Cajun Chicken Pizza, With Cream Cheese & Apricots

Photo: Bing

Ingredients

For the crust-

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon heaping baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon heaping corn flour

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup water (or more if necessary)

For the filling-

500 grams chicken thigh fillets, boneless and skinless

125 grams cream cheese

400 grams canned apricots (drained)

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

4 tablespoons BBQ sauce

a few sprigs of thyme

cajun seasonings

1 tablespoon plain flour

2 tablespoons cooking oil

Preparation

Preheat an oven to 200°C.

Add the plain flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, extra virgin olive oil, corn flour and water into a large mixing bowl.

Combine the ingredients loosely with a fork or chopsticks.

The dough will start to form as you knead the flour into the water.

Knead the dough well until it becomes a smooth elastic ball. Add more water if necessary.

Lightly flour a smooth table surface and roll out the dough to a very thin layer. The thinner the better.

Place the layer of dough gently onto a 13 inch (33cm) pizza pan. I used a perforated pizza pan. See sample here.

Place the pizza crust dough in the preheated oven (200°C) for 4 to 5 mins, until it’s lightly golden brown.

In the meantime, prepare the pizza fillings.

Wash 500g of chicken thigh fillets.

Add cajun seasonings generously to both sides of the chicken thighs. Rub the seasonings into the meat.

Add a tablespoon of plain flour to the chicken.

Combine the seasonings, flour and chicken well and set aside.

Slice the canned apricots into large bite size pieces. Don’t cut them too small or they won’t look good in the pizza.

Cut 125g of cream cheese into small cubes.

Heat a saucepan and add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil.

When the saucepan is smoking hot, add the chicken.

When one side is nicely browned, flip the chicken to the other side to finish cooking. They should be golden brown when they are done. Set aside.

When the chicken has cooled slightly, cut them into bite size pieces.

The pizza crust should be ready to dress now.

Add the BBQ sauce to the hot crust and spread thinly all over.

Add the chicken pieces and scatter evenly over the crust.

Next, add the cream cheese. And then the apricots.

Scatter a thin layer of mozzarella cheese over the entire pizza.

Add a couple of sprigs of thyme. The way to pick the leaves off the twigs of the thyme is to slide your fingers along the twigs/stems in the opposite direction of their growth.

Place the pizza carefully back into the oven.

Bake the pizza for 15 to 18 mins or until the cheese has turned a light golden brown. If the crust threatens to burn, turn the temperature down slightly.

As it was Christmas when we first made this and I wanted to make it look festive, we added cranberries and chopped parsley to give it a Christmassy feel. It was beautiful.

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About

A few weeks ago, my family was in a small town in New Zealand called Westport. There, in one of the simpliest smallest cafes ever, we had a really great pizza for lunch. It was filled with fried chicken, apricot preserves and cream cheese. Yummmm..

I was very inspired after that meal and decided to create a similar version.

For a step by step tutorial to make this, go to http://www.storyofbing.com/?p=7751