Pizza Night: Tyler Florence Style

If you've never seen Tyler's Ultimate on Food Network, I highly suggest that you check it out.  He is one of my favorite chefs and constantly inspires cooking creativity.

My family and I love making pizza together, so I decided to try out Tyler Florence's fresh pizza dough and then add my own toppings.  So...

Start with Tyler's pizza dough recipe.  You'll find it HERE.  This will take up to 1 hour 30 minutes to make and let rise, so start early.  From there...

What you will need:
1/8-1/4 C yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 small Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/4 C diced red bell peppers
1/4 C crumbled bleu or gorgonzola cheese
Olive oil
1 C leftover salsa chicken
1 C fresh spinach

What you will do:
When the pizza dough is ready, put a metal cookie sheet into the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
Roll out your dough until is is about 1/4" thick.
Take the hot cookie sheet out of the oven and drizzle with olive oil (just enough to coat the surface - about 1tsp).
Roll your pizza dough onto the cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil.
Evenly distribute the onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and cheese onto the dough and put the pizza into the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the crust is browned.
While the pizza is baking, reheat your salsa chicken in the microwave.
When the pizza is done, take it out of the oven and top with the chicken and fresh spinach.

Sweet & Spicy BBQ Sauce

What you will need:
1/2 Cup ketchup
3 Tbsp white sugar
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp spicy brown mustard
1 Tbsp A1 Steak Sauce
1 Tbsp Cholula Hot Sauce (optional)
1/2 Tbsp dried garlic flakes
1/4 Tbsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt

What you will do:

Blend the red pepper, garlic flakes, and 1/2 of the salt in a coffee grinder or similar device until it turns into a powder.
Mix all other ingredients and spices together and bring to a simmer in a small sauce pan.
Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.
Take off the heat and allow to cool for a minimum of 10-15 minutes.
The sauce can sit for longer, but it gets spicier the longer it sits. If you like it really spicy, add more red pepper and let it sit for a day or two.

This recipe makes enough sauce for 6 large chicken breasts, with enough left over for dipping.


How to cook the chicken:

Get boneless, skinless chicken breasts and trim any excess fat off of them. Rinse them well and slice them in half long ways (or butterfly them if you like). Place half of the BBQ sauce on prepared chicken and allow to sit while you prep your coals (this usually takes me about 15-20 minutes).

Cook your chicken until it's almost completely done on both sides and then add another thick layer of sauce and allow to cook for an additional 1 minute on each side. This will caramelize the sauce and make a nice crispy crust on the chicken.

How To: Garlic Paste

One of the things I wanted to do here was to provide not only recipes, but also techniques that I use regularly. One such technique is making garlic paste.

Garlic paste is a means of prepping garlic so that you do not have any large chunks of garlic in your food. it also provides maximum flavor out of a smaller amount of ingredients. You can use this in marinades, on garlic bread, in pasta sauces... Basically anywhere you use garlic.

What you will need:
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp of kosher salt
Cutting board
Knife or board scraper (these are awesome, and if you don't have one I suggest getting one.)

What you will do:
On a cutting board...
Peel and crush/rough chop garlic
Add olive oil and salt
Scrape the garlic/oil/salt mixture across the cutting board using the edge of your knife/board scraper.
Continue until you have made a paste that is roughly as sticky as Elmer's glue (but smells much better.)

Voila... You are done

Why you would do this:
1: No big chunks of garlic to accidentally bite into, potentially ruining your meal.
2: It's fun.
3: You get to smash stuff.

Enjoy.