Good Eats Girl

I’ve had this idea for a buffalo chicken pizza in my head for a few weeks, but I was a little nervous about trying it because I didn’t want it to turn out badly.  I know, lame excuse, but it sounded so good in my head and I knew I would be disappointed that it didn’t turn out.

Last night the Good Eats Guy had a late meeting, so I thought that this would be a perfect meal for a mini date night at home when he got done.  You see…every once in a while we’ll make the girls dinner early and then after they go to bed, we have dinner together!  It’s kind of fun not to have to get up every two seconds to get the kids something they need!

I’m excited to say that it turned out!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

For the THIN crust….

-1 package active dry yeast

-1 teaspoon honey

-1 cup water (100–105 degrees)

-2 1/2 cups flour

-1 teaspoon salt

-1 Tablespoon olive oil

For the aioli…

-1/3 cup mayonaise

-1 clove of garlic (run it through a garlic press or mash it well)

-1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Everything else…

-2 chicken breasts

-2 cups mozzarella cheese

-buffalo wing sauce

-2   of celery cut into small pieces

-blue cheese crumbles (if you want.  The husband loves them and I forgot to get them at the store…whoops!!)

Start with the crust as it needs rise time.  First, mix the honey, water and yeast together.  Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes.  It will get all foamy.

While you are waiting your ten minutes, mix together the flour and salt.  After ten minutes, add the flour mixture to the yeast mixture and mix together.  I used my dough hook to do the mixing for me.  If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can definitely mix by hand!  When the dough starts coming together drizzle in the olive oil.  When all the ingredients are in, knead the dough for 6-8 minutes.  The dough with get smooth and elastic.

When kneading is finished, cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise for 60 minutes.  I let the dough rise in the bowl that I mixed it in.  It will get all big and fluffy like this.

After 60 minutes split the dough in to two pieces and shape into a pizza shape!  I used one piece for our pizza and put one in the freezer.

Aioli–Mix all of the ingredients together while the pizza dough is rising and put in the fridge to allow flavors to mesh together.

Also–while the dough is rising, grill the chicken breast.  While it is grilling, brush with buffalo wing sauce!

When everything is done…pre- bake the crust at 450 degrees for 5 minutes.  Take crust back out of oven after 5 minutes and spread the aioli on the crust.  You do NOT need to use all of the aioli.  I used a very thin layer.  You use whatever your taste preference is.  On top of the aioli, layer some cheese, then the chicken, then more cheese (add the blue cheese if you are using it) and finally the celery pieces. I also drizzled more buffalo sauce on top…we like things spicy around here!

Put back in the oven until the cheese is melty and brown!

We were both really happy with how this turned out!  I am usually a tomato sauce pizza eating girl and don’t stray from that very often, so making this was a big change in our house, but it was totally worth it!  What kind of sauce do you like on your pizza?

All of the flavors in this pizza really came together!  It made a perfect date night at home!

This crust is also going to be my go-to crust.  It was night and light and got wonderfully crispy!

As we were making dinner last night, I remembered that I haven’t told you about Herman.  I couldn’t believe that I had forgotten this!  Herman lives on our deck. Here he is…

Herman likes us.  He appeared on our deck in my flower pot one day and now lives under the grill. He has gotten scared and jumped off of our second story deck, but he always manages to make his way back up to his little home.  I don’t have any idea what kind of frog this is, but he has taken up residence on our deck.  He scares me half to death at night when he decides to stick to the windows and I look up and see him.  But he’s no work, so I really can’t complain….if only he’d stop pooping on the deck we could be friends!

I hope you have a wonderful Friday!

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Tags: chicken, Friday, pizza