Spicy Chicken Pizza
A step by step method of preparing pizza at home from scratch incuding the pizza dough, sauce and the toppings.
Servings 6
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 3 ½ cups of plain flour plus 1/2 cup more
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp instant dry yeast + 3 tbsp warm water
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp oil + more for greasing
- 1 and 1/2 cups of warm water little less or more as required
For the Pizza Sauce:
- 5 medium size ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
- 6 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1 small onion finely chopped optional
- 1 green chili or fresh red chili finely chopped
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 tsp black pepper powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt according to taste
- 1 tsp red chili powder optional
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 4 tbsp oil for cooking
For the topping (Spicy Chicken & Vegetables)
- 500 gms boneless chicken chopped into small pieces
- 1 tsp ginger & garlic paste combined
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp black pepper powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp oil for cooking
- 1 cup sliced vegetables of your choice bell pepper, onion, tomato, mushroom, olives
- 4 cups grated mozzarella cheese
- 1 fresh red chili chopped per pizza
- 1 tsp dried oregano per pizza
- 25 grams butter or olive oil
Instructions
To prepare the dough:
- In a small bowl mix together sugar, yeast and warm water. Set aside for 10 minutes till it gets frothy and bubbly. In a large bowl add the flour, salt, oil and yeast mixture.
- Combine everything slowly by adding water and until it forms a soft sticky dough. You can either use a stand mixer or mix by hand. If the dough is too sticky and difficult to handle, add additional flour, 1 tbsp at a time until the dough comes to a solid form.
- Scrape the dough from the sides and turn it on to a lightly floured surface on a clean table. Knead the dough for sometime in a stretching form, in order to build the gluten. The overall texture of the dough should be soft and not hard. In case if it sticks too much to the surface, sprinkle some dry flour and form into a smooth dough. Grease a large bowl with some oil and transfer the dough into it.
- Cover the bowl and keep it in a warm place to let it double in size. This will take about 1 hour or less.
For the pizza sauce:
- Place the chopped tomatoes into a mixer jar and pulse it for a few seconds at a time to get a coarse mixture. We do not want to make a fine puree.
- Heat oil in a saucepan and fry garlic till light brown, followed by onion and fresh chili. Fry till everything is soft and oil separates.
- Add crushed tomatoes, salt, sugar, oregano, and black pepper. Stir well and cook on high heat for 2 minutes and bring to a boil. Once it starts to boil, lower the heat and add red chili powder and cumin powder and continue to cook on low flame till all the water evaporates. (This will take about 15 to 20 minutes)
For the chicken topping:
- Heat oil in a pan and saute the chicken pieces for 1 minute. Add rest of the ingredients and cook on low flame till chicken is fully cooked. Do not overcook as it might turn dry and rubbery.
To assemble the pizza and bake:
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Grease the baking sheet with some oil.
- Divide the dough into 4 parts (for large pizzas) or 6 parts (for small pizzas).
- Place one part of the dough on the greased baking sheet. The dough is soft enough to spread it and flatten it with your hands. Also, prick the base with a fork to prevent it from rising in the process of baking. Here it is up to your choice whether to make a thin or thick crust pizza.
- Spread the pizza sauce evenly over the base.
- And then generously sprinkle the grated mozzarella cheese along with the vegetable, chicken and other toppings. Top with few chunks of butter.
- Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes depending on your oven. Just keep a close eye while it is baking.
- Serve hot.