Tuesday, May 4, 2010

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Mandy and I made this when she visited last month and I made it again last night. So tasty and easy. It's not really a recipe, but more a list of ingredients. Sorry, there are no real quantities.

1 recipe pizza dough (I used 1 1/2 cups wheat flour and 1 cup white flour instead of the 3 cups of flour)
BBQ sauce
rotisserie chicken, shredded and then coated with BBQ sauce (its a great way to use leftover chicken or you can cook your own chicken in BBQ sauce)
1 red pepper, sliced into thin strips
red onion, thinly sliced (about 1/3 to 1/2 depending on taste)
pineapple
black beans, drained and rinsed (optional)
pepperoni (optional)
shredded mozzarella (about 2 cups)
shredded cheddar (about 1/2 cup)

Heat oven to 400.
Assembly: Roll crust, or press into 10x15" jelly roll pan. **If you don't have a pizza stone, I recommend prebaking the crust for about half the cooking time. This will prevent your crust from getting soggy and will give you a nice crisp on the outside, soft on the inside texture.**
Pre-bake just the crust for about 10 minutes. While the crust is cooking, assemble all your pizza toppings. Remove crust from oven. Spread about 1/4 cup BBQ sauce on crust (its really personal preference) Top with whatever toppings you are using. I added black beans to make a vegetarian version for my roommate (so technically it is a BBQ black bean pizza). Top everything with mozzarella and then just a bit of cheddar cheese. Bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and hot (I'll also put under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes to brown the cheese slightly) Slice and enjoy!

**I made my pizza crust in the morning and covered and placed in the refrigerator (the recipe says it doesn't need to rise, but I always think letting a yeast dough rise once makes it softer) When you get home from work or about 1 hour before you want to start assembling your pizza, remove the dough to the counter to come up to room temperature.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Beach Street Lemon Chicken Linguine

Michelle is at it again--making another amazing meal. We had this last night at Sunday dinner and it was fabulous! My vegetarian roommate even said just the noodles with the lemony sauce were delish (no, she didn't eat the chicken!)

1 lb linguine
1/2 c olive oil
zest from one lemon
juice from one lemon
1/2 c chopped green onion
1/4 c parsley
salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

Marinade:
1/2 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic
2 T Cajun seasoning
1 T lemon juice
2 T minced parsley
1 T brown sugar
1 T soy sauce
3 chicken breasts sliced ( or 16 large shrimp)

Combine marinade ingredients in a Ziploc bag, add chicken. refrigerate for 1-12 hours. Cook marinated chicken in skillet with all juices, until chicken is done.

Cook linguine in salted water, drain and rinse. Combine first 5 ingredients in bowl and add pasta and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss in Parmesan cheese. Serve chicken with juices over linguine. Delicious!