I love Greek/Lebanese food and have always enjoyed grabbing a nice gyro at a neighborhood deli or cart to scarf down while walking down the street toward the library, a bar, or whatever. It occurred to me that a gyro would make a nice pizza, and so I had to give it a shot. Turned out to be a bit tricky, but promising.
Today's Specimen
All the following measurements are for making a fourteen-inch pizza.
← Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup tzaziki sauce
- 2 oz. goat cheese
Directions
- Just mix the two together really well, first softening the goat cheese up in the microwave for ten to twenty seconds.
← Meat
Ingredients
- ½ lb. chicken breast, steamed and shredded
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- ¼ tsp. black pepper
- ¼ tsp. salt
Directions
- Just mix everything together really well, using the masher to most effectively evenly distribute the ingredients.
← Veggie Mix
Ingredients
- ½ cup green bell pepper, half-length julienne
- ½ cup red onion, half-length julienne
- ½ cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
- ¼ cup pepperocini, sliced
- ⅔ cup tomato, diced
Directions
- Mix everything but the tomato in a mixing bowl, keeping the tomato set aside in its own small container.
← Cheese Blend
Ingredients
- ¼ lb. hard Asiago cheese
- 6 oz. crumbled feta cheese
Directions
- Grate the Asiago and crumble the feta and keep both set aside separately.
The Assembly Line
Necessary
- About a pound of pizza dough, or enough to make one 14"-inch pizza.
- A pizza stone or a pizza screen, preferably the pizza screen.
Procedure
The following instructions are for a pizza screen.
- 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 tzaziki-and-goat-cheese 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 grated Asiago evenly on the pizza up to the edge, followed by the crumbled feta. Now sprinkle the tomato on top of the cheeses and other ingredients.
- 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 and the Asiago cheese has browned slightly.
- Remove and transfer to a serving surface and allow to cool ten minutes before slicing and serving.
Next Time in the Lab
Hmm, promising, but this needs some work. First off, I'm thinking the goat cheese needs to leave the tzaziki alone. The chicken was a little overspiced and so it would probably be best to tone that down; it should also be measured in cups instead of pounds. As for the veggie mix, it was good but the olives and pepperocinis should probably be served on the side, since a lot of people don't like them; or at least the pepperocini should be served on the side. As for the cheese blend, I'm thinking of making it a three-quarter mix of goat cheese, soft Asiago, and feta crumbles.
- Omit the goat cheese from the tzaziki sauce and increase the tzaziki sauce to 1¼ cups.
- Increase the green bell pepper in the veggie mix to ⅔ cup and omit the pepperocini, to serve instead as one whole pepperocini on the side per slice. Also, ensure the olive isn't kept in oil or a seasoned brine but just in water, otherwise it will overpower the flavor of the pizza.
- Decrease the cumin in the shredded chicken to ½ tsp., the salt and black pepper each to ⅛ tsp. Also, instead of ½ lbs. shredded chicken, measure it out as 2 cups shredded chicken (about two breast halves).
- Add either ½ cup cilantro or ½ parsley to the pizza, just after spreading the tzaziki sauce.
- Change the cheese blend to 6 oz. crumbled goat cheese with 4 oz. crumbled feta, topped with 4 oz. grated soft Asiago.
- Try using lamb instead of chicken, also 2 cups and cut into slightly bite-size pieces.
