Thursday, April 29, 2010

Whole Wheat Pizza with Chicken, Roasted Red Peppers, and Portabellas



We had this for dinner last night and it was soooo good! The dough is flavored with rosemary, but you can obviously omit it if you'd like. It takes a little more time than most of the stuff I make, but if you have time you can prep some of the things the night before and just put it together the next day. I swear this was better than any take-out or frozen pizza I've ever had.

Here's everything you need:
-All the stuff for the dough mentioned below
-1 red bell pepper
-olive oil
-2 cloves garlic
-1 boneless, skinless chicken breast marinaded in olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, basil and oregano
-1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
-a handle of mushrooms, baby portabellas used here
-1 cup or more of shredded mozzarella
-dried basil and oregano
-salt and pepper (of course!)


For the Dough:
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 t. sugar
1 package instant dry yeast
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour (plus some more for kneading)
4 Tbl. olive oil (plus a little more for coating the dough)
1 t. salt
1 Tbl fresh chopped rosemary

Dissolve sugar in water. Sprinkle top with yeast and let set for 10 minutes. Add flours, oil, salt, and rosemary. After mixed together, flour a flat surface (cutting board, clean countertop) and knead dough for about ten minutes until it all comes together and form it into a ball. Rub a little more olive oil on the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and put into refrigerator. Let rise for at least 4 hours in the fridge (or overnight). Take the dough out and let set at room temperature for an hour. Then stretch the dough onto a pizza sheet and let it set for another 15 minutes or so. Right before you are about to bake the pizza, stretch it again until it is the desired thickness (mine filled up pretty much the whole pizza sheet with a nice crust around it).

How to roast a red pepper:

Take a whole pepper and set it directly onto the stovetop range. You can do this under a broiler or on a grill, too. Turn the heat to medium-high and turn with tongs so all sides get charred. You want it to turn black on the outside while cooking through the pepper. After the whole pepper is charred, place in a bowl and cover with a plate or plastic wrap and let it cool while trapping the steam inside. After it cools, peel away the black skin (leaving a little bit is ok) and cut the top and remove seeds. Marinade in this:

Marinade for pepper:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves chopped garlic
(SAVE THE OIL FOR A DIPPING SAUCE FOR LATER!)

This is becoming a lot of work, huh? Totally worth it.

Cook your chicken breast in a pan until cooked through. Chop into small cubes.

To make the pizza:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Brush olive oil over the dough. Sprinkle about 1 cup mozzarella cheese over it and add your toppings. I used baby portabellas, my chicken, and my chopped roasted red pepper. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until it's slightly browned around the edges and dough is cooked through.
While you are baking your pizza you can start a simple marinara sauce to dip it in if you want.

Marinara:

Use your leftover oil and garlic from the pepper marinade and add to a small saucepan, Saute for 5 minutes and add crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, and a little dried basil. Simmer until pizza is done! (this was Karl's favorite part of the whole dinner) We just dipped the pizza into it, but you can make it ahead of time and use it as a sauce directly on the pizza.

Ahhh ok! We are all done. FINALLY. Lots of work, but once you get the hang of pizza dough, it really isn't too hard. And like I said, better than any pizza you can find frozen or have delivered! And healthier too, since you can control the amount of cheese and it's made with whole wheat.

3 comments:

  1. good work with the blog, jen...so far i want to try everything you've posted about!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I miss regular pizza dough. Bob is allergic to wheat/gluten, so I have to make a special dough using garbanzo bean flour, rice flour, and all sorts of ingredients. It's too sticky and cannot be kneaded. I've heard of pizza using a mashed cauliflower crust that I can't wait to try. Your roasted red pepper/chicken combo sounds so deelish!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another trick with roasting peppers is to drop the blackened pepper into a paper bag (like a lunch bag) and close. When it cools down a bit, just rub it around inside the bag and most of the peel will come off.

    ReplyDelete