Thai Chicken Pizza

It's no secret around here that Brad and I eat a lot of pizza. I tried tons of dough recipes until I settled on one I like, and now we have it at least once every two weeks, if not weekly. It's easy to make, and is one of few meals we eat where all the food groups are involved. Since I'm not a cheese lover (or most dairy for that matter), pizza is one of the only places I get cheese/dairy because I can mask it with all the other flavours and just get a hint of it. Maybe try this method if you have kids who don't like cheese...or other fully-grown adults who are just weird like me :)

My parent's make a Thai Chicken Pizza from one of the Loony Spoons cookbooks, but I couldn't find it online. I did some searching though and Trader Joe's has a good recipe that I adapted. In their recipe, they call for a lot of ingredients pre-made from their amazing grocery store (which I was devastated to find out isn't yet open in Louisville), so I had to do some other searching and adapt a second recipe for the peanut sauce. I found that one on a food blog called All Day I Dream About Food (I do too...). You could use their recipes and I'm sure they would be really yummy, or follow my adapted one. They're all delicious and a nice new take on traditional pizza.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I won't blame you if you decide not to even attempt this recipe as a result. I'm the exact same way... Which is why I spend money on cook books. I LOVE looking at beautifully photographed pictures of what I may be about to eat. Especially Martha Stewart or Jamie Oliver, because they often have pictures of the step-by-step too. Or food blogs, because they always have great pictures. Not here, not today, sorry folks!

Thai Chicken Pizza

Dough:

3.5 C flour (I sometimes blend half whole wheat, half all purpose, or 1.5 or each and 1/2 C of ground flax seed, but since I am limited in my baking supplies here, I used good ol' AP flour)

1 TB quick-rise yeast

1 TS salt

1/2 TS sugar

(you can also throw in hot pepper flakes and ground pepper which would be great with this pizza, or on a traditional pizza add Herbs de Provence or others. This is a basic recipe, take it from here wherever you want to go!)

>> whisk dry ingredients together and add 1 1/3 C hot water

>> stir w/ wooden spoon, then form into a ball with floured hands

>> cover until doubles in size or 2 hours is up (whichever happens first)

>> roll out on floured surface and put on a baking pan that's covered with bread crumbs or corn meal (prevents the dough from sticking without adding oil)

Thai Peanut Sauce:

1/3 C (look for: low sodium low sugar low fat) peanut butter

1/4 C hot water
4 TB apple cider vinegar
3 garlic cloves, pressed
2 TB minced fresh ginger
2 TB soy sauce
2 TS red pepper flakes
>>whisk all together and set aside

Toppings:

1 chicken breast boiled then simmered until cooked (again, no oil!)

1 C grated carrots

1 C chopped green onions

1 C grated Monterrey Jack cheese (This really makes the pizza! Mozzarella wouldn't off-set the sweetness of the sauce enough we thought, so it makes for a better balanced pizza)

1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro

Assembly:

Dice the chicken into small pieces

Spread sauce onto dough with a spatula

layer with Monterrey cheese

add grated carrots and green onions

top with diced chicken

>> bake at 500 (yes, you read this right, this dough calls to be cooked at 500 degrees) for 15 minutes

>> while cooling, sprinkle cilantro on it (we also thought this was a deal-breaker, also off-setting the sweetness of the sauce)

Enjoy! Or if you live in Louisville, invite yourself over and I'll make this for you some night :)