Chicken Antipasta Pizza

Pizza is such an easy recipe to change and suit your needs, toppings can be seasonal or colorful, vegetarian, or full of meat.  This pizza is a good combination of both.  Originally I made it using just the antipasta vegetables but decided it really needed something else.  At Costco they sell very yummy inexpensive rotisserie chicken that I've posted about previously and we had one in our fridge we hadn't used yet.  The pesto was also from Costco and bought two bottles when it was on sale so I used on right away and froze the second one.  We had just one bottle left in the freezer. I took out the frozen one and thawed in the refrigerator over night before adding to the chicken.  If you are looking to change up your Friday night pizza then this is the recipe for you, it's a good blend of flavors.  

I made a video of myself preparing the pizza and used that in place of the many photos I normally have in a post.  Let me know if you prefer the video or photographs for the recipe steps.

Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

7 cups Hi-Gluten Flour (Bread flour may be substituted)
2 3/4 cup Warm Water
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 1/2 Tbs Active Dry Yeast
1 1/2 Tbs Kosher Salt
1 Tbs Honey

Process:

Warm up water in microwave for 40 seconds.  Add yeast to water, salt, honey, and olive oil in a stand mixer mixing bowl.  Allow mixture to activate(rest) for 5 minutes.

Add flour and blend with dough hook on medium until a smooth ball forms.

Place dough in bow greased with olive oil.  Allow to rest in refrigerator overnight before using for pizza.

Chicken Antipasta Pizza

Ingredients:

1/4 of Prepared Pizza Dough

3/4 cup Shredded Rotisserie Chicken Breast

2 Tbs Pesto

1 cup Shredded Provolone & Mozzarella Cheese

1/4 cup Marinara Sauce

2 Tbs chopped Kalamata Olives

2 Tbs chopped Artichoke Hearts

2 Tbs chopped Sun Dried Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Parchment Paper

Process:

Mix pesto with shredded chicken in small bowl, refrigerate while dough rests on counter.

Preheat a pizza stone or baking steel in oven set to 525 F for at least 1 hour before baking pizza. 

Section off a ball of pizza dough and roll it in olive oil on a piece of parchment paper large enough for a 12 inch pizza.  Rest for two hours on counter.

Press the dough with fingers and use knuckles under dough to stretch the dough into a thin disk with a thicker outer edge.  

Ladle on sauce in a thin layer leaving the outer inch crust without marinara.

Sprinkle on shredded cheese then the other toppings, ie chicken, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, and sun dried tomatoes.

Using a pizza peel or inverted cookie sheet move the pizza to your stone or steel.  Bake for 5-8 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and under carriage of pizza has brown spots.  

Place pizza on a cooling rack for 3 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy!

Blood Orange Marmalade(Freezer Preserved)

Last year I ventured into the world of orange marmalade and attempted to make some with a box of Florida Navel Oranges I bought from our local High School color guard fundraiser.  As instructed I used the peel, white pith and all and I couldn't get past the bitterness of it.  My husband enjoyed it.  Recently I bought six pounds of blood oranges to add to a fruit salad and decided instead to forgo adding them.   That left me with six pounds of blood oranges to use somehow.  My children aren't big on fruit that requires a lot of effort to eat and that meant these oranges were still hanging around in my refrigerator when my husband left to work in Manhattan for a week.  While he was away I did some searching and found a wonderful recipe for blood orange marmalade that was minimally cooked and preserved in the freezer.  I'm a big fan of freezer jam, it maintains the freshness of the jam and it requires only a freezer to preserve instead of canning essentials.  My first batch set up so nicely and tasted amazing that I gave away two of the four pints I made, to friends.  My friend Jennifer liked it so much we made two batches together.  Yesterday was a particularly nice day so she brought her three children over to play and we made marmalade together.  Her hand and arm modeling are in the photos I took for this post.  This marmalade has been enjoyed on toast, biscuits, and Challah french toast and I'm sure you will find many more ways to enjoy it.  Blood Oranges are originally from Italy and Sicily but now Sunkist in Florida has been growing the Moro Blood Oranges and those are what I found in our local Walmart Grocery and Food Lion Grocery stores.  Blood Oranges are available December through May.  

