Sibling Cutlery

There are few things tastier and more fun to make than homemade pizza with fresh, made from scratch crust. And, to me at least, there are few better combinations of toppings than grilled chicken, bacon, onions, fresh mozzarella, and a sticky mess of barbecue sauce. I can hear you horrified traditionalists out there stammering “but… but… chicken and b-b-bacon and b-b-barbecue sa-sauce don’t B-BELONG on p-pizza!!!” Well, you’re very, very wrong. Didn’t your mother ever tell you to try new things? Try it. You’ll like it. C’mon. Look at it. You know you want it.

Of course, I’m giving you the recipe for the crust, so you can put whatever you want on it, I guess. But you wouldn’t do that to me, would you?

Ingredients.

Dissolve the yeast in warm water (warm your mixing bowl first by rinsing it with hot water).

Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups flour. Mix well, adding the remaining flour…

…and then knead. (I have a robot to do it for me)

Grease the bowl, cover, and place in a warm place, such as Arizona, for about an hour to double in size.

While that’s going on, grill the chicken breasts (note that I’ve added a bit of barbecue seasoning). It’s okay, in fact preferred, to get them a little blackened.

Cook your bacon. Can I just take this time to mention that bacon is perhaps the greatest food in the universe?

Chop your onion.

Dough’s done. Note that it’s double in size and an impression made by a finger stays in the dough, rather than springing back.

Take out your latent aggression by punching the dough. Incidentally, this also releases excess air.

Sprinkle your pizza pan with cornmeal and spread out the dough. Make it a circle, if you’re into that sort of thing, or go abstract. Works just as well either way.

Spread on some barbecue sauce, however much you want. I like it saucy. Read into that whatever you want.

Load it up with toppings. None of this sissy sprinkling of toppings. This is a real crust. It can handle it.

Add the cheese. Fresh mozzarella is crucial.

Bake at 450°F for 15-20 minutes. Pop the broiler on for the last couple minutes if the cheese needs to brown a bit more.

Drool.

Not much more to say about this. It’s great. Eat it and enjoy it.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza (dough recipe from KitchenAid)

Dough Ingredients:

1. 1 packet active dry yeast
2. 1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
3. 2 tsp. olive oil
4. 1/2 tsp. salt
5. 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
6. cornmeal

Toppings:

1. 1/2 to 1 cup barbecue sauce
2. 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, grilled and chopped
3. 6 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
4. 1 cup chopped onion
5. 6-8 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced.
6. 1/4-1/2 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

Dissolve yeast in water in a warmed mixing bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups flour.

If you’ve got a handy-dandy stand mixer with a dough hook, mix on low speed for about 1 minute. If not, mix by hand until well mixed and moistened. Continuing the mixing, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough clings to dough hook and cleans the side of the bowl, about 2 minutes. You may need to add a little more water or a little more flour if the dough appears too dry or too wet. Knead on low for 2 more minutes. If mixing by hand, just get it looking doughy, and then knead for a few minutes

Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning the dough to grease all of the dough’s surface. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour, or until the size doubles. Punch down the dough.

Sprinkle cornmeal on a 14-16 inch pizza pan, then press dough across the pan. Form a raised crust along the edge.

Spread crust with barbecue sauce, then add chopped chicken, bacon, and onions, and finally top with sliced mozzarella and shaved Parmesan.

Bake at 450°F for 15-20 minutes until crust is crisp and cheese is bubbly.

Makes 1 14-16″ pizza