Cheesy Chicken Pizza with Wheatgerm Crust

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There is one thing I am slowly convincing myself – that I can’t escape from night photography. Period… I have always wondered if people would stop reading my blog if I don’t improve my pictures. Would you? Please do tell me… 🙂 Once during a casual conversation, Lubna had mentioned that the pictures on the blog reflects the nature of the blog. If the concentration is on food photography, then there will be lesser posts, but if the focus is on recipe sharing, then the number of posts will be more. It actually made a lot of sense to me.

I never started the blog to focus on food photography. It was more to keep me motivated to cook, since I know the type of character I am. 😀 I can have long stretches of no-cooking days when we live off the fridge. I don’t want to blame it on my tight schedule but I would rather blame it on my lack of management skills, maybe. There are also times when I have gone home with zillions of ideas, not to even execute one, and vice versa!

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Most of the time, my best cooking happens at night. There are times, I click and I keep, planning to make them again for the blog. At times, it works out and I click when I have a weekend or a public holiday but most of the time, I tend to repeat them at night. Some suggested me to try keeping a portion and clicking it the next day in the morning. Here, in winters the sun is hardly up when I leave from home and in summers, it is quite bright but the morning rush makes my photography the last thing on my mind. 🙂 So I hope I am not wrong in having night pictures in and again. It only tells me that I am human and there is very limited I can do in my capacity. I always tell myself that if I can motivate others to cook and try new recipes, then what I am doing is good enough, Alhamdulillah. Please do let me know if there is anything wrong in my thought process. 🙂

There are times when I have wanted to make pizza or pasta for lunch, and my kids just frowns. For us, it has to be rice for lunch, nothing else goes. It is not that I haven’t tried, but it just doesn’t get accepted. I am not fond of rice much and try to avoid it. The lack of fondness also encourages the laziness in me, not to be making it with so many sides. 😉 But then, my kids nor HD are very happy to support me on that. And I am fine with it too… Some things can’t be changed, right? 🙂

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Now let us talk about this pizza. If I tell you this is one of the best pizza bases I have made, will you believe me? After making these wheatgerm brownies a couple of times and including some into this granola, I utilized the remaining wheatgerm in making this pizza. The base is adapted from here. Since we loved the texture of those brownies, I was sure in my mind that this pizza would be a hit too. I am so glad I tried it! Somehow, after exhausting my stock of wheatgerm, I haven’t been able to find it again, but I am sure it should be back on the shelves at some store or another.

One of the best points about this pizza is it takes hardly anytime to cook the base. The recipe asked to heat the pizza stone when the oven preheats and I feel that is the best thing I have done. Try this tip with any of your pizza base, you will not have uncooked sides or centers and will have a nice crispy base. The only thing is you have work really fast with your dough and toppings so that the pan keeps its heat when it goes into the oven. The topping is totally your choice, this was just the easiest and the laziest that I could do! 😉 If you ask me for replacement for wheatgerm, then I am sorry, THAT is what makes the base extra crispy and delicious too! I hope you can get hold of it and try it… 🙂 Off to the recipe…

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5 from 1 vote

Cheesy Chicken Pizza with Wheatgerm Crust

Course Dinner

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 55 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• FOR DOUGH:
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour + more if required
• 1/2 cup wheatgerm
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• FOR TOPPING:
• 350 gm boneless chicken cut into tiny cubes
• 1 tsp garlic flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• A dash of your choice of dried herbs I used oregano, rosemary, thyme
• 200 gm pack of grated mozarella cheese

Instructions

• In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and whisk well with hand.
• Add the olive oil and water and start kneading. If the dough seems sticky, add more flour as required. I added 1/4 cup extra.
• Knead well on an oiled surface for around 10 minutes or till it becomes stretchy and non-sticky.
• Keep in an oiled bowl to double in size, for about an hour.
• Season the cut chicken pieces well with the garlic flakes, salt and pepper.
• Heat oil in a saucepan and cook on high flame till the chicken is almost done and dry. Set aside to cool.
• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. While preheating, keep an ungreased sheet inside the oven for at least 15 minutes till hot.
• Punch down the dough. Spread quickly on top of the hot sheet. Spread the tomato paste and sprinkle the dry spices. Spread the cooked chicken and top with the mozarella cheese.
• Bake for 12 to 15 minutes till the cheese is melted and the base is crisp.
• Slice and serve hot!