BBQ chicken Pizza

We decided that we LOVE to make our pizza crust, it's really easy, though a little time consuming. I use the recipe out of the Joy of Cooking Cookbook, if you don't have one, I recommend that you get one. It's the BEST cookbook we have. There is ANYTHING you would want to know about anything in there.

Pizza Crust:
from the Joy of Cooking..

Combine in a large bowl or the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer and let stand until the yeast is dissolved, about 5 min.

1/13 cups warm water ( 105-115F)
1 Package active dry yeast
Add
3 1/2- 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon salt


Mix by hand or on low speed for about 1 min. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or with the dough hook on low to medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly coated with olive oil and turn it once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean cloth and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1.5 hours.

Once we did this, we punched it down and divided it in two and froze one half, and used the other for a BBQ chicken pizza.

We used left of roasted chicken cut up in small chunks, mixed it with desired amount of sauce. Put a little bit of sauce on the crust, then chicken then top with cheddar cheese and bake at 475 for about 10 min.

Super late, Super Bowl

Since I knew that I was wanting to create a food blog I took pictures of the snacks we made for super bowl. One of our Christmas presents was a deep fryer, and well we've used it! We decided some fried food sounded good. We adapted this recipe from Big Daddy's House on Food Network.



Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Balls:

Roasted Chicken pulled off the bone ( he used a rotiserary chicken, we roasted our own)
1/4 Cup Franks Buffalo Sauce ( I eyeballed it, to the consistancy I liked)
About 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Flour for breading
Panko Bread Crumbs
2 eggs

Dipping Sauce:
I made white dip, you know, the packet of ranch dressing mix that you mix with sour cream. It was yummy!

Have oil heated to 350 degrees F.

Pick the meat from the chicken and discard the skin. Place the chicken in a large bowl and add the hot sauce, pepper, cheese, and scallions, and toss to combine. Roll the chicken into 2-ounce balls, about the size of a golf ball.

Place the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in 3 separate bowls. Roll each ball in the flour, then the egg and then the bread crumbs. Set aside.

When the oil is hot fry the chicken balls in batches. Cook for about 2 minutes per batch. Remove the chicken to paper towel lined plate to drain the excess oil.

To make the sauce, combine all ingredients in a large bowl and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve the chicken alongside the dipping sauce.



Baby Blooming Onion:
We got the idea of this off Food Network of course, from Down Home with the Neely's.
It sounds much harder than it actually is. Try it, I promise you won't be disapointed!

1 Vidalia onion, skin removed ( We used just a white onion and it was yummy)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
Peanut oil, for frying

Directions:

Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together the egg and the milk in a medium sized bowl.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, peppers, oregano, thyme, and cumin.

Slice 1/2-an inch off the top of the onion and the bottom of the onion. Slice the onion in half, about 3/4-of the way down without slicing all the way through. Slice into quarters, then into 1/8s. Repeat this until you have cut the onion into 14 sections. Spread the "petals" of the onion apart and dip the onion in the milk mixture. Then coat it liberally with the dry ingredients. Separate the "petals" and sprinkle the dry coating between them.

Place the battered onion in the hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove to a paper towel lined sheet tray and season with salt and pepper.