Lemon Pepper Chicken Pizza with a Garlic Olive Oil and Herb sauce
Why I Love This Recipe
I love pizza. Who doesn't right? Eating pizza out can get expensive. If you have time and patience you can make a really good pizza right at home.
More pictures of this pizza can be found here
http://techmate.smugmug.com/keyword/lemon#449566829_NAe3c
Ingredients You'll Need
Pizza Dough:
3/4 cup warm water
4 tsp sugar
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 pkg yeast
2-3 cups of Bread Flour
3 tsp Wheat Gluten (Important, you can find this at most health food stores or online. I order mine from Amazon.com)
Pizza Sauce:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
4 cloves of garlic (Remove the skin)
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp oregano
Toppings:
2 skinless partially cooked chicken breasts cut into cubes (Dont over cook. The rest of the cooking will be done when its on the pizza)
Lemon Pepper seasoning
1/4 Chopped Red Onion
Green Onion
Provolone Cheese (about 4-5 slices)
shredded Mozzarella Cheese (2cups)
shredded Cheddar (1/2 cup)
Other ingredients:
Cornmeal
Directions
Heat the water until it feels warm but not hot in a small bowl. Add the packet of yeast, olive oil and salt and mix with spoon. Your going to set this aside for about 5 min. This is called proofing the yeast.
Your going to add the rest of the dry ingredients for the dough into a bowl and mix well. Then add the yeast mixture. If you have a countertop mixing machine use a kneading attachment and run it at its lowest setting for about 15 min. You want the dough to be slightly sticky but not stick to your hands when touching it. Add small amounts of flour every 2-3 minutes until it reaches this consistency.
Form the dough into a ball and place it in a large slightly oiled bowl. I spray it lightly with PAM. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise for about 1.5 hrs. Punch it down, re-cover it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for about 2-4hrs. Dont skip the fridge part. This will give the dough a great texture and will have those irregular size holes bubble in the crust.
Pizza Sauce:
While your waiting lets make the sauce. In a food processor or blender add all the ingredients for the sauce together and puree until smooth. Set it aside. That's it. Pretty easy huh.
Chicken:
Take the cooked cut up chicken breast and generously coat it with lemon pepper seasoning and set aside
Place your pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 550 degrees.
Remove the dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured flat surface and push with your hands from the center out forming a circle. Keep doing this until you get it to the desired size you want.
Carefully transfer the dough to a little cornmeal coated pizza peel.
Toppings:
Start spooning the sauce mixture over the top of the dough evenly. Use as much or as little as you want. Add mozzarella cheese. Layout the Provolone slices evenly. Top with cheddar cheese. Sprinkle with the red onion. Add the Lemon Peppered chicken.
Cooking:
Open the oven and sprinkle a layer of cornmeal on the pizza stone. Don't burn yourself.
Carefully slide the pizza from the pizza peel to the pizza stone. Drop the oven temp to 475 degrees and bake for about 10-15 min until golden brown.
Use the pizza peel to remove the pizza from the oven. Let cool for a few minutes before cutting and enjoy.
