Thai Chicken Pizza

I found this great herbed pizza crust at Trader Joe's and it has been a really long time since I made a pizza at home. As usual, it had to be different. No sauce and mozzarella cheese here!

I loved California Pizza Kitchen, and I use the past tense because I liked all the unusual pizzas they had and so many have been taken off the menu. So, I of course, have to start recreating these at home. I ran a pizza restaurant for a few years so I tried to get through this without having Vietnam style flashbacks about my days in servitude. 

I started by prepping my dough. It was frozen, so I let it defrost and proof on my counter for several hours before touching it. Then I cleaned the surface I would be working on, made sure it was dry, and poured down some cornmeal. When stretching the dough out, you'll want to use that or semolina, which is more expensive. Coat both sides and ensure that your ball is pretty round. Then stretch it out a bit, flipping it a few times to coat any sticky parts with corneal. Stretch the dough with your fingers and slide the dough in a clockwise, circular motion, keeping your palm off the middle. Keep stretching until you have a fairly good size dough. Then gently pick up the dough from the bottom with fists and shake off excess cornmeal. Lay down in a pizza pan or on a pizza stone. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. 

Pour peanut sauce into a ladle and then onto the crust. For the recommended sauce, see my blog on Thai Chicken Pasta. Use the back of the ladle to spread the sauce evenly, paying more attention to the edges, because everything will pool to the center. 

Then add a can of chicken breast or some pieces of leftover or rotisserie chicken. Julienne some carrots and spread them on as well in the same manner. 

Then add your desired cheese. I used about 2 cups of a shredded cheese blend. Top with some chopped peanuts and bake for 8 minutes. 

If you like, you can top with sprouts when it comes out of the oven. Cut into six or eight slices, twisting your wrist at the end of each pizza slice with the cutter to ensure that the slices separate.