Quick and Easy White Chicken Pizza

This last year I made a personal food "discovery"--my favoirte pizza of all time is made with chicken. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would like a pizza made with chicken. But chicken, alfredo sauce, and white cheese---oh, yeah, it's like nectar and ambrosia.

Not long ago, a lovely lady we know gifted us with an assortment of homemade yeast breads, one of which was a pre-baked pizza crust. I toyed with the idea of making a traditional red-sauce pizza, but when I found a jar of Alfredo pasta sauce in the food cabinet, I knew I was set.

For that first white chicken pizza, I used some frozen chicken breast tenderloins, which I cooked in a little chicken broth, then diced. One thing I've learned from making pizza in the past is that it always takes less sauce than you might think, so I very lightly sauced the top, then loaded it up with diced, cooked chicken, and covered it liberally (very liberally) with white cheese. I used what I had on hand, probably a mix of mozzarella, provolone, or Italian blend.

It was a huge success!

And now my delima--I'm a yeast bread wienie, unless I have my bread machine, which is in Georgia while I'm home in Louisiana for a while. I looked at packaged pre-baked crust in the store, but they seemed a little, ahem, shall we say steep for a big piece of round flat bread?

So I decided to recreate it this time using my old tried and true refrigerated pizza dough from a tube. Found next to the "canned" biscuits. Certainly you could make your own.

Ingredients:

• pizza crust
• Alfredo suace
• diced, pre-cooked chicken
• white cheese of your choice--mozarella, provolone, Italian blend
  

I started off my lightly greasing my cookie sheet, then sprinkling just a couple of pinches of cornmeal on the pan. I think that's to keep the crust from sticking, like when you grease and flour a cake pan, but I'm not really sure. They do it at pizza places, and I read it in a recipe once, so I do it, too.

The crust I had stated (33% more free), so I used a large pan, 15 1/2 x 10 1/2.

Pre-bake according to package directions. I baked this at around 400-425 for probably 10 minutes. Next time around I would not let it brown quite this much.

Spread alfredo sauce, from a jar or your own, very sparingly over the crust. The first time I used maybe a 1/3 c or less, but for one this size it took at least 1/2 c, maybe a little more. (tune in later this week to see what I made using the leftover sauce)

Cover with diced, cooked chicken. First time, I cooked some frozen chicken breast pieces, this time I used a bag of pre-cooked, seasoned chicken strips (the kind that look like chicken fajita strips). I heated them in the microwave just to thaw them and take the chill off, maybe 3-5 minutes. These were good, and certainly easy, but I think I liked the one with the regular cooked chicken breast better--this would be an good use of leftover cooked chicken of any sort, actually.

Cover liberally with white cheese. I used some parmesan, some Italian blend, and even some monterray jack this time around. Last time I think I used provolone and mozzarella.

Bake at 400-425 degrees F for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is melted, and the tops of the little chicken pieces start to slightly brown.

The two of these that I've made were distinctly different, but both were successes. This a definite keeper, so much so that I may attempt an even more home-made version--the refrigerated pizza dough will have to do until I get back to my bread machine, but I will pre-cook some chicken, and I think I'm going to make the alfredo sauce and see how it goes.

For myself personally, I would to try this mushrooms added; for those who like it, certainly onions and/or peppers could make a pretty addition (can you imagine some chopped purple onion--would that make a "lavender" pizza instead of a white pizza??) What toppings does your family like on pizza?

This post is linked to:

Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace

Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum

Recipe Swap at the Grocery Chart Challenge

Food on Friday at Ann Kroeker

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating!