Left Over Remix: BBQ Pizza with Chicken and Jalapenos

Its a creative challenge sometimes to look at a bunch of left over ingredients and think how I can make them over into something new and exciting. Looking in the refrigerator, I had a bunch of bags of left over garnish materials from Chili night; there was chopped jalapeno slices, half a red onion, a bag of shredded cheese and chopped cilantro.



While I was thinking of what I could use them for, my eyes glanced on a bottle of BBQ sauce I've been trying to get rid of. With the little scrap of chicken breast I knew was lurking in my freezer, one of Ira's favorite pizza's came into my mind. Using my pizza dough short cut, I had a left over dinner on the table about an hour later.



BBQ Pizza with Chicken and Jalapeno

• Jalapeno slices
• red onion sliced
• cooked chicken breast
• cilantro, chopped
• BBQ Sauce
• shredded cheese

I quickly prepared my pizza dough and got it in the oven to rise.

Meanwhile, I gave the Jalapenos a quick saute in olive oil with some cumin seed to add a bit of flavor and cut down on the spicy heat of the peppers. If you like spicy food, you can skip this step, but I have to admit, I am a bit of a wiener when it comes to spicy peppers. What can I say, I am a gringo.



I also gave the chicken a quick saute to cook through, about 2-3 minutes over medium heat. Before putting into the pan, I quickly cut up about a 1/4 of a chicken breast I had defrosted and mixed with the juice of 1 lime and 1 tsp of cumin.

Once the dough was ready, I spread out the BBQ sauce on the dough. BBQ sauce is easy to make if you don't have any ready made in the fridge.



This is a quick mid week dinner not a BBQ competition in Kentucky, so Sweet Baby Rays or a BBQ sauce made with ketchup works just fine.



Layering the rest of the ingredients on the pizza, it was ready for the oven. 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.



Eat up and enjoy not letting ingredients rot in your refrigerator. Barack Obama is proud of you.

Shortcut of the Week: A Quick Rise For Yeast Dough

Slow Food for Fast Living is our mantra. What can be more slow then making a yeast dough and needing to let it rise. There are many nights when I've got the ingredients for pizza, but I don't want to wait the hour or so it would take let the dough do its thing.



Here's a quick trick which gets you homemade dough in half the time!

• While making your dough, preheat your oven to 200 degrees. When you dough is kneaded, turn the oven off. Cover the dough in an oven safe bowl with a towel and place in the oven. Your dough should rise in 30 minutes or so.

A homemade pizza in half the time and you'll be everybody's favorite friend.