Simple Tandoori Chicken Pizza

The big boy of the house had his birthday last month. His wish was a home baked tandoori chicken pizza. It was more than a year we had a pizza and more than 2 years I had baked one. I enjoy baking cup cakes, muffins, cakes, rolls and some easy bread. However, after toddlerhood is taking the charge, I barely get time to sit still for a while to relax and get some me time. I am on such a busy mode that, I hardly get anything done. My cooking sometimes takes a back seat and I have to satisfy the family from one pot dishes. There are days, I plan for the blog, but my articles get all pending to be published. Probably this is called motherhood.

Keeping, my story aside. That very weekend I planned for the tandoori chicken pizza. I wanted to bake one for the lunch, so I prepped the dough by 8 am. The pizza dough is not much of a fuss, considering there is very less effort for kneading, but the consistency is bit sticky and can be messy at times.

I had so many not so fine trials with my pizza crust before, but this one came perfectly crisp and chewy as I had wished for. You can credit the current temperature,  perfect timing and the dough for that.  As I always say, baking is my stress buster. I don’t use my oven in the summer. But, as the autumn starts the baking craze or mania peeps within me. I enjoy baking in the fall and the winter.

Here goes the recipe for my simple Tandoori Chicken Pizza:

PIZZA CRUST

Ingredient for Pizza Crust:

1. All Purpose Flour – 2 cups + 3/4 cups
2. Lukewarm water – 1 cup
3. Sugar – 1/4 tsp
4. Salt – 1/2 tsp
5. Dry active yeast – 2 tsp
6. Olive Oil – 3 tbsp
7. Garlic Powder – 1 tsp
8. Dry Oregano – 1 tsp

Steps of Preparation for Pizza Crust:

1. Heat the water for around 1 min to make it lukewarm. You can check the lukewarm heat when the water is warm and yet you can comfortably place your fingers in it. Keep in mind too much heat would kill the yeast. Too less would be insufficient to activate the yeast.
2. In a bowl, take the cup of warm of water and add sugar and the dry active yeast and gently stir it, keep it aside for 15-20 mins until there is frothy like appearance on top of the solution.
3. In a large mixing bowl, take around 2 cups of flour, salt and 2 tbsp of Olive oil.

   

4. Once the yeast is activated, add the solution to the large mixing bowl and give a good stir with a spoon.
5. Then slowly add the flour to make it to right consistency, don’t make it too dry. Keep on adding the flour slowly until the dough is sticky. Usually with my previous attempts I used 3 cups but this time it worked with 2 and 3/4th  of cups of flour. Sometimes it can few tbsp more or less.

   

6. After the dough is kneaded, make sure to cover and keep it in a warm place for around 1.5 hrs – 2 hrs. As mine was bit colder, I had to keep it for 2 hrs with the oven light ON.

   

    

   

   

7. I used half of my dough for a pizza of (14.5 in * 10 in) baking sheet which was a rectangular dimension, which you can use for 12 in diameter round sized large pizza.

PIZZA SAUCE:

Ingredients for Pizza Sauce:

1. Red onion – 1 large sized, ground coarsely (don’t add any water)
2. Tomatoes – 3 large sized, ground coarsely (don’t add any water)
3. Garlic – 6 cloves, finely chopped
4. Dry Oregano – 2 tsp
5. Olive Oil – 2 tbsp
6. Crushed Red chili flakes – 2 tsp , you can spice up based on your spice levels

Steps of Preparation for Pizza Sauce:

1. Heat a frying pan, add Olive oil let it heat up for 1-2 mins.
2. Add the finely chopped garlic and saute for 1-2 mins, let it flavor the oil.

   

3. Then, add the ground onion paste to the sauted garlic and cook till the raw smell goes off and the oil separates.

   

4. To the cooked onion, add the ground tomatoes and add the dry spices like salt, sugar, oregano powder and crushed red chili flakes

   

   

5. Cook until the oil separates from the sauce and all the moisture dries off.

   

   

6. Take the sauce out in a bowl and store it separately.
7. If you want to store it for long, you can add little extra oil and save it in the air tight container in the refrigerator. I generally store this sauce for maximum a week.

ASSEMBLING AND BAKING:

Ingredients:

1. Olive Oil – 1 tbsp
2. Dry Oregano Powder – 1 tsp
3. Red Onions Cubes – 1/4 cup
4. Bell Pepper Cubes- 1/4 cup, use different colors according to the availablity
5. Boneless Tandoori Chicken Cubes – 1/2 cup
6. Grated Mozzarella – 1 cup
7. Pizza Dough – 1/2 of the entire dough made in the previous steps
8. Pizza sauce – 1 cup

Steps of Preparation:

1. Take a baking sheet or the pizza pan and add a little of oil to grease the tray and sprinkle some dry flour to prevent the dough from sticking.

   

2.  Take the half of the dough for a sheet of (14.5 in * 10 in)  or the 12 in diameter round sized pizza pan.
3. Roll the dough and stretch according to the size and shape of the pan, place the dough in the sheet.

   

   

4. Season the rolled dough with the remaining oil and dry oregano.

   

   

5. Spread the sauce and add the topping generously and uniformly across the dough.

   

   

6. Preheat the oven at 400 F.
7. Bake the pizza at 400 F for 20 mins, if the pizza is little smaller it gets done around in 15-18 mins. Just keep an eye on the crust, the moment it’s golden brown the pizza should be taken out.

   

Enjoy the pizza hot with friends and family.