Pizza Chronicles: Buffalo Chicken

Since it seems like the majority of my most successful meals occur on top of pizza crust, I thought it might be worthwhile to group these recipes together under a single heading. It also occurs to me that these dinners are most in line with the B.A. Gourmet mentality: feeding college students. To that end, I envision a long line of experimental pizzas in the future. I've already got a few ideas kicking around in my head, but for now let's focus on the dish at hand, buffalo chicken pizza.

Ingredients:

1 Boboli Pizza Crust
1 Package of Purdue Short-Cuts Chicken Breast

2 Stalks of Celery

1/4-1/2 Small Onion

1/4-1/2 Bell Pepper

Shredded Cheese (Mexican Blend)

1/4 Cup of Hot Sauce*

2 Tablespoons of Butter*

Steps/Analysis:
As you can see just from the ingredients list, this recipe is going to have a lot in common with the BBQ chicken pizza I showed you last week. I'm okay with that because the flavors are distinct enough and the two actually compliment each other well when placed on the same table.

At any rate, loyal readers will already be familiar with the first couple steps, making this an especially easy transition to a new meal. Set the oven to 415 degrees and put the bare crust in for about 10 minutes to crisp up.

Dice the onion and pepper and thinly slice the celery stalks. Start all three sauteing over medium heat with a little oil. I like celery in this recipe for a couple reasons. First, it's thematically appropriate to the buffalo chicken theme. Secondly, and, I think, more importantly, celery stands up to heat a lot better than onions or peppers and will retain a lot of its crunch throughout the cooking process. The end result is a pleasing contrast in textures when incorporated with the chicken and cheese.

Next, get to work on the buffalo sauce. In it's essence, buffalo sauce is incredibly simple - butter and hot sauce, melted and mixed together. Use a large, microwave-safe bowl and nuke the two together for a minute or so. I usually eyeball the measurements and adjust the ratio as I see fit during the process, so my buffalo sauce never comes out exactly the same (hence the * in the ingredient list). It's hard to imagine what one would have to do to screw the sauce up, but even if you do it's easy enough to throw together a new batch.

Dump your chicken into the sauce bowl and mix to evenly coat. At this point, the crust should be ready so spread the chicken over it in a single layer. Then, spread the onion/pepper/celery combo on top of that and cover with the shredded cheese.

Place the pie back in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Serving/Notes:

Again, it would serve you best to wait a few minutes before cutting into this pizza so everything has a chance to come together and settle.

I'm not a big fan of bleau cheese, but a little bleu cheese salad dressing for topping/dipping is entirely appropriate.