Chicken Tikka Pizza

Okay I have a confession to make…..pizza is my least favorite snack…..or I better say it ‘was’ 🙂

For a long time I was embarrassed to admit that pizza makes me want to puke. I wonder if its only me or there are others who have this problem with pizzas…. I know it sounds strange and that’s  why I never told anyone about the feeling I would get at the sight of a pizza 😦  I don’t know if it was the cheese I disliked or the crust or the toppings, I still have to discover the reason! Everyone in my house absolutely loves pizza. Whenever we went to a pizza joint or bought a takeaway pizza, I could never finish even one slice of the pizza. Most of the times I would eat the side dishes, salad and fries and not even touch the pizza. It was a sad life indeed!

And then I tried my home-made pizza! Now finally, I can enjoy a good slice of pizza with any topping that I fancy!  I absolutely love a home-made pizza from scratch and it is so easy to make as well.

I have tried making different versions of pizza crusts. It includes the baking powder one, dough fermented with yogurt  and instant yeast dough. I would definitely recommend the one with yeast and that is what I am sharing with you today.

Lets get to the recipe, shall we?!

Topping:

Green pepper 1 julliene cut

Tomato 1 cored and thinly sliced

Onion 1 small sliced

Pizza cheese grated 1 1/2 cup (or any combination of cheese you prefer)

Oregano 1/2 tsp

Thyme 1/2 tsp

Chicken tikka pieces

Ingredients for Chicken Tikka:

In this pizza I have used leftover chicken tikka pieces from the barbecue we did the previous night. I marinated my chicken in ready-made boxed tikka spice mix.  But I have a very easy recipe which gives a perfect tikka taste to the chicken. It is as follows:

Chicken breast 1 cut in  1/2 inch square pieces

Juice of 1 lemon

Red chilli powder 1 1/2 tsp

Salt 1 tsp

Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp

Coriander powder 1/2 tsp

Chaat masala 1/2 tsp

Ginger garlic paste 1 1/2 tsp

Method:

Marinate the chicken pieces with all the ingredients. Heat up 4-5 tbs cooking oil and cook the chicken on medium low heat until soft and all moisture is dried up. Meanwhile heat a piece of coal. When chicken is ready place a small piece of chapati over the chicken and put burning coal on top. Drizzle a few drops of cooking oil on it. Put the lid on and leave for 5-6 minutes. It will give a perfect BBQ taste to the chicken tikka.

Ingredients for crust:

All purpose flour 1 1/2 cup

Yeast 2  tsp

salt 1/2 tsp

Sugar 1 1/2 tsp

Olive oil 2 tbs

Water 1/2 cup (luke warm)

Method:

• In a bowl add water, yeast and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Cover and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes to get foamy and doubled in volume.

• Sift flour and salt and add the olive oil. Rub in with hands to incorporate the oil in flour. Then add the yeast water. knead to get a pliable dough. Add a little extra water at a time if the dough is too dry. Dough should be soft to touch and not too sticky. Grease a large bowl.

• Put the dough in and cover with a cling film tightly. Leave the bowl in a warm place for an hour or until doubled.

• Put the fermented dough on floured work surface and using a rolling pin roll out to desired size. This recipe makes one 10 inch pizza.

•  Grease a pizza pan and  sprinkle some corn meal to give a nice crunchy texture to the crust. I had run out of it so I have used semolina instead. Both work equally well. Transfer the rolled out crust dough to the pan. use your hands to flatten in the middle and create a thick edge. Punch the dough with a fork or knife to release any trapped bubbles. Leave this flattened dough for 30 mins at a warm place to rise again.

• After it has risen grease it with some olive oil. It will prevent the crust from getting soggy from the topping. Spread chicken tikka pieces and 2/3 of peppers, tomatoes and onions over the greased dough. Spread the grated cheese and then the rest 1/3 pf the peppers, tomatoes and onions. Sprinkle oregano and thyme all over and bake at 170 degree C for 20 minute or until you see that the crust has browned at the edges.

• When done leave the pizza with the pan on a wire cooling rack for 5 minutes. Then cut the slices and enjoy!