BBQ Chicken Pizza

This is a great recipe to use up leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken, which is transformed into a pulled-pork style bbq chicken for the pizza.

BBQ Chicken Pizza (Serves 2 - 4)

Ingredients:
Prepared Raw Pizza Dough (you can be awesome and make your own, or you can be lazy like me and buy it in the frozen section at the grocery store)
Olive Oil
Garlic Salt or Garlic Powder
1 - 2 tablespoons BBQ Sauce
1/4 - 1/2 Bell Pepper, sliced into 1/4" thick rings
3 - 4 Mushrooms, sliced 1/4" thick
1/4 - 1/2 Onion, thinly sliced (preferably red onion)
3/4 - 1 cup BBQ Chicken (my recipe)
Mozzarella to taste (approximately 2 cups of shredded mozzarella)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F.

Roll out your pizza dough and brush the top with olive oil. Sprinkle garlic powder or garlic salt over the pizza dough, especially on the crust. Spread a thin layer of BBQ sauce onto the pizza dough. Sprinkle with mozzarella, top with veggies and chicken, and sprinkle on a bit more mozzarella (and even add some parmesan if you'd like!).

Bake pizza until the crust is golden brown and cheese is gooey. Remove pizza from oven and let rest on the pizza stone for 10 minutes if you can stand to wait that long to eat it! Cut pizza into slices and enjoy!

Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:
9 medium to large size cremini or button mushrooms
1/2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons onion, minced
1 teaspoon roast garlic
6 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
salt
pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F

Rinse mushrooms and remove stems from caps. Set caps aside and mince onion stems.

Melt butter in a small saute pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute for a few minutes, until soft. Add roast garlic and mushroom stems and stir to combine. Cook until all liquid has evaporated off. Add cream cheese, parmesan, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.

Stuff mushroom caps with prepared filling and bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until mushrooms are resting in their own liquid.

Chicken Mushroom Mac

Prep time: 20 to 45 minutes | Cook time: 30 minutes to 1 hour | Servings: 4 - 6

Ingredients:
1/4 - 1/3 lb pasta, cooked & drained (leftover pasta works great for this!)
8oz sharp cheddar
1/2 cup ricotta
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard
1/4 teaspoon season salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
 dash cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium onion, diced
4 medium button mushrooms, sliced
1 cooked chicken breast, chopped into bite size pieces (I deboned a leftover roast chicken breast, and reserved the bones for stock)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a medium sized casserole dish.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium high heat. Saute onion until translucent. Add mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes, or until starting to brown, stirring frequently.

While the mushrooms saute combine ricotta, dried mustard, season salt, pepper, and cayenne in a small bowl. Add milk and stir well.

Reserve 1/4 - 1/3 cup grated cheddar. Combine the rest of the grated cheddar, ricotta mixture, cooked pasta, mushroom mixture, and chicken. Pour into greased casserole dish and gently press down. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove foil and mix well (be sure to stir this gently, as it will be hot!). Top with reserved grated cheddar, and bake uncovered for an additional 15 minutes.

Note: Prep and cook times vary depending on whether you have prepared chicken and pasta on hand. I would recommend this recipe for a weeknight when you've already got leftover cooked chicken in the oven and just want to snaz it up for a fast dinner. Cooking the pasta the day of is easy to do, just set the pot on to boil before you begin to heat the butter for the onions.

If you are cooking your chicken the day of several methods work. Poached chicken would probably be the best, roast chicken is a favorite of mine, and even a sauteed boneless breast would work great in this recipe!

Inspiration recipe found over at Smitten Kitchen, under Easiest Baked Mac-and-Cheese