Garlic White Chicken Pizza

The most recent issue shares chicken recipes a lot of different ways. I have a couple that I’m going to be making in the near future. While this Garlic White Chicken Pizza is not the recipe in the magazine, it was definitely inspired by that recipe. Cooking Light tells you to use refrigerated pizza dough, but I’m too much of a homemade momma to do that unless I’m extremely tired and I mean I have to be really tired and really low on time to buy refrigerated dough. I found a recipe on allrecipes that Grumpy absolutely loves and I’ve been making that particular recipe ever since. It works great for individual pizzas for us. I make the recipe, once it has risen I punch it down and divide it in half. I then will take half of the dough, put it in a ziploc bag and pop it in the freezer. That way, the work for another night is done! Its easy for me to do this since I’m only feeding the two of us.

I definitely am making my pizza crust this way from now on. It is the best pizza crust recipe I’ve come across ever – and I’ve tried a lot of different recipes! This is the only one that makes Grumpy happy I also love that I found that I can just freeze half of the dough to thaw out for use later. I take it out the morning I know I am going to use it and put it in my fridge in a covered bowl. Since the dough is frozen, it is not hard to get out of the plastic bag. It will thaw out during the day and when I get home I just pull it out, sit it in a warm spot, and let it come to room temp and rise (about 30 minutes).

Garlic White Chicken Pizza

inspired by Cooking Light

Published 03/02/2014

Single serving sized pizzas that are packed with garlic and cheesy goodness!

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 1 package instant-fast acting dry yeast
• 1/2 tablespoon Splenda Brown Sugar
• 1-1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees Fahrenheit)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• For the Pizza:
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 basil leaves, minced
• 1-lb container part skim ricotta cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces shredded chicken breasts
• 2 cups part skim mozzarella cheese
• fresh basil leaves, slices cherry tomato (Optional)
• black pepper to taste

Instructions

To make the pizza dough: In the bowl of a kitchen aid mixer with dough attachment (or you can do this by hand if you do not have a kitchen aid), dissolve water, yeast and brown sugar. Let sit about 10 minutes.

Add salt and olive oil, turn on mixer and stir to combine. Gradually add flour, 1 cup at a time, until dough forms a ball. Continue to knead in kitchen aid another 3-4 minutes. Dough should not stick to the sides of the mixer. If this happens, add a little bit more flour, a tablespoon at a time until it pulls away from the side. (note: I did not have to do this and used the full 3-1/3 cups of flour).

Remove dough from mixer and knead a few times, shape into a ball and place in greased bowl, turning to coat dough with oil. Cover, and let set until double in size, about 1 hour.

To make the topping: In a medium sized saute pan over medium heat, saute the garlic, red pepper, and basil in the olive oil 2-3 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Remove from heat and set aside to cool about 10 minutes. You can strain the oil to remove the garlic, basil and red pepper particles, but I opted to leave them in the oil.

Once the oil has cooled, combine the infused oil with the ricotta cheese. Set aside until ready to assemble the pizza.

When dough is ready, punch with your fist down to deflate. Cut dough in half, then cut each half in half again, two times. This will give you eight portions of dough. Form each portion into an individual round circle and place on pizza stone. I can fit 4 individual pizzas on 1 stone. If you are feeding more than 4 people, then you may need to use this process twice if you don’t have a big enough stone. You can also use a parchment lined cookie sheet, but the pizza stone gets the best results.

Once the pizzas are formed, place a heaping tablespoon on top of dough and spread out to cover dough. Top each dough round with 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese and 2 ounces of chicken. Sprinkle with basil leaves and ground pepper if desired.

Bake at 450 degrees for 8 minutes, or until dough is golden and cheese is browned. Continue procedures until all pizzas are baked.

Yield: 8 individual pizzas

Prep Time: 01:20

Cook time: 00:08

Tags: cheese, Italian, pizza, garlic, single serving sized, cooking for two,