Chicken Pizza and Mediterranean pizza

Even though pizza is an Italian dish, I think most cultures have dishes similar to pizza. Traditional Italian pizza do not have a lot of toppings; at most three. If pizza has a lot of toppings they call it 'Pizza Americano', which means American style pizza. Another item inspired by American style is 'Coffee Americano' which is simply espresso with more water. For Italians it is not a good quality coffee, as it has higher percent of water in it.

Today I will share two kinds of pizza recipe. The first one is with chicken and jalapeno peppers and the other one is with pepperoni.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 3 cups of all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sunflower or vegetable oil
• 1 dessertspoon dry yeast
• 1/2 cup of warm milk
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Warm water

For the sauce

• 1/2 cup tomato or red pepper paste
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• Red pepper flakes
• Oregano
• Water

For chicken pizza

• 1 thin sliced chicken breast
• Jalapeno slices
• Sliced black olives
• Mushrooms
• Grated mozzarella
• 1/4 onion
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Oregano

For Mediterranean Pizza

• Pepperoni
• 2 baby bell peppers
• Sliced black olives
• Mushrooms
• Grated mozzarella
• Corns
• 1/4 tomato
• Fresh dill

Preparation

To prepare the dough put flour into a large bowl, add salt, sugar, yeast, warm milk and oil and start kneading. Add water slowly while you are kneading the dough, until it become soft like earlobe. Then keep it in a warm place one or two hours until it rises.

Meanwhile to prepare the sauce, mix tomato paste, ketchup and spices in a small bowl. Add some water until it becomes liquid enough to spread over the pizza base.  

When the dough is ready, take it from the bowl and put on the counter (use some flour to prevent sticking). Cut it into two pieces. Take one piece and start to make the base with a roller. If you want a thicker pizza, you can make it with your hands without using a roller. To do that, first you need to apply some oil on the base of the pan, then put the dough on it and give the shape of pan to the dough. I prefer to use the pan with some holes under, I think it is the best kind to bake pizza.

If you made the base with roller, place it on the pan, it will not fit well to the pan, so fix it with your hands.  Push the dough towards the edges and scratch the edges with a knife, like in the picture.

Then spread the sauce over the base and add 1/4 cup of grated mozzarella on the sauce. If you do not like too much cheese on your pizza, you may not put in on the sauce, as we will add more mozzarella on the very top in the end. Repeat same steps with the other piece of dough.

To prepare chicken pizza, first cut the chicken breast in thin slices and marinate it with salt, black pepper and oregano. (you can use any kind of spices you like).  Put chicken breast on the pizza in a decorative way, then add sliced onions, mushrooms, jalapeño slices and black olives.

To prepare Mediterranean pizza, chop bell peppers, mushrooms and tomato. First put pepperoni on the base, and then add peppers, mushrooms, black olives and tomatoes. On very top spread corns and decorate with fresh dill.

Preheat oven to 425 F^o and bake the pizza for about 13 minutes. After 13 minutes check the bottom of the pizza, if it is baked well add some grated mozzarella on very top and bake 3 more minutes. Your pizza is ready.

Enjoy!