How to Make One of The World's Best Chicken Pesto Pizzas

I like pizza, but I love chicken pesto pizza. It's not your typical tomato-mozzarella and bread product. No - it's everything good about chicken and fresh herbs and freshly made bread. It's an easily made dinner with a gourmet touch that anyone can master. Hope you like it too.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• recipe for your own favorite thin crust or a can of Pillsbury's thin crust pizza dough
• a boneless, skinless, chicken breast, partially frozen
• olive oil
• fresh basil
• pine nuts (you may also substitute walnuts or any other of your favorite type of nuts)
• Parmesan cheese
• mozzarella cheese
• onions
• garlic
• and anything else you want to throw on

1. Prepare your own thin crust pizza dough or open your can of Pillsbury thin crust and spread evenly over a 14" pizza dough pan, slightly raising up the edges to form a crust. Prepare the pan beforehand by spreading it with olive oil and then topping with a handful of cornmeal. Gently tilt and tap the pan to spread the cornmeal uniformly over the surface and discard the extra.

2. 
    

   Place the pizza crust in an oven preheated to 400 degrees F for 5 minutes to pre-bake it. This gives a slightly crunchier crust, so you can eliminate this step if you like your crust on the softer side.

3. Remove your pizza crust from the oven and gently spread about 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil over it. Set the crust aside and prepare the toppings.

4. Now it's time to either buy or make your own pesto sauce, to find out how to make your own incredibly cheaper than in the food store, see my article on making pesto sauce. It will be better than anything you buy in store.

5. 
    
   Homemade pesto sauce, using walnuts and almonds.

   Lightly saute strips of partially frozen chicken breast roughly one tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the pesto sauce, using medium heat. Using partially frozen meat (at least to my way of tasting) eliminates the need to marinate the chicken. Don't overcook, just saute until no longer pink.

6. Now it is time to assemble the pizza. Take your crust which has been pre-baked and lightly brushed with olive oil and spread the remaining pesto sauce over the surface, leaving the crust bare. Cover this with the chicken and slices of onion, then sprinkle grated mozzarella cheese over the top and follow this with a sprinkling of Parmesan. Lightly salt and pepper to taste.

7. Place the pizza on the middle rack of a preheated oven set at 425 degrees F for 10-15 minutes. When done, the cheese should be bubbling and slightly browned and the crust should be golden brown in color. Serve with your favorite Italian wine and enjoy.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't overcook the chicken, because it will dry out during the baking process. Just saute until no longer pink.
• The better your ingredients, the better the pizza, so use fresh basil leaves and a good quality olive oil, cheeses, etc.
• This is addictive, so be careful.

[tachic]

on 7/14/2009 I don't normally like Chicken on pizza but perhaps with pesto this is worth a shot!

[starlet67]

on 7/5/2009 great pizza recipe!5*