I created this recipe a few days after I ate at Mellow Mushroom. I had a pizza there that had an olive oil and garlic base instead of a traditional tomato sauce base. It was delicious, so when I saw pesto marinated chicken breasts at HEB, I thought they would be great on an olive oil and garlic base pizza. My husband doesn't care for a pesto spread on anything usually, much less pizza, because the flavor is very intense, so I thought this would still give the pizza a pesto taste without blowing him away with pesto flavor in every bite. He loved it, and so did my son. If you don't have an HEB near you, you can buy jar pesto (or make your own), and spread the pesto all over raw chicken breasts and marinate for 24 hours before making this pizza.
Ingredients:
*a good extra virgin olive oil
*salt
*black pepper
*1 bulb of garlic (Yes, the whole thing, don't worry)
*cooking spray
*1 package of HEB pesto chicken breasts (I use 2 out of the 3 chicken breasts and freeze the last one)
*1/2 cup to 1 cup of water
*1 tube Pillsbury thin crust pizza dough
*1 bag (8 oz.) part-skim shredded Italian blend cheese (mozzarella, Romano, Parmesan, etc.)
*1 bag fresh pre-rinsed spinach leaves
*about 20 grape/cherry tomatoes (The HEB brand calls them "champagne tomatoes"), quartered
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roast the garlic--Remove most of the the outer skin peel off the bulb of garlic, but leave enough skin to keep the cloves all together. Cut about 1/4" off the top of the garlic bulb (the side with the pointy skin). Place on top of a foil sheet, with the cut side facing up. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle the tops with salt and black pepper. Wrap the foil over the top, making a foil pouch. Seal. Place the foil pouch in a baking dish. Roast in the oven for 35-45 minutes until soft. Open the foil to let the garlic bulb cool. When it is cool enough to handle, squeeze the garlic out of the bulb into a shallow bowl. Mash well. Pour about 1/4" olive oil over the garlic into the bowl. Season with salt and black pepper. Stir well. Set aside and let the garlic infuse the olive oil for at least 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Meanwhile, keep the oven on 400 degrees. Place a pizza stone or cookie sheet in the oven so it can get hot.
Meanwhile, cook the chicken: Heat a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Once hot, spray with cooking spray. Immediately place the chicken breasts in the hot pan. Cook about 7 minutes per side until no longer pink inside. When you flip the chicken, spray the pan with cooking spray again. About 1 minute after flipping, start adding the water to de-glaze the pan and make a glaze. When the pan starts to get dry again, add more water. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and drizzle with the glaze. Set aside to let cool.
Meanwhile, roll out the pizza dough into a rectangle on the pre-heated pizza stone or cookie sheet. (If using a cookie sheet, make sure you spray it with cooking spray first.) Pre-bake the crust on 400 degrees for 5 minutes.
While the crust is pre-baking, slice the cooled chicken into thin slices, and then cut each slice in half lengthwise. Set aside.
Brush the garlic infused olive oil onto the pre-baked crust liberally. Using a fork, spread the mashed roasted garlic evenly on the crust. Pour the remaining olive oil over the quartered tomatoes in a bowl. Season with salt and black pepper. Stir well.
Spread chicken evenly onto pizza crust. Top with spinach leaves. I use about half of a bag. It cooks down a lot.
Top evenly with the Italian blend cheese. Top with the garlic infused marinated tomatoes.
Bake on 400 degrees for 6 to 10 more minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
