barbecue chicken pizza

I roasted a chicken on Sunday, and had quite a bit left over. Instead of throwing the leftover breast meat into a soup or between some bread slices with some miracle whip for the kid (yes, miracle whip, and no, no bread for me), I peeked into my fridge to survey any other leftovers that needed used up. My eyes wandered over the round tupperware of homemade alfredo sauce from spinach chicken alfredo I made per the kiddo's request late last week when suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, last night's dinner occurred to me:

Barbecue. Chicken. Pizza.

Used the alfredo sauce as a base for this, sprinkled some powdered garlic and onion over it with a few generous shakes of italian seasoning, then added the chicken, which I first shredded with my hands, mushed up some carrots from the roast in there, and added a bunch of bottled barbecue sauce lingering in the back of my pantry. I usually make barbecue sauce myself, which is why the bottled stuff was shoved to the very back, more than likely. Very easy to do. More on that another day, though.




















The alfredo was an easy recipe, just some cream cheese, parmesan, butter and a bit of milk, generously seasoned to taste with garlic and onion powder and some black pepper. The crust was very quick: proof a package of yeast with a teaspoon of sugar in a cup of warm water. Too hot and you'll kill the yeast, too cool and it won't proof. I sprinkled both solids over the water and let it sit as I showered off the gym sweat (made this around 8:30 last night, as soon as I walked in).

Once the yeast was all creamy and foamy, I scraped it into my stand mixer's bowl and added a couple cups of flour, some olive oil, and a little salt, and used my dough hook to mix it up. Too dry? Add more water. Too moist? Add more flour. Mix until it forms a ball, a minute or so, then turn over onto a floured surface and roll out. You can use your hands, but I use my rolling pin for a more evenly flattened dough.

Flatten this dough ring onto a pizza pan, any pan, really, just make sure it's oiled so the crust doesn't stick to it. Top with the sauce, seasonings, chicken and cheese, and bake for 15m or so, until you can smell it and the crust looks nice and brown. Rest for a bit before slicing. I messed up and added the chicken before the cheese, but it turned out nice, though I sliced it too early and disrupted the toppings a bit.























Start to finish, this was an under 30m meal, very easy to throw together and obscenely adaptable. I ate the slice below with a salad and some homemade beet horseradish dressing, then had two more slices before passing out for the evening. It's under 400 calories a slice, if you're counting, and all the ingredients can be easily logged as a recipe in MFP, if you use it. I swear by it. New years always smack of accountability, and what better way to hold yourself to your resolutions than with a food tracking app?

Do yourself a favor and delete Domino's number from your address book. Don't drive to Pizza Hut or Little Caesars, don't order Papa John's online. Stock your cabinets with cheap yet essential staple ingredients, mix them up and shove them in the oven. It's faster, cheaper, and tastier, and is healthier, more often than not. My pizza wasn't greasy at all, or burnt, or cheap-tasting. It owned, and yours will, too.