Monday, August 31, 2009

Mmm...Monday: Pizza on the BBQ

This is one of my favorites. The flavor rivals that of an authentic italian pizzeria, at a fraction of the cost. Today I'll be making Chicken Pesto Pizza & BBQ Chicken Pizza, but even if all you have is pizza sauce & cheese, it will taste heavenly.
Pizza Dough
Ingredients
• 1 c warm water
• 1 T yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 c flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 T oil (use olive oil if you have it...it really does make a difference in the flavor)
• 1/4 c parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp dried basil

Directions
Dissolve yeast & sugar in water. Stir in flour, salt, parmesan cheese & basil. Add more oil or water if necessary to make a bread-like dough. Knead for 8-10 minutes. Place in greased bowl & let rise until doubled in bulk, approximately 45 minutes. Punch down. Divide into 4-6 balls. Roll out into individual pizzas.



Special Sauce
Ingredients
• 1/2 c spaghetti sauce
• scant 1/2 c BBQ sauce (flavor of your choice...my favorite is Hickory Smoke)

Directions
Mix together in bowl. If you don't feel like dirtying another bowl, just mix the Special Sauce on the pizza itself. Just pour equal amounts of spaghetti sauce & BBQ sauce & mix together, then spread over the pizza.


Toward the end of the dough rising, warm up your grill & cook 2 chicken breasts, along with a thick slice of onion.  I imagine a whole slice would making the flipping process much easier.  I only had half a slice on hand, and most of my onion ended up at the bottom of the grill.  Also, make sure to brush or spray both sides of the chicken & onion with oil before putting on the grill. I like to season the chicken with salt & pepper & whatever flavor of McCormick Grill Mates sounds good that day. Once the chicken is grilled, slice into 1/4" slices & cut the onion into small pieces.

Next up: BBQing the dough. I like to use a couple cookie sheets to transport the pizzas to & from the grill. Place rolled out dough onto a medium-heat grill & cook until golden brown (you could brush the dough with oil if you like, but it's not necessary). Turn over & cook for about 1 minute. Remove from grill. Add toppings to pizza (shown below: pesto + chicken + mozzarella cheese on the left, Special Sauce + onions + chicken + mozzarella cheese on the right). Return the pizza dough to grill. Lower lid on BBQ & cook until bottom is golden brown & cheese is melted. This only takes a couple of minutes, so don't go far.

This is best eaten right off the grill, but even if you have to warm it up in the microwave the next day, it beats anything I've eaten at a pizza place. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

1 comment:

katie said...

I've got to make this. Tomorrow. Although Mike has banned me from turning the grill on. I about blew my arm off last summer. I think I'll do it anyways. It looks worth it. Thanks!

Virtual Charlie