Last week, Shawnda of Confections of a Foodie Bride devoted a whole week to pizza. I happened to have pizza on the menu for Friday evening, and I couldn’t help but be inspired by all the fun twists on pizza that she’d shared during the week. I’ve been in the mood for wings for a couple of weeks now. So, I thought, why not a buffalo chicken pizza? Yum!
I looked around on a few different recipes, and there are several variations out there. I settled on Racheal Ray’s version. Say what you will about her “stoups” and sammies, but what recipes I’ve tried of hers have yet to let me down. I liked the idea of a Buffalo pizza sauce, versus just a buffalo sauce, or ranch dressing as the base. I didn’t have blue cheese, so I just mixed in a little bit of cheddar. I was thinking feta might be a good substitute as well, with the nice salty kick it lends. And last, but certainly not least, the red onions. Which, get nice and charred under the intense heat in the oven.
Everyone really enjoyed it, in fact we ate the whole thing that night. Usually, on pizza night, there’s always at least a half a pizza left over between the traditional pizza I make for the boys, and the more adulterated pizza I’ll make for us. I’m already craving this again, so I have a feeling it won’t be long before it’s making an appearance on our dinner table soon. Make sure you have plenty of ice cold beer to serve with it, as they go down too easy together!
Buffalo Chicken Pizza
3/4 pound chicken breast cutlets
olive oil, for drizzling
2 teaspoons grill seasoning
1 pizza dough
Cornmeal or flour, to handle dough
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, eyeball it
2 to 3 tablespoons hot sauce (I like Frank’s Red Hot)
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 cup shredded Monterey or Pepper Jack cheese
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Preheat grill pan to high.
Place chicken on a plate and drizzle with olive oil , then season with grill seasoning. When grill is hot, add chicken and cook about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and set aside to cool. Once chicken has cooled, slice it into 1/2″ thick strips.
Stretch dough to form pizza using cornmeal or flour to help you handle it. Set pizza on pizza pan to the side and clean board.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and stir in Worcestershire, hot sauce, and tomato sauce. Remove from heat. Add chicken strips to sauce and toss to coat, then remove and set aside.
Cover the pizza dough with remaining pizza sauce, then top with the cheeses, chicken pieces, and red onion. Bake 15 minutes or until crisp.
Source: adapted from Racheal Ray
