chicken tikka pizza

the other night on skype, our brother-in-law, hong, told us about this amazing chicken tikka masala pizza he had at namaste pizza. we drooled over it for days, but we’re about 2,800 miles from oakland and i’m pretty sure that’s out of the delivery zone. major bummer. luckily i married a chef. and double luckily i work at a teaching kitchen, which sent me home with some homemade pizza dough. this pizza…. perfection!

for our purposes we did not put the chicken in the simmering masala (you’ll see in the recipe), because we wanted to control where it landed on the pizza. the choice is yours!

this recipe is for the chicken tikka masala only (here are a couple links to help you out with the paneer + pizza dough).

you’ll need:
3 tbsp. butter
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp. kosher salt
4 tsp. grated ginger
2 tsp. garam masala
1/4 c. tomato paste
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 c. heavy cream
2 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breast
1/2 c. plain greek yogurt

you can buy garam masala.. or you can make it. to make it, you’ll need:
2 tbsp. coriander seeds
1 tbsp. cumin seeds
1 tbsp. cardamom seeds
1 tbsp. black peppercorns
1 tsp. fennel seeds
1/2 tsp. whole cloves

grind all of the spices, and toast in sauté pan for about two minutes.

now to make the chicken tikka:

1. cut chicken into bite sized pieces, put in ziplock bag with greek yogurt and salt. set aside.
2. heat butter in large, heavy pot. add onions and garlic and cook until aeromatic. add ginger and cook for a minute.
3. add garam masala and red pepper flakes, mix. add tomato paste, cooking for about four minutes.
4. add crushed tomatoes, bringing pot to a boil and then down to a simmer.
5. add heavy cream, let sauce continue to simmer for about 30 minutes, until it has thickened.
6. meanwhile, brown chicken in sauté pan — then add to simmering masala. let cook for at least ten minutes.*

*in the pictures: we cooked chicken breasts separately, cut, and topped pizza. both ways taste the same, cooking chicken separately is just a little prettier ; )

at this point, you can cook some rice and have dinner… orrrrrr, you can slater that dough with tikka masala, chicken, paneer and scallions and prepare for the best pizza of your life! bake pizza according to time on dough recipe.