BBQ Chicken Pizza with Blue Cheese

My first experience with BBQ chicken pizza was at my best friend Christy’s house.  We were having a last minute and low key dinner.  Christy threw together what she had on hand; she made a nice salad and warmed some frozen pizzas in the oven.  I was shocked by how much I enjoyed it, always assuming that BBQ sauce would be a little too sweet for my liking on a pizza.  My favorite homemade Memphis BBQ sauce was hanging out in my freezer so I decided to try a BBQ pizza at home for myself and Terry on a lazy summer evening.  I went online and found Cooking Light’s BBQ Chicken Pizza with Blue Cheese.

BBQ Chicken Pizza with Blue Cheese
Adapted from Cooking Light, August 2011

 Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) prebaked thin pizza crust (such as Mama Mary's)
• 1/3 cup barbecue sauce
• 1 1/2 cups shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
• 1/2 cup vertically sliced red onion
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped yellow bell pepper
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled blue cheese
• 2 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced (about 1/4 pound)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 500°.

2. Place pizza crust on a baking sheet. Spread sauce over the crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Top with chicken and remaining ingredients. Bake 10 minutes or until cheese melts and crust is crisp. Cut into 12 wedges.

Nutritional Information

Amount per serving

• Calories: 252
• Fat: 8.5g
• Saturated fat: 3.1g
• Monounsaturated fat: 2.2g
• Polyunsaturated fat: 2.7g
• Protein: 16.7g
• Carbohydrate: 27.4g
• Fiber: 1.8g
• Cholesterol: 38mg
• Iron: 1.6mg
• Sodium: 494mg
• Calcium: 92mg

Preheat oven to 500°.  Place pizza crust on a baking sheet (I prebaked my own homemade whole wheat dough).

Spread sauce over the crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border.

Top with chicken (I coated the chicken with a little more BBQ sauce and at this point I also added 3/4 a cup of Mozzarella cheese).

Top with the remaining ingredients (at this point I also added 1/4 cups red pepper slices and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro). Bake 10 minutes or until cheese melts and crust is crisp. Cut into 12 wedges.

My adaption of Cooking Light’s BBQ Chicken Pizza with Blue Cheese was an excellent change of pace from the usual pizzas that I make.  I think that the quality of the finished product will rely heavily on the BBQ sauce that you use.  The changes that I made were creating my own whole wheat crust from scratch, coating the chicken in a small amount of BBQ sauce, adding about ¾ cups of Mozzarella cheese, adding red peppers along with the yellow ones and finally sprinkling a small handful of cilantro over the pizza before baking.  I had two slices and a chopped salad and Terry had...half of the entire pizza.  We enjoyed leftover slices the following day by reheating them in a sauté pan in order to preserve the crispness of the crust.  This pizza will be made again the exact same way.

-Heather

Stuffed Pizza Sticks

 

Saturday night was spent having a fabulous time with great friends, it sure was fun but I am not used to staying out so late anymore.  Being ridiculously tired from the festivities of the weekend, I was not in the mood to cook dinner at all on Monday night.  I even skipped the gym.  Just when I was about to ask Terry to pick up some take out on his way home I remembered a really simple recipe that I had seen recently on Joe's blog, Culinary in the Desert, for Stuffed Pizza Sticks.  They seemed easy enough, and I had the ingredients on hand, so I gave them a try.

Stuffed Pizza Sticks 

(Adapted from Culinary in the Desert and Rachael Ray)

16 ounces prepared whole-wheat pizza dough (I used Joe's recipe from Culinary in the Desert.)
6 ounces (about 1 1/2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 cup pepperoni, chopped
Diced green pepper

Diced red onion

Cooking spray Marinara sauce for dipping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Evenly divide dough into 4 pieces. On a lightly floured surface, stretch or roll each piece of dough into a large rectangle. Scatter the top of each rectangle, keeping one long edge clean, with the shredded cheese, basil, chopped pepperoni, green pepper and red onion. Fold the ends of the dough in on each rectangle, then starting with one long side (the one opposite of the clean side), roll dough up, jelly-roll style, pinching seam to seal.

Transfer logs to a parchment-lined baking sheet, pinched seam side down.  Lightly coat the sticks with cooking spray.  Place pan into the oven and bake until the logs are golden, about 18 to 22 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly. Serve with warmed marinara sauce on the side for dipping.

