Chicken Pesto Pizza

Will conjured up this recipe a couple years ago and has since perfected it. Now that I think about it, none of our friends or family have ever tried this pizza! I guess we'd share if we had any leftovers, but we don't. That's right. We keep it all to ourselves and that's how we like it. Make your own, moochers! 

The Dough:

Usually we just buy pre-made pizza dough at our local grocery store's bakery, but I had an extra packet of active dry yeast lying around since my last (failed) jaunt at bread-baking. I am afraid of yeast and my bread usually comes out as hard as a rock. I mostly followed this Food Network recipe for whole wheat pizza dough, with some slight variations because I don't have a large food processor. I also read this pep talk on proofing yeast to get me in the zone. I won't bore you with the details, but I will bore you with these photos. Why? Because I took them, that's why. But this crust actually turned out to be really good. This may never happen again, which is also why I choose to memorialize the event with photos.

Mokiki the Tiki Man guards the rising dough. 

The Pizza:

Will graciously agreed to type out these instructions so these are straight from the expert himself!

Ingredients:

• Pizza stone
• Flour
• Corn meal
• Pizza dough
• About 1/3 cup pesto (or enough to evenly cover the surface of the dough)
• About two cups of picked/chopped chicken
• About 10oz. mozzarella or Italian blend cheese
• 1 large tomato, sliced thin.
• 1 Jalapeno, sliced thin (optional)
• Grated Parmesan (for taste)

Note: these amounts are in no way scientific, I still like to use trial and error to see what I like the most!

1. Preheat oven to 405.

2. Cook chicken. I use either rotisserie style chicken and pick it apart, or boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The rotisserie usually has better flavor.

3. On the pizza stone, spread a generous amount of flour and corn meal. If you use a dough roller, place a generous enough amount of flour on the roller so the dough doesn’t stick to it. Place the dough on the pizza stone and knead/toss until evenly spread out. Sprinkle corn meal on top of the dough and aerate the dough evenly with a fork (so it doesn’t inflate once in the oven).

4. Once heated, place the dough in for about 4 minutes. At that time, take it out and flip it over. Aerate again. Doing this will make sure that the bottom of the pizza dough has a little crisp to it. Place the dough back in the oven for about 4 more minutes. At the end of this second 4-minute time, take the dough out to prepare with toppings.

5. Spread the pesto evenly over the top of the dough. Don’t be afraid to use a generous amount of pesto.

6. Sprinkle your chicken evenly over the pesto, followed by the cheese, then the tomatoes, and/or jalapenos (I cover half the pizza with jalapenos because I like a little spice, unlike Theresa)

7. Place back in oven for about 10-13 minutes. At about 10 minutes you should check on it. I like the cheese to bubble a little so around this time I’ll turn the oven to broil for about 60 seconds.

8. Take out, let cool, slice and serve with parmesan sprinkled on top. Enjoy!

And now, the photographs!

Some leftover baked chicken.

Roasting the pine nuts for pesto.

Pesto.

My dough. I'm so proud of it!

Will Brez has skillz. (Wish they paid the billz....)

Lazy Daisy in the background.

Ready for toppings.

Very dense layer of pesto. 

Ready for the oven!

YUM. And posted just in time for lunch.