Tandoori Chicken Pizza

Classic Tandoori Chicken on a pizza, yes and you are totally going to love this one. Homemade pizza crust topped with delicious chicken, red onions, peppers, jalapenos and just the right amount of cheese. Great for entertaining or when you want something different!!

First I would like to wish a very happy, healthy & fabulous year 2019 to all my lovely readers.

”You always have the pleasure of doing your things well; it must give you freedom from the whole buffoonery into where we have been born – Albert Einstein”

Everyone loves a good pizza, very true. VK and me too would indulge in a great pizza once a while but then we got too bored pretty soon of eating the regular stuff available everywhere; even the so called gourmet pizzas were no different here. But A & A especially are great pizza lovers and they always want their favorite Margherita pizza at times. Since I’m not fond of eating out much I had to start baking pizza at home again. Woww, a year and half is pretty long, isn’t??

Working with dough has always excited me more than anything else. And with this excitement and for the love of Indian cuisine this super delicious Tandoori Chicken Pizza came into picture.

Fresh homemade dough topped shredded tandoori chicken, ever so delicious sauce, green peppers, red onions, jalapenos and mozzarella cheese. All baked until the cheese is melted and bubbly, a little sprinkle of chilli flakes and you have the best pizza experience.

For any great pizza dough plays the most important part, making one’s own dough is quite a simple process and trust me it is so satisfying. Over the years I tried various recipes some failed, very few were good until I came across this book “The Elements of Pizza – Ken Forkish”. He has very clearly and step by step guided how to unlock the secret of making world class pies at home. Different styles of pizza, various methods, the ingredients, techniques all has been taken care of really well. You will find some real good and fool proof recipes for the dough. This will surely make you want to bake one great pie soon.

Now coming back to the dough. 00 flour is the recommended flour for a great crust by any pizza masters. Since the 00 flour is ground very fine and has less gluten content this gives the dough just the right amount of elasticity needed. Since I did not have that in hand I went ahead and used bread flour instead, the result is quite impressive. Beautiful crispy crust with the perfect amount of chewiness. You guys need to try out bread flour I’m sure you will love it.

Like any other pizza dough this one too needs flour, water, salt and yeast and yes always use good quality yeast, this does make a lot of difference to your baked goods. I use SAF (red pack) instant yeast it always delivers. And I always mix and knead pizza dough using hands; the feel of dough is so magical.

The recipe is way too easy to make. But it dough will need refrigeration for about 24 hours, so plan your pizza party accordingly.

It will give you five 10 inch crust. Any unused dough can be freezed in a ziplock bag, just thaw in refrigerator overnight.

Bring the dough to room temperature by it on kitchen counter an hour before baking. This step is important as it helps in rolling and baked pizza is just so beautiful.

For the topping i have my favorite entrée i.e. Tandoori chicken which has been grilled and shredded, some thinly sliced green peppers, red onions, sliced fresh jalapenos. For the sauce I have mixed here marinara with some of the marinade from chicken, freshly cracked black pepper, 2 cloves garlic minced. With just the right amount of cheese (used a blend of mozzarella and cheddar) this one is a sheer perfection when it comes to fusion cooking.