(8 servings – 2, 14 inch pizzas)
Preparation Time: 90 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
I guess Italian cuisine month deserves its pizza! And as usual I provided a touch of our own with a chicken tikka topping. What I love about pizza is you can get so creative with the toppings and even the style and type of crust you want. I went for a thin crust here with traditional pizza flour I picked up from Chelsea market. For the chicken tikka, if you do not want to make the ‘masala’ or spice mix from scratch, no worries. Buy a pack from the supermarket. I have seen these readily available in neighborhood groceries. If you are in NYC, Fairway has a few options.
Ingredients:
For the Pizza dough:
- 4 cups flour (bread flour or all purpose flour)
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 envelope dry yeast
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
For the Sauce:
- 4 Roma tomatoes puree
- 2 Roma tomatoes chopped
- 1 cup basil roughly chopped
- 3 tablespoon tomato ketchup
- 4 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- Salt & pepper to taste
Toppings:
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese
- 1 pound chicken thighs cut in 1 inch cubes
- 3 tablespoon tandoori masala (readily available in stores)
- 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
- 3 tablespoons yogurt
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 small onion sliced
Method:
For the dough:
Dissolve the yeast in 1 cup of luke warm water. Mound the flour in a large bowl with a crater in the center. Pour the salt & honey. Slowly add the water & yeast mix as you use a fork or spoon to mix. Add the remaining water and continue to incorporate the flour. Once about half the flour has been incorporated and mixture is a rough mass, start using your hands to knead the dough. If kneading the dough in the bowl is uncomfortable, transfer the dough to a work surface. Keep incorporating the flour, turning the dough over several times while kneading.
Use the heel of your palm to push the dough down and away. Then fold over and repeat. Continue for about 5 minutes or until the dough is moderately smooth. If the dough feels sticky add some flour, if it feels dry add water 1 tablespoon at a time to reach desired consistency. Form a ball with the dough. Spread some olive oil in the bowl, place the dough in the bowl and cover bowl with a damp cloth. Set aside for about 1 hour or until the dough doubles in size.
For chicken topping:
While the dough is rising, prep the chicken. Marinate with tandoori masala, yogurt, ginger-garlic paste, salt and pepper and set aside for 30 minutes. Pre heat oven to 450 F. Skewer the chicken and bake in over for about 15 minutes. Switch to broil and cook another 10 minutes or until you see some charring on the chicken. Set aside to cool and then slice chicken in size that you would like on your pizza.
For sauce:
Heat 2 tablespoon olive oil in a pan and add the chopped and puree tomatoes cook for 5 minutes. Add in the salt, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, pepper and paprika and keep cooking for another 10 minutes. Add in the chopped basil towards the end. You want to make sure that most of the watery liquid from the tomatoes has evaporated and you are left with a moderately thick sauce.
Divide the pizza dough into 2. Roll out one piece of dough and spread thin over a pizza baking tray. Top with olive oil, tomato sauce, mozzarella, onion and chicken and bake at 450 F for about 15 minutes.
Enjoy this beautifully crisp and healthy pizza!!!
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