Thai Chicken Pizza

This Thai Chicken Pizza combines the bright Thai flavors of peanut chicken, cilantro, hoisin sauce, peanuts and shredded carrots for a great way to infuse some fun into your weekly pizza night!  

Pizza, pizza, pizza - I feel like everyone loves pizza.  When I'm going out for pizza or ordering take out,  a traditional sausage pizza is really still my favorite, but when I make pizza at home, I like to do something a little different, and this Thai Chicken Pizza definitely fits that description!

One of the things that makes homemade pizza so much fun is that it gives you the ability to experiment.  You can add or subtract ingredients to suit your tastes. In the summer sometimes I grill pizza however I still like making it the traditional way, on a pizza stone in a nice hot oven!

Some people will tell you that you really need to make your own pizza dough - I disagree.  While there is nothing wrong with that, if you can find a high quality, pre-made dough you can significantly cut down on the prep time.   If I'm not making it, I purchase mine from Whole Foods.  If you want to give making your own a try here's a link to a recipe from The Food Network.

Once you've decided on your pizza dough you're going to whip up a quick sauce to marinate the chicken. It chock full of pretty traditional Thai flavors of peanut, soy, sesame and ginger.

Next, the hoisin sauce gets slathered on the pizza crust giving you a sweet and salty base for your pizza. Then on goes the cooked, marinated chicken, and a bit of cheese. You baked it until the crust is nice and crisp and then top with some crunchy veggies, salty peanuts and a bit of chopped cilantro.

There is something to be said for creating a routine - a morning routine, weekly meal routines such as Taco Tuesday or Pizza night! Weekly pizza night is a tradition that runs strong in many homes! This pizza can create fun twist to your regular weekly routine!

If you think you will have leftovers, leave the cilantro, carrots and peanuts off until you reheat the pizza. While they are fine warmed up, you'll lose that nice crunchy contrast you get when they are fresh.

Tips for Using a Pizza Stone

A pizza stone is a great way to achieve a nice, crisp pizza crust. For the best results you want to use a super hot pizza stone.

• Whenever possible preheat the pizza stone for at least an hour at the same temperature you'll be cooking the pizza. This will give you a nice crisp crust. If you don't have time to do that, at minimum try to preheat for at least 30 minutes.
• Don't flour your pizza stone as the flour may burn, however, do flour your work surface as you are rolling out the pizza dough.
• Since most of us don't have a pizza peel you can use a large cutting board or baking sheet without sides to roll your dough and transfer it to the hot pizza stone or baking sheet.
• Be sure to check the seasoning and cleaning instructions for your stone. Different stones require different prep and care.

If you are looking for other fun pizza ideas check out this Grilled Proscuitto Pizza - it's another one of my favorites!

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things you might want for this recipe

Pizza Stone - While not a necessity for making pizza if it's something you do frequently it's a worthwhile investment as it gives you a much crisper crust.