Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Steps to make a grilled pizza with the recipe for THIN CRUSTED PIZZA W CHICKEN, KALAMATA OLIVES AND FONTINA CHEESE






Steps to make a grilled pizza with the recipe for THIN CRUSTED PIZZA W 

CHICKEN, KALAMATA OLIVES AND FONTINA CHEESE











by Skip Graden on Wednesday ·





This is a pizza that I made in American Regional Cooking with Chef David Rell last semester.  We grill marked and par-cooked the crust and finished them in a 450 degree BKI Oven

You can top a pizza a lot of ways:  Follow this recipe, Sausage, Peperoni, Cheese, Pepperoni & Sausage, Vegetables,  Pesto Red Onion Shrimp & Baby Bella's, etc...


THIN CRUSTED PIZZA WITH CHICKEN, KALAMATA OLIVES AND FONTINA CHEESE

THIN CRUSTED PIZZA WITH CHICKEN, KALAMATA OLIVES AND FONTINA CHEESE

Yield:  4 8-inch Pizzas

For the Dough: (Best to make the day before.)

INGREDIENTS

ea          Envelope active dry yeast
1/2 tsp      Sugar
2/3 cup      Warm water
2 to 3 cup  All-purpose flour
1 tsp          Kosher salt or Sea Salt
1 tsp          Freshly ground pepper
2 tblsp       Olive oil, plus olive oil for brushing crust

For the Topping:

INGREDIENTS

3 cups   Thinly sliced grilled chicken meat
3/4 cup  Sliced, pitted kalamata olives
4 cups    Shredded fontina cheese
1 cup      Thinly sliced red onion
2 tblsp    Finely chopped fresh parsley

THIN CRUSTED PIZZA WITH CHICKEN, KALAMATA OLIVES AND FONTINA CHEESE

METHOD:
  1. For dough: In a medium bowl, combine yeast, sugar, and water. Stir briefly and let stand until foamy, 5-10 minutes. Add 2 cups flour, the salt, pepper, and 2 tblsp olive oil. Stir together with your fingers, until the dough holds together. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, 8 to 10 minutes. Shape into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Turn the ball to cover the surface with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in warm place until the dough doubles in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
  2. Punch down the dough in the bowl. Transfer it to a lightly floured work surface and cut into 4 equal pieces. Roll out each piece into an 8-inch round about an 1/8 inch thick. Lightly brush both sides of each round with olive oil and place rounds on baking sheet.
  3. Gently slide crust from baking sheet and cook, uncovered, directly over medium heat until grill marks are clearly visible, about 2 minutes. Don't worry if the crust bubbles; they will deflate when you turn them over. Transfer the crust to the baking sheets, with grilled marks facing up.
  4. Distribute the chicken, olives, cheese, onion, and parsley evenly among the crusts. Transfer the pizza again from the baking sheet to the grill and cook, covered, directly over medium heat until the crusts are crisp and the cheese is melted, 3 to 4 minutes.

THIN CRUSTED PIZZA WITH CHICKEN, KALAMATA OLIVES AND FONTINA CHEESE

Steps to follow:
Make the Pizza Dough 24 hours before you are going to par cook them.
Once it is par cooked, you can use right away or refrigerated/freeze them wrapped tightly in Saran Wrap or vaccuum packed 3-5 days  refrigerated and 2-3 weeks frozen...


Top of Crust

Bottom of Crust

Top Of Crust, Time to Sauce it...

Add and spread a thin layer of sauce or Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

Add Pepperoni, start with Thin Flat items

Then add Pre-cooked Sausage


Next is cheese


Evenly spread cheese across top

Looks like enough, time to cook it...
(Can be wrapped in Saran Wrap at this point...
Frozen or Refrigerated)

Put it on the grill...
Cover it with a large lid or a stainless steel bowl with a handle.




Checking it and getting ready to turn it...


Turn it every 3-5 minutes a 1/4 to a 1/3 of a turn...

Turn it every 3-5 minutes a 1/4 to a 1/3 of a turn...

Bottom looks about done....
Remove from the grill...

Put on a surface to cut...
Get into position to cut in smooth continuous strokes


Cut in 6-8 pieces...

Cheese is nice and melty...

Check it out...
Bottom looks great...

Enjoy with a beverage of your choice!


Menu board at Schnuck's on Clayton Road in St Louis MO....
Menu board at Schnuck's on Clayton Road in St Louis MO....

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Why did the chicken cross the road....

I really do not care (in fact) if I do not see another chicken for a couple days it would make me happy!   Because this past weekend we had a chicken special at work and had 10 cases of chicken to cook off by today. (Sunday)  Our sale price was really good at $6.99 for an 8 piece...

3 cases of Double Hand Breaded Chicken, Schnuck's recipe

Close up of Double Hand Breaded Chicken


Friday, I cooked 2 cases and each case has 4 bags with 32 pieces: 8 Breast, 8 Thighs, 8 Legs, and 8 Wings.        Then Saturday, I cooked 3 cases and then today, my coworker David and myself cooked off 5 cases of chicken.  We fried 3 cases and baked off 2 cases:


David breaded and fried the chicken while I chopped and prepared a mirepoix of Onion, Green Onion, Carrots, and Celery.  Most of the vegetables for the mirepoix were already prepared as we used them from the salad bar.  Though we were out of celery and this I had to prepare.

Once my vegetables were prepared, I took the restaurant pans, sprayed them down with pan release, sprinkled about 3/4 to 1 cup of mirepoix into the bottom of the pans and placed my chicken pieces into the pans.  Due to lack of pan space, I had to crowd the chicken pieces, normally when baking chicken pieces you would leave space between the pieces.


I then put another cup or so of the mirepoix over the chicken with a 1/4 cup of chicken broth and covered the pans with heavy aluminum foil.



 Covering the pans, I then baked them for 40 minutes at 350 degrees farhenhiet and then uncovered the pans and baked an additional 20 minutes.





The recipe that I based my preparation of this Baked Chicken was Roast Chicken with Pan Gravy.  Starting with my Mirepoix of Onion, Green Onion, Carrots, Celery and freeze dried parsley.  I added a dusting of the Schnuck's Herb Roasted Chicken Seasoning, more of the mirepoix and a 1/4 cup of chicken broth.