Of course the writer from Western New York has a buffalo chicken pizza Super Bowl recipe perfect for Sunday evening. My parents have about 16 different homemade pizza recipes, and my younger sister even ended up in the pizza business.
The Hasenauer family means business when it comes to pizza, and this is my variation on one of my family recipes.
Ingredients
- Cooked chicken breast, shredded (I use rotisserie chicken from the supermarket's prepared foods section)
- Original Frank's Red Hot (The first Buffalo Wings were made with Red Hot, thus stick with the original.)
- Cracked Red Pepper Flakes
- Dried Oregano
- Pizza crust (Though I love using fresh pizza dough, in a pinch I will use the dry dough mix found in the Italian foods aisle. For Super Bowl Sunday, spring for the fresh!)
- Pizza sauce (Exact brand is your preference, but I tend towards a chunky sauce with a fresh tomato flavor, which is usually found in Italian brands like Pastene)
- Mozzarella cheese (I cop out and use the pre-shredded variety. My parents would rather watch Scott Norwood's "wide-right" kick on repeat than use that. They buy chunks of it and shred it by hand with a grater. Fresh grated does taste better, but it's all up to you.)
- Crumbled blue cheese
Directions
1) Prepare your crust according to the directions on the dry mix package or dough label. You may have to let it rise or sit for a while, so take that into consideration time wise.
2) Heat your oven to 375 degrees
3) Put the cooked chicken in a mixing bowl, and add approximately 3 tablespoons of Red Hot and a pinch of cracked red pepper. Mix until the chicken is covered with Red Hot. Let sit for a few minutes.
4) Roll your dough out on the pizza stone/pizza pan/cookie sheet. It doesn't need to be perfect - just make sure it's not too thin.
A tip from my mom: If you like chewy crust, don't pre-bake your crust before adding toppings. If you like a crisper crust, place your dough in the oven for 4 minutes before adding toppings.
5) Lightly cover the crust with pizza sauce.
6) Spread mozerella cheese on top of the sauce, then spread the Red Hot-covered chicken on top of that. On top of the chicken, add the crumbled blue cheese.
7) My dad's touch: Sprinkle a little pinch of oregano on top of the pizza, crushing it with your fingers as you sprinkle it over the pizza. (The man used to do this even when he was making us Snackster pizza pockets when we were tiny. Two things I'll always associate with my father: the smell of oregano and crazy NFL officiating conspiracy theories.)
7) Put the pizza in the oven and let bake for 10 minutes if you pre-baked the crust, 12 minutes if you did not. Keep a close eye on it - ovens vary and it could be done even sooner. It's done when...well, when it looks like a pizza. Pizza making is not an exact science. You just kind of throw everything together, feel it out, and volia, pizza. (Or that just might be the whole "growing up with pizza makers" gene. I don't know.)
8) Cut into slices and serve.