Chicken Masala Pizza

One of our local pizza places likes to come up with new, funky pizza ideas---example, Popeye vs Dracula---a pizza with a garlic butter sauce, with tons of garlic thrown on top the sauce, and covered with spinach and feta cheese. It's delicious. Their most recent invention is a Masala pizza, with all the flavors of India packed into a masala pizza sauce, topped with chicken, mozzarella, red onions, and peppers. We have been thinking of making a similar pizza, and last night we were too tired to even think of cooking so we thought about ordering their pizza and giving it a try. Then it struck us that we could totally do this ourselves.


So we did.


Chicken Masala Pizza (I can definitely see tofu being subbed in, though, if you're into that)


Masala "Pizza" Sauce*:
adapted from Bobby Flay


2 tablespoons ghee or canola oil

• 1/2 medium yellow onion, halved and thinly diced

• 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated

• 2 small jalapenos, diced tiny

• 3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 1- 1 1/2 tablespoon(s) tomato paste

• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika

• 2 slightly heaping teaspoons garam masala

• 1 (28-ounce) can plum tomatoes, pureed until smooth

• Honey

• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder (depending on how spicy you like it)

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

• 1/4 cup half and half

• Chopped cilantro leaves

Heat the ghee/canola oil in a medium Dutch oven over medium heat until it begins to shimmer. Add the onion and cook until soft and lightly golden brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the ginger, jalapeno and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomato paste, paprika, and garam masala and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, honey, to taste (I did about a tablespoon), the cayenne and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Stir in the heavy cream, bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce thickens.

*Note: this makes way more sauce than you'll need. I took my leftover chicken (thighs) that I used as a topping for the pizza, diced them up, and put them into the masala sauce to cook. I added about a half cup of water at this point, and let it simmer gently for 20 minutes. Now we have another dinner option for tomorrow night! 

The Crust

As for the pizza crust, we love Rustic Crust Tuscan 6-Grain as a base. At $4 a crust, it can be a little pricey, but we often have $1 off coupons and we stock up when they go on sale at our local co-op. It's a great chewy, dense crust that can hold a lot of toppings without wimping out on you.

The Toppings

We slathered on two ladles of sauce and spread it around, and then added a really thin layer of mozzarella cheese. Next, we added a thin layer of fresh spinach, roasted garlic, cooked chicken lightly dusted with curry powder, red pepper rings, more mozzarella, and then red onion slivers arranged on top. After about 10 minutes in the oven at 425 degrees, it was bubbly, hot and nice and browned on the edges. Then we ate the whole thing.