Tandoori Chicken and Cauliflower Tikka Pizza
CATEGORIES
INGREDIENTS
  • Cooking Time: 18-20 minutes
  • Servings: 8 slices
  • Preparation Time: 1 hour
  • 10-12 oz. boneless chicken breast, cut into ½” – 1” pieces
  • 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
  • 3 tsp garam masala, divided
  • 3 tsp hot paprika, divided
  • 1 tsp turmeric, divided
  • 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp. salt, divided
  • ½ tsp. black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp canola oil, divided
  • 1/3 cup diced red onion
  • 1 small head cauliflower, cored and roughly chopped
  • 1 serrano chile, diced
  • ¼ cup chicken stock or water
  • 1 lb. store bought pizza dough, homemade pizza dough (recipe follows) or prepared Naan Bread (approximately 4 pieces based on size; I made it both ways)
  • 12 oz. Mozzarella, grated
  • Curried Pizza Sauce (recipe follows)
  • flour
DIRECTIONS
  1. Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour.
  3. Prepare Tandoori Chicken:
  4. Mix yogurt, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp hot paprika, ½ tsp turmeric, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl; toss with chicken and marinate in the refrigerator for 1-4 hours.
  5. Bring to room temperature before cooking.
  6. In a large non-stick skillet, heat 1Tbsp canola oil over medium-high heat.
  7. Add chicken and saute’ for 6-7 minutes until chicken is cooked. Remove chicken from skillet. Reserve.
  9. Prepare Cauliflower:
  10. To the same skillet, heat remaining Tbsp canola oil over medium-high heat; add onions and sauté for 3 minutes.
  11. Add remaining spices (2 tsp garam masala, 2 tsp hot paprika, ½ tsp turmeric, ½ tsp salt) and sauté until fragrant, about one minutes.
  12. Add cauliflower, serrano chile and ¼ cup chicken stock (or water).
  13. Lower heat to medium, cover and cook for about 5-7 minutes until tender. Reserve cauliflower.
  15. On a lightly floured pizza peel, form dough into a 14” circle.
  16. Spread curried pizza sauce evenly across pizza crust, cover evenly with mozzarella.
  17. Bake for 10-12 minutes until mozzarella is melted.
  18. Top evenly with reserved Tandoori chicken and cauliflower.
  19. Return to oven and bake for an additional 6-8 minutes until edges are crisp. (If using Naan bread, follow same steps and bake on pizza stone for 8 minutes until mozzarella is melted, top with chicken and cauliflower and return to oven for 3-4 minutes.)
  21. Makes 8 slices
  23. Curried Pizza Sauce
  25. 1 Tbsp canola oil
  26. ¼ cup diced red onions
  27. 1-1/2 tsp. curry powder
  28. 8 oz. tomato sauce
  29. 6 oz. tomato paste
  30. 1 Tbsp honey
  31. salt and pepper to taste
  33. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat.
  34. Add the onion and the garlic and cook for 5-7 minutes or until the onion soften slightly.
  35. Add the curry powder and sauté until fragrant.
  36. Stir in the tomato sauce, tomato paste and honey.
  37. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  39. Pizza Dough
  41. ¼ oz. package dry yeast
  42. ¾ cup warm water
  43. 1 Tbsp. honey
  44. 2 Tbsp. olive oil, plus additional for bowl
  45. 2 cups flour, plus additional for kneading
  46. 1 tsp. salt
  48. In a small bowl, completely dissolve yeast in warm water.
  49. Mix in honey and olive oil.
  50. In a medium bowl, combine the flour and salt, and slowly mix the flour mixture into the water mixture forming a ball of dough.
  51. Dust a clean dry surface with flour and transfer dough, knead, adding flour until dough is no longer sticky.
  52. Coat the inside of a medium bowl with olive oil and place the dough in the bowl; cover bowl with a kitchen towel.
  53. Let dough rise until doubled in size.
  54. Punch dough down and reserve until ready to use.
RECIPE BACKSTORY
Once upon a time I was a kid and then a teen living the sweet life just to the right of nowhere in Nebraska where the most exotic food-stuff to be found within at least 30 miles was pizza. Chain pizza. (I ate a LOT of pizza.) Skip forward to my college home in a much larger town – nearly a city fifty miles away -- where food-stuff exposure advanced to include not only pizza, but ASIAN food. General Tso’s Chicken! Fast forward again to life-altering and taste-bud evolving junior year abroad living in my London home, a mecca of authentic curry joints from every subcontinent found on nearly every street corner. Eureka! Nirvana! (Sadly, it was a rather bland senior year back on the plains.) Hark! The Big Apple beckoned and next step found me slumming in a 200 sq. ft. sublease studio home steps from East 6th Street’s “Curry Row” where The Little Prince restaurant became my “dining room” for 5-1/2 months. Each and every one of these “homes” represents a significant part of my life and who I have become through these experiences. What a better way to pay homage to my “homes” than to fuse my faves together in a curried pizza, “Tandoori Chicken and Cauliflower Tikka Pizza”.