Makes 4 servings.

  

Evenly divide dough into 4 pieces. On a lightly floured surface, stretch or roll each piece of dough into a large rectangle.

  

. Scatter the top of each rectangle, keeping one long edge clean, with the shredded cheese, basil, chopped pepperoni, green pepper and red onion.

  

Fold the ends of the dough in on each rectangle.

  

Starting with one long side (the one opposite of the clean side), roll dough up, jelly-roll style, pinching seam to seal.

  

 Transfer logs to a parchment-lined baking sheet, pinched seam side down.  Lightly coat the sticks with cooking spray.  Place pan into the oven and bake until the logs are golden, about 18 to 22 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly. Serve with warmed marinara sauce on the side for dipping.

Stuffed Pizza Sticks were a great change of pace for Terry and me.  Although I enjoy the elaborate dinners that I often try to throw together it was really nice to make something that was simple, easy and delicious.  I thought that rolling them into their baking shape might be difficult, but I found it more simple to do than transferring  a thin pizza crust onto a pizza stone.  I made my own WW dough, but you could certainly just buy some prepared dough from your local grocery store. These pizza sticks can be stuffed with anything under the sun, just don't fill them too full or you might see some ingredients oozing out of your dough.  A side salad accompanied my pizza stick and Terry had his with, well, more pizza sticks.  Both of us really liked dipping them into the warm marinara sauce.  I am pretty pumped to try some new flavor combinations inside of the sticks.  These would be a blast to serve at a small sports party...I would recommend trying them the next time you feel like having a little fun in the kitchen.

-Heather      

Heather's Easy French Bread Pizza

After torturing Terry with an abundance of vegetables Monday night I thought I would reward him for being so patient with my experimentation. Who doesn’t love pizza?

Growing up in Darien, a suburb of Chicago, I was spoiled by amazing pizza. My first job was actually making pizzas at my favorite pizza place, Phillies. Mom knows “Phil” so she arranged it so I could start working there at 15. Smelling like meat all the time didn’t really help my social life, but the opportunity certainly allowed me to appreciate the value of hard work. After graduating from college and moving 2000 miles to Southern California I was faced with the devastating reality that pizza out here SUCKS. How difficult could it be to duplicate this Chicago delicacy? Apparently, extremely difficult, because I have yet to find a pizza place here that I truly want order from.

Instead of ordering out for pizza (unless we have a slew of men over watching a sporting event) we like to make it at home. By selecting the ingredients ourselves we can control the quality, and the calorie and fat content. This also enables us to add any toppings we would like, and make as much or as little as we want. We have tried pre-made crusts, dough from a tube, Trader Joe’s fresh dough from the refrigerated section, and of course, making the dough ourselves. We had quite a lot going on yesterday, so I decided to go with the easiest method there is, French bread. French bread pizza is one of my all time favorites, and it comes together quickly with very little clean up.

Heather’s Easy French Bread Pizza

Ingredients

1 Loaf of French

Marinara Sauce

Pre-cooked meat

Chopped Vegetables

Mozzarella Cheese

Garlic Salt

Directions

*Turn on your oven to 450 degrees.

*Split your French bread in half and cut to desired size, throw into the oven to toast while the oven is heating up.

*Remove bread after it has become a bit firm and crisp.

*Top bread with marinara sauce, and meat.

*Cover with cheese and top with vegetables and a sprinkle of garlic salt.

*Bake on the top rack for 8-10 minutes.

*Turn on the broiler and broil for 1-2 minutes if your cheese has not browned.

*Remove and enjoy!

These personal French bread pizzas turned out fabulously, they were incredibly tasty, and exactly what we wanted. I used Linrusso’s marinara sauce (this recipe deserves a post of its own, which it will get the next time I make a batch, it is incredible!). Black forest ham and turkey pepperoni were the meats that I chose, they were topped with reduced fat Mozzarella cheese. I added onto Terry’s with diced onion, and mine with onion, green pepper and mushrooms. Each pizza was crispy, crunchy and full of flavor, without the unnecessary calories and fat that come with take-out pizza. Heather’s Easy French Bread Pizza is a recipe I have used many times and I will continue to depend on it in the future. If you are looking for a quick and easy meal for a busy weeknight, you have found it! Serve with a salad and your meal is complete.

-Heather