{December 15, 2018}


We got a new smart oven so I’ve been jumping into cooking up some homemade pizzas! Fast-food pizza is probably cheaper depending on the toppings but homemade pizza can be really tasty and at least you know what ingredients are going into your pizza.

Chicken Sausage and Salami Pizza

For this first pizza I made a thin crust dough, brushed olive oil on it, scattered minced garlic, spread a tomato sauce, added mozzarella cheese, added some spicy chicken sausage I stir-fried, added salami slices, and baked about 10 min at 450 F.

I found the tomato sauce kind of bland. Next time I’ll have use fresh herbs instead of dried because I found the flavor lacking there.

Here’s the recipe I used for the tomato sauce (enough sauce for probably 3 pizzas):

  • 1 6oz can tomato paste
  • 3/4 cup water (or use less if you don’t want it to be super watery)
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • Ground pepper to taste
  • 1/2 tbsp oregano
  • 1/2 tbsp basil
  • 1/2 tsp rosemary
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder

BBQ Chicken Pizza

The BBQ Chicken Pizza was super delicious. I made the thin crust dough again, brushed it with olive oil and scattered minced garlic, spread Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce, added about 0.75 lb of chicken breast I had cooked and chopped, added minced cilantro, covered with mozzarella cheese, and topped with thinly sliced red onion. Baked for about 10 min at 450 F.

Here’s the recipe (from Kitchn) for moist chicken breasts! Love this method of cooking chicken breasts especially since you’ll be cooking the chicken a little longer when baking the pizza so you don’t want dry chicken to begin with.

  • Pound chicken breasts to even thickness
  • Season both sides as desired
  • Medium-Hi heat and heat up some olive oil
  • Reduce to Med heat and add chicken, cook for 1 min
  • Flip to other side, reduce heat to low, cover pan, and cook for 10 min
  • Turn off heat, cook for 10 more minutes (no lifting the cover!)
  • Make sure internal temp reaches 165 F

And here’s the recipe for homemade thin crust pizza also from Kitchn (makes dough for two 12 inch pizzas):

  • 3/4 cup lukewarm water
  • 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • Mix yeast into lukewarm water and let stand until dissolved/foamy (3-5 min)
  • Add flour and salt, mix with stiff spatula until floury, shaggy dough forms
  • Turn dough onto work surface and knead dough until smooth, slightly tacky ball that springs back when you poke it (5-8 min). If dough sticks to hand like bubblegum, add tbsp of flour at a time until easier to work with
  • Cover dough with damp towel and let sit while you prepare toppings (10 min)
  • Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Working with one piece of dough at a time, stretch or roll into a thin 12 inch round. Form from the middle of the dough outwards.
  • Carefully remove preheated baking pan from oven and place dough onto pan. Brush dough with 1 tsp of oil. Spread 1/4 cup of sauce into thin layer onto dough with a 1/2inch border. Add toppings
  • Bake around 8-12 min. Let cool for 5 min before slicing and serving