 The deep red and pieces of orange really produce a beautiful marmalade.  

Ingredients:

6 lbs Moro Blood Oranges
3 boxes Pectin
2 1/4 cups Water
8 1/2 cups White Granulated Sugar
1 teaspoon Citric Acid or juice of 1 Lemon

Soak oranges in the sink with cool water and a splash of white vinegar for a few minutes to remove any residue.  Scrub the oranges and rinse the thoroughly.  

Using a microplane remove the outer layer of the oranges into a large bowl, do not remove any white pith.  The pith is bitter.

 Cut the peel off and slice the orange segments into small pieces.

 Mix the cut up oranges and oranges zest with the sugar until mostly dissolved.  

 Microwave the fruit for three minutes and stir until the graininess is gone.

Pour water and the pectin into a small sauce pan over medium high heat.  Stir and dissolve pectin, when the mixture begins to boil set a timer for one minute and continuously stir till.

 Add the hot pectin liquid to the fruit and stir continuously for three minutes. 

Be sure to sterilize your jars, lids, and seals, before filling.  Either fill with boiling water and pour out or clean in the dishwasher.  Carefully pour your marmalade in the jars and secure the lids.

This recipes makes close to seven pints.  Leave the marmalade to set on the kitchen counter for 24 hours before freezing.  After the twenty-fours you are ready to enjoy your delicious marmalade.  

Enjoy!

Blood Orange Marmalade(Freezer Preserved)

Ingredients:

6 lbs Moro Blood Oranges
3 boxes Pectin
2 1/4 cups Water
8 1/2 cups White Granulated Sugar
1 teaspoon Citric Acid or juice of 1 Lemon

Process:

Soak oranges in the sink with cool water and a splash of white vinegar for a few minutes to remove any residue.  Scrub the oranges and rinse the thoroughly.  

Using a microplane remove the outer layer of the oranges into a large bowl, do not remove any white pith.  The pith is bitter.

Cut the peel off and slice the orange segments into small pieces.

Mix the cut up oranges and oranges zest with the sugar until mostly dissolved.  

Microwave the fruit for three minutes and stir until the graininess is gone.

Pour water and the pectin into a small sauce pan over medium high heat.  Stir and dissolve pectin, when the mixture begins to boil set a timer for one minute and continuously stir till.

Add the hot pectin liquid to the fruit and stir continuously for three minutes. 

Be sure to sterilize your jars, lids, and seals, before filling.  Either fill with boiling water and pour out or clean in the dishwasher.  Carefully pour your marmalade in the jars and secure the lids.

This recipes makes close to seven pints.  Leave the marmalade to set on the kitchen counter for 24 hours before freezing.  After the twenty-fours you are ready to enjoy your delicious marmalade.  

Enjoy!

Stephanie's Kitchen Drawer: Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker

One of my NYC friends, Kristie Nybo PhD wrote an amazing article on BioTechniques where she is an editor about the Prefect Turkey, Sous Vide style.  The article can be read here.  I know what your thinking, that was three years ago and you still remember her article and are finally saying something?  I know I know, I'm slow.   A few weeks ago I was at Target and saw the Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker that my friend Kristie recommended.  March 19 I reached my 39th birthday and asked my husband for my own Sous Vide Precision Cooker.    My husband said yes to my gift request!  The particular model I picked up is this one.  My Sous Vide is attached to a 12 qt Cambro Container I bought at a local restaurant supply store.  The container I have is this model.  Also using the advice of Serious Eat's J. Kenji Lopez I use ping pong balls to insulate and keep the water temperature and evaporation under control.  I ordered my ping pong balls from Amazon here.  For my birthday I prepared NY Strip Steak with my new kitchen gadget, after cooking for an hour at 150 degrees I seared the steaks in a hot 12" Lodge Cast Iron Skillet.  Would you like to know more? Serious Eat's J. Kenji Lopez explains the virtues of Sous Vide cooking here.  I'm excited to try my gadget with many more recipes, Kenji also helped create a Anova Culinary App to be used in conjunction with the Sous Vide Precision Cooker.  The app can be found here.  My experience so far with the app is good, it has a lot of great articles and control option for the cooker.  If you like perfectly cooked meat, with consistent results every time and an easy method this is the best tool to use.