Buffalo Chicken Pizza

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who commented on my new house tour yesterday, whether it was on the tour post, or the announcement post, or facebook, or twitter. It means so much to get positive feedback on something I have been living and breathing pretty much since the day we walked through the house with my in-laws (who we are our landlords). Since I noticed some people have questions, and I like to talk, I think I might do a room-by-room breakdown. Sometimes I do a project with the intention of blogging it and it never happens. So a detailed post on each room might give me the chance to play “catch up” a little bit. Looking forward to it.

Speaking of catch-up… This post has been a looooong time coming. In fact, the particular pizza pictured here was made several days before the super bowl big game. While I usually try to cook on the healthy side, I must make a confession: ANY TIME is a good time for pizza in my book! If you are a fan of pizza (it’s a food group on it’s own in my world) and like buffalo wings (or buffalo chicken strips, or whatever), then I may just blow your mind.

Onward we go!

First, you gather your ingredients. Here I have a whole wheat pizza crust (my attempt to make this a little less unhealthy), Chicken (um, sometimes I use canned because it’s precooked, but you can use any cooked chicken breast), mozzarella, onion, wing sauce, and bleu cheese. I’ve made this before with chopped up celery on top (since wings are usually served with celery) and it works out great :)

Follow the crust instructions–usually you oil it before putting other stuff on it. Watch out, because the oil will go through the holes. You should use a brush to spread the oil–I didn’t because I don’t have one, but when I worked at a restaurant, that’s how we did it :)

Prep the chicken and onions: I began heating them in the skillet and then added buffalo sauce to flavor. You can use a little or a lot, depending on how hot you want it. The first time I made this pizza, I was scared so I didn’t use enough–this time I went for it! I used maybe 1/3 of the bottle and it was perfect!

I layered the pizza like so: mozzarella on the oiled crust, then the onion/chicken/buffalo concoction–then bleu cheese (and celery if you are using it). Go ahead and be liberal with the mozzarella… there is nothing worse than a pizza without enough delicious, melty cheese.

Having preheated the oven according to crust instructions (usually 400 or 450) throw the pizza on in! Another reason I like using canned chicken is that I know that it is 100% cooked by the time it goes in the oven–so I don’t have to worry about cooking the chicken–just making sure the cheese is melty and the crust is baked. Somewhere around ten minutes is a good time. Another tip: do not position the rack too low in the oven or the bottom will be toooo crispy!

Aha. The finished product. As I warned above… this was baked too close to the coil, so the bottom of the pizza was a crispy critter. Still edible though. This pizza was enough for me & my hubs to enjoy (I repeat: this is a two person meal… do not try to feed your family of four with one little pizza)–but if you have a pizza making party you can make several pizzas and cut smaller pieces to try lots of new things! Standard pepperoni, margherita pizza, barbecue chicken, taco pizza, pesto, the list could go on…!

Do you like cooking posts like this? I love cooking and don’t mind writing about it if you readers think it’s interesting!