ready to go. Who wants to spend all of their time in the kitchen when you have beautiful scenery like this? Hmmm.. watching a beautiful sunrise while fishing or slaving away in the kitchen?

Before leaving for a weekend at the lake, I mixed the Cinnamon-Sugar mixture (recipe for this mixture). Have you ever scraped the seeds out of a vanilla bean? If you haven't, please make this recipe in order to contribute to the food snobbery.

Next, I put two cups of berries in a container. I added all of these ingredients, butter, a lemon, cream, and store bought pizza dough to our cooler of beer.

When you are ready for breakfast, preheat the oven to 350. Roll out the dough onto a pizza pan or baking sheet. Brush the melted butter onto the dough. Then, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the Cinnamon-Sugar (<-- Why is this a proper noun, Food Network?!) mixture onto the dough. Bake until it looks golden brown. It doesn't need to look pretty at this point (See photo). You'll be covering up the dough after it cools. Next, mix the mascarpone, lemon juice, lemon zest, and cream. Skip the lemon zest if you don't have it. I have had this recipe both with the zest and without. Spread this mixture onto the cooled dough. Then, you can get creative with the placement of the berries. Sprinkle the rest of the Cinnamon-Sugar mixture on top. This is seriously one of those recipes that you cannot screw up. Recommended drink pairing -- Coffee and Kahlua