Pesto Chicken Pizza

So, a high class meal is nice, but let's get back to what this blog is really all about: PIZZA!

After last week's dinner, I had lots of pesto and chicken left over. As fate would have it, there was also an extra pizza crust in my fridge, just waiting to fulfill its destiny as a conveyance of deliciousness.

Thus was born the Pesto Chicken Pizza.

Ingredients:

1 Pizza Crust

2 Cooked Chicken Breasts

Jarred Pesto

Grape or Cherry Tomatoes

Shredded Cheese

Steps/Analysis:
Preheat the oven to 415 degrees and lay the pizza crust out on a baking sheet. Then, spoon on a thin layer of pesto.

(Again, I'm using chicken breasts that I had already cooked and prepared for the week. If you haven't planned accordingly, residence in a 375 degree oven for about 35 minutes will get you where you need to be.)

Cut the chicken into roughly bite-size pieces and distribute them evenly over the pizza. Cut your tomatoes in half (or into smaller pieces if necessary) and repeat.

Sprinkle a layer of cheese over everything. Now, based on the nature and genre of the meal, logic dictates that you should definitely mozzarella cheese if you have it. I only had my usual Mexican blend on hand. Necessity being the mother of invention, I went for it and never looked back.

The final step is to brush a little olive oil around the outer crust so that it crisps up nicely in the oven.

10-15 minutes and you've got yourself dinner!

Serving/Notes:

You may want a little salt and pepper, but otherwise I was very happy with this creation. I've got a pretty solid repertoire of pizzas, if I do say so myself, and this is a nice addition to it.

The use of Mexican rather than Italian cheese seemed negligible. The substitution certainly didn't ruin my evening.

Pizza Chronicles: Philly Cheesesteak

Welcome to the next installment of the Pizza Chronicles! So far, I consider my pizza excursions (BBQ chicken, Buffalo chicken, and Mexican) to be wild successes. I'm very happy to report that the Philly cheesesteak pizza continues in the proud tradition of inexpensive, easy, and fun pies.

Ingredients:

1 Boboli Pizza Crust

1 Package of Cheesesteak-style Sliced Steaks (a la Steak-Ums)

1/2 Large Onion

1/2 Green Bell Pepper

1 Handful of Sliced Mushrooms

Sliced Provolone Cheese

Ketchup

Steps/Analysis:

Feel free to skip ahead if you're already familiar with my basic pizza making steps. Newcomers, take heed.

Set your oven to 415 degrees. Brush a little olive oil on the pizza crust and let it crisp up in the oven for about ten minutes. This is another high-stacked pie (similar to my Mexican pizza) so the structural integrity of the crust is very important.

Give your veggies a rough chop and saute in a little oil over Medium-High heat. Stir occasionally and keep an eye on them. You'll want to pull them off the stove before they completely caramelize and turn into mush.

Place your steaks in a separate pan over Medium-High heat and salt and pepper liberally. I bought a package of 16 steaks, which worked out perfectly for two pies, so I'm going to say 8-10 steaks is the right amount if you're just making one.

Use a spatula (or two, if necessary) to separate, flip, chop, and generally pulverize the steaks as they are cooking. You don't want to take a bite and pull all your toppings off, so aim for roughly bite-size pieces, maybe a little bigger.

They steaks will finish up in 10-15 minutes, but check along the way and pull them once you don't see any more red. When they're done, carefully drain the grease from the pan.

Next, turn your attention to your pizza crust. I decided to lay down a thin base coat of ketchup so that the meat would have something to grab onto, but, looking back, this may be an unnecessary step. Pile the steaks on the crust and top with a layer of onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Then, deal out the sliced provolone to cover everything in a uniform, cheesy blanket.

Return the pizza to the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is slightly brown and bubbly. Slice and plate.

Serving/Analysis:

Ketchup and hot sauce are musts, in terms of condiments. I served my Philly cheesesteak pizza with a side of sweet potato fries (but that's mostly because I had a really good coupon for them last week).

I have no complaints about the outcome of this recipe. It worked out just as I had hoped. If you want to get fancy, I have a feeling some pizza sauce would compliment it well.

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.