Ever since I worked at this Greek restaurant up in Seattle years ago, one where this crazy-gullible Austrian evangelical Christian siphoned all the profits into Benny Hinn's bullshit televangelist coffers and as a result eventually went out of business, I've always wanted to make a barbecue pizza; the one there was pretty good. This one is logarithmically better.
All the following measurements are for making a fourteen-inch pizza
Preliminaries
Ingredients
- About 1 lb. pizza dough or enough to make one 14" thin-crust pizza.
- 2 cups chicken breast meat, cut into bite-sized pieces.
- 1¼ cup barbecue sauce.
Today's Specimen
← Veggie Mix
Ingredients
- 1 cup red onion, half julienne
- 1 cup annaheim pepper, diced
- 1 cup cup orange bell pepper, diced
- 1 cup tomato, diced
Directions
- Mix all vegetables but the tomato together and set aside, keeping the tomato separate.
← Cheese Blend
Ingredients
- 4 oz. low-moisture mozarella
- 4 oz. Monterey jack
- 4 oz. Tillamook Vintage White extra sharp cheddar
Directions
- Grate all cheeses and mix together thoroughly and set aside.
The Assembly Line
Necessary
- 14" pizza screen
Procedure
- Preheat the oven to 500ºF and make sure the rack you're going to use is in the middle or just a tad higher.
- Knead and roll out the dough on a clean, floured surface until it's thin and large enough a disc to just cover the pizza screen. Or hand-toss it if you've got mad dope skills. Optionally you can sprinkle some corn meal on the top of the dough and flip upside down.
- Place the dough on the screen and stretch it out just a little bit so you can roll the edges to the edge of the screen, just not too thick or uneven.
- Spread the barbecue sauce evenly on the dough up to the raised edge, very lightly so as not to push the dough into the screen perforations and causing the pizza to stick while cooking.
- Sprinkle the shredded chicken evenly on the sauce, followed by the veggie mix, but not the tomato yet.
- Sprinkle the cheese blend evenly on the pizza up to the edge, followed by the diced tomato on top.
- Place the pizza on the screen on the middle rack of the pre-heated oven, turning every five to seven minutes, for about fifteen minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
- Remove and transfer to a serving surface and allow to cool ten minutes before slicing and serving
Next Time in the Lab
There's not a single fucking thing I would do to change this! Okay, well, maybe add some cilantro.
- Add ½ cup cilantro to the pizza, just after spreading the barbecue sauce.
