Thai Chicken Pizza

I'm so happy that I recently decided to start making pizzas at home from scratch. It's just so satisfying to start from nothing and end up with this delicious creation. So far, I've only used the same simple crust recipe (this is my fourth pizza using it), but mixed up the toppings. This time, I went Thai! This recipe inspiration came from Closet Cooking.

The ingredients:

• Pizza dough (I had some leftover from this recipe)
• Sweet chili sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot brand)
• Mozzarella cheese
• Pre-cooked chicken
• One carrot, sliced
• One green onion, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• Handful of roasted peanuts
• Handful of bean sprouts
• A couple basil leaves, finely chopped
• A handful of cilantro, finely chopped

The steps:

1. If dough is frozen, move to fridge one day in advance. Once dough is thawed, pull out of fridge about an hour before you're ready to cook, so it can come up to room temperature.
2. Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees.
3. Brush a bit of olive oil on a pizza pan and spread dough on top.
4. Spread sweet chili sauce on top of dough.
5. Add slices of mozzarella cheese on top of sauce.
6. Add carrot, green onion, red pepper, chicken, peanuts, and bean sprouts.
7. Bake at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes. 
8. Top pizza with cilantro and basil.
9. Enjoy!

The pictures:

I had made this dough a week or two before, and froze it for later use. The day before pizza night, I pulled it out of the freezer and moved it to the fridge. An hour before I was ready to start cooking, I set it on the counter to come up to room temperature. (If it's too cold, it won't stretch out well.)

It's kind of a fun practice to spread the dough out onto my sheet. It keeps trying to shrink back down into a ball. The closer to room temperature it is, the easier it is to maneuver. 

Spread the sweet chili sauce on top of the dough.

Add sliced mozzarella cheese. You can use shredded if you want, but I think thinly sliced cheese like this works great on a pizza. I went pretty light on the cheese this time, and I think that was a good call! There are so many other great toppings, the cheese doesn't need to be a star on this pizza.

Add the carrots. I use my vegetable peeler to first peel off the outside of the carrot, and then keep peeling the entire carrot, to get it into these thin little strips.

Add the sliced green onions.

And 1/2 of a red bell pepper.

And some pre-cooked chicken. (My helpful husband grilled this chicken for me earlier in the day.)

I really wish that they sold bean sprouts in a smaller bag. I barely used any of these, and they only last like a week. Boo.

Add the spouts on top of the pizza, then put in the 500 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

I always keep a close eye on my pizza in the last few minutes, just to make sure nothing's burning.

This one turned out pretty perfect!

Mmm! Love that sweet, spicy sauce.

When the pizza is ready to eat, sprinkle a handful of chopped cilantro and basil on top.

I couldn't resist a few more beauty shots. 

Yum!

Are you hungry yet?

We each ate three pieces for dinner, and I was the lucky one who got to eat the two extras for lunch today. :)

It tasted just as fabulous the second time around.

Let me know if you try this one out!