Homemade Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

We are super excited that my parents and Grandma are in town for the week.  We will be having a little birthday celebration for the babes, and have some other fun things planned for our time together - a trip to a relative's turkey farm, pumpkin picking and carving, BBQ eating, and lots of playtime with the kids!  

Today, I wanted to share the homemade pizza recipe my mom has passed onto me.  We love it, and I enjoy making it - so much so, that we usually have pizza night about once a week.  Our latest favorite kind of topping is chicken bacon ranch.  We loved it so much the first time, that we made it again a week later, and Max is already trying to convince me that we need it again this week, ha ha!  Typically, I make the dough in the morning, let it rise almost 2 hours, punch the dough down, then pop it in the fridge until I am ready to use it!  It's not too hard, and it doesn't require tons of hands-on time!  

Gather all ingredients.
 Mix yeast and sugar with a little bit of warm water, and let sit 5 minutes.
 Realize you need more flour, when you go to scoop it out, so grab your massive Sam's Club bag of flour to re-fill.  Yes, I actually go through that big bag - I make so much from scratch, that I probably go through that bag in just about 2 months.  Crazy, I know...
 Mix flour with olive oil and salt. Then add your yeast mixture and stir it up!
Knead about a cup more flour into your bowl, until a dough begins to form.
 The dough!
 Cover bowl with wax paper, and a kitchen towel. 
 Let sit for an hour and a half - or until your dough has doubled in size.
 Punch your dough down, to release the air.  At this point, you can either let your dough sit for another half hour and then use it directly, or you can put it in the fridge until you are ready to use it!
 When you are ready to assemble your pizza, get out toppings, and pull dough out of fridge!
 Sprinkle cornmeal on the pan - this adds a nice crunch on the bottom of the crust!
 Patiently spread out your dough to form the crust - this can take some work and stretching.
 Spread ranch dressing all over crust.
 Sprinkle remaining ingredients on top - cooked chicken, crumbled bacon, diced tomatoes, and lots of delicious cheese!
 Pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes, and VOILA!  
Homemade Pizza Crust
1 pkg ActiveDry yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 3/4 cups water, divided
4 cups flour
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt

Mix yeast and sugar with 1/4 cup warm water, in small bowl.  Let sit for 5 minutes (will froth and puff up!).  In big mixing bowl, put flour, olive oil and salt.  Mix in 1 1/2 cup warm water.  Add yeast/sugar mixture to big bowl, and stir in until mixed.  Knead dough (adding up to a cup more of flour!), until dough forms.  Put it in bowl to raise, covering with wax paper and towel.  Let rise 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.  Punch the dough down, to release the air.  You can either use the dough at this point, or you can put in the fridge to use later in the day.  Just take out dough 30 minutes before stretching onto pan, to ensure it is pliable to work with!  This recipe makes 2 round pizzas or a big jellyroll-sized pizza, plus a little extra (I always make the kids a little pizza to eat, with the extra!)

Pizza toppings:
1 chicken breast, cooked and diced
1 tomato, diced
5 pieces (or more!) of bacon, cooked and crumbled
ranch dressing
3-4 cups cheese (I use mostly mozzarella, with some cheddar sprinkled on top)

Oil pizza pan.  Sprinkle a few tablespoons of cornmeal onto pan, then begin stretching out your dough to fit your pan.  Once your dough is fitting in the pan, spread ranch dressing on entire thing.  Then, layer chicken, bacon, tomatoes and end with your cheese.  Bake at 400º, for about 20 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and golden!  Let cool a few minutes, then cut it and enjoy!!

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5 comments

  1. Now that sounds a-MAZING!!!!! My husband is going to love love love this recipe. And btw, thank you so much for all of your sweet words lately. It's such a blessing to have friends afar that support and lift you up when feelings of down overwhelm you. So, thank you! You're the sweetest.

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  2. This is definitely being added to our menu! :)

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  3. That sounds yummy, and I LOVE kraft ranch over *gasp* Hidden Valley's...

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  4. Oh those toppings sound delicious!! Since we discovered a yummy pizza dough recipe, my husband has been requesting pizza every single week... so we make it once a week now! But we've been using the same toppings and I'm getting so tired of it. I need a change!

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  5. I'm drooling over here! I need to try this asap.

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