Friday Night Pizza

Its our little tradition to eat pizza while watching a movie (rented or one we own) every other Friday night. We always make the pizza, oh wait with the exception of a Digorno frozen pizza once, because homemade is just cheaper, MUCH tastier and quite easy really, plus we like to try all sorts of different stuff. This Friday night we made BBQ Chicken pizza. We've made different types of BBQ pizza before, but this one we've done twice now and its by far the BEST! So we'd thought we'd share the "recipe" (if pizza really needs a recipe that is).

BBQ Chicken Pizza- Serves 4-6 (or 2 really hunger adults and 2 toddlers)

1-2 cooked chicken breasts- shredded (we barbecued ours since it was easiest at that time)
1/2 to 1 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce (we like Famous Dave's Rich and Sassy)
Half a medium red onion-chopped (got to be red, they are the best on pizza)

2+ cups monterey jack cheese (I recommend a mix of cheeses, more flavor)

2 TBS fresh cilantro

I mix about 3/4 of the shredded chicken with the BBQ sauce, then spread it over the dough. Add more BBQ sauce if you'd like, but as a warning, too much makes for very soggy pizza. Believe it or not, less is more on the particular pizza. Sprinkle most of the red onion on next. Then add the cheese. Next, add the remaining chicken and onion. Finally, sprinkle the cilantro on top.

Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes (varies by size and type of pan)

Pizza Dough

This is the pizza dough we like best (so far). We let the bread maker do the work, but its just as easy to make it yourself

1 1/2 cups warm (borderline hot) water
2 TBS olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
4 cups flour
1 TBS seasonings of your choice (garlic always, and oregano are what we do usually, this time I added a little cilantro to go with the BBQ pizza)
4 tsp yeast

Add in order to bread maker and set on pizza dough cycle.

-If making it yourself, moisten yeast in 1/4 cup of the water. Put remaining water with the oil in bowl. In a separate bowl, mix salt, sugar, flour and seasoning. Add dry ingredients to the water and oil. Mix well, then add the moistened yeast mixture. Mix well. Knead on floured surface (bout 10 minutes, more or less depending on how vigorously you knead). Place in greased bowl, turn once and loosely cover. Let rise 30 minutes in warm place.

It makes enough for 2 crusts (or 1 crust and some breadsticks :), I often freeze half the dough for later. When the dough is done, divide in half. Roll half out on lightly floured surface to make pizza. Grease the pan or whatever you'll be using (we don't actually have a pizza pan or stone, so we just use a cookie sheet) and sprinkle with cornmeal. Transfer rolled out pizza dough to pan and add toppings (if we want a softer crust at the time, I let it rise for a bit longer before adding toppings)