Easy Back-to-School Meals #4: Shredded BBQ Pork Pizza

Here is my last photographed use for the shredded pork I made in the slow cooker.  My apologies for how lousy these pictures are, but we were hungry and just snapped some quick shots.  Please don't let the lousiness of the photos deter you from trying this.

We love this pizza so much that now I purposely try to stash some of the shredded pork in a ziploc in the freezer.  That way, when the mood strikes, we already have the topping prepared and can just grab some of the shredded meat straight out of the freezer to top our pizza with before baking.  If you take the meat out of the freezer when you get started on your pizza dough, by the time (about 30 minutes) that you are ready to top the dough it will be thawed enough to easily pull apart and sprinkle.

This pizza is so good, the first time we made it, we ended up making it 3 times that week!

Slow Cooker Shredded Pork
Original Recipe

1 5-6 lb pork butt or should roast, preferably boneless, but bone-in is fine too
3 cups orange juice or zest and juice from 3 large oranges (optional)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed and coarsely chopped (or just smashed)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Enough water to almost cover the roast

Season the pork roast with the salt and pepper.  If using the citrus zest(s) rub that all over the meat as well.  Place the roast in the slow cooker.  Add the juice, garlic and water.  Cover and turn the slow cooker on low heat for 8-10 hours or high heat for 5-6 hours.  The roast is ready when it is falling apart in the slow cooker.  Remove the pork to a large plate or dish and use two forks to shred and pull the meat apart, discarding any bits of fat.  Serve as desired, hot or cold, in any of several uses.  The possibilities are endless.

NOTE:  For a sweet version of the pork combine the shredded pork in a large baking dish with 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar and 4 tablespoons of melted butter.  Bake the pork in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes until some edges brown, crisp and caramelize.

For the BBQ Pork Pizza:

DOUGH:

3 Cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon instant yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

In a large bowl (preferably a stand-mixer with dough hook attachment) whisk together the flour, yeast, sugar and salt.  Make a well and add the water and olive oil.  Mix throughly and knead the dough until it is smooth and just slightly tacky.  Add a little extra water or flour to get the consistency.  It will be a fairly soft dough.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover.  Allow to rise till about doubled in size, approximately 30 to 40 minutes.  Turn the dough out onto a well oiled baking sheet and spread until the pan is covered.  

For the pizza:

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

Top the dough in the pan with enough BBQ sauce to make a layer of sauce.  Sprinkle about 1 cup of the shredded pork over the sauce.  Top with a mixture of your favorite shredded cheeses - I like a mixture of mozzarella, monterey jack and cheddar.

Bake the pizza for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cheeses are melted and just browning.

Daring Bakers Toss Dough!! Pizza Time

For the very first time, the Daring Bakers have taken on the challenge of making pizza! Specifically, “Pizza Napoletana” from Peter Reinhart's “The Bread Baker's Apprentice” which Rosa, of Rosa's Yummy Yums, says "yields a beautifully tasty, thin, crispy, yet chewy pizza crust" - and it did! By the way, did you know that Mr. Reinhart has a blog?? Probably, but I didn't! Now I do. How fun!

Anyway, I have wanted to try making this kind of pizza crust ever since there was an extensive article in one of my copy of Cuisine at Home several years ago. The longer fermenting period and the idea that I could toss pizza at home was too fun. For some reason though I just always never found the time. Now I don't know why. The actual 'active' time that this recipe takes is so minimal. I think the problem for me is that when it comes to meals I haven't always been very good at planning ahead. Now, I am working at that more, and with the nudge from the DB challenge - the time of the tossing of dough in our house had finally arrived! I can't wait to see how the other Daring Bakers fared with tossing their dough.

As part of the challenge we were given the task of providing a photograph of our dough tossing experience and were challenged to try it with at least three of the dough balls. Well, I was determined to try it so I actually tossed all of them (especially since we didn't get much lift-off until the third round). It will be really fun to practise my technique and get better at this. My five year old thought it was the coolest thing he had seen me do in a long time. We usually make homemade pizza a couple of times a month so it would be really fun to incorporate this tradition into our routine.

After two not so good attempts at tossing the dough - it just stretched over my knuckles - I finally got my third dough ball into the right texture to give it a few tosses. It was a kind of giddy feeling and experience.

The only piece of specialty equipment I didn't already have was a pizza peel. I have wanted to get one for a long time, but just never have. I thought about trying to get one this time, but they were almost $30 and that just wasn't happening. So, I spent $1.50 instead on a nice, rectangular, clean piece of cardboard - a big sheet cake board. It worked perfectly. I just set the parchment onto the cake board and put the cornmeal on the parchment. I would still like to have a peel, but in the meantime, this works just fine.

For our toppings we didn't really get creative, because, well, this is what my son likes and it was just the two of us - cheese and pepperoni (aside from our usual bbq chicken and bacon topping) and this was a quick to put together dinner the other night. I did try to be a little creative though and I made my own 'stuffed crust' pizza. I used some pieces of string cheese, pulled into about three pieces so they weren't super thick, and wrapped them in the edge of the crust (sorry, no pictures of the how-to). It turned out really good and helped solve the problem for those who don't always like the crust edges (I do, but the five year old doesn't).

Thanks as always to Lis and Ivvone for creating this dynamic group and letting us all be a part of it. I know I don't get around to comment much, but I am seeing how you did and it is alot of fun! Anyway, I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did this month! Thanks to Rosa for a great challenge - you can find the recipe and directions for your own toss worthy dough on Rosa's blog and of course in Peter Reinhart's “The Bread Baker's Apprentice”!

HHDD #17 - Pizza - BBQ Chicken & Bacon

I think it must have been fate - and thanks to ChicaJo over at 80 Breakfasts for hosting and choosing this theme - that the theme for my very first Hay Hay It's Donna Day event would be pizza. I only came across Donna Hay last year, but I was happy to find her.

A few years ago I decided to try my hand at making pizza at home. I love pizza and it just costs too much to buy it as often as we would probably like to eat it. I have used several crust recipes over the years and have pretty similar recipes with most versions. I hadn't used this recipe before, but I did like it. I also liked that it was already portioned for one pizza. However, funny enough, this time, I had to double the recipe anyway so that I could make another pizza for my 4 year old. He is allergic to dairy, so couldn't have cheese on his pizza.

I wanted to branch out on the toppings and deviate from the norm of what we do. That idea was universally opposed by the rest of the fam. So, here you have Donna's pizza crust recipe with our usual toppings. It may not be too terribly original to most people, but it is the one we love the very best. BBQ Chicken & Bacon. I've made it with our usual toppings here, but we also like to add sauteed mushrooms, roasted red bell pepper, and actually, my favorite alternative, black beans. (FYI - I had in mind honey garlic grilled shrimp with roasted red bell peppers, fontina, extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil... I will hopefully get to that in the future.) My "dream" choice probably would have been a better entry, but since arguing with a 4 year old at dinner time was too exhausting this time around, we did it his way.

Enjoy!

Here is the Donna Hay recipe:

Pizza Dough(from Modern Classics I by Donna Hay, page 186)

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
Pinch sugar
2/3 cup (5 fl oz) warm water
2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Place the yeast, sugar, and water in a bowl. Set aside until bubbles form.

Add the four, salt, and oil, and mix to form a smooth dough. Knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

Place in a clean, oiled bowl, cover, and allow to stand in a warm place until it has doubled in size.

Makes one quantity.

The Dough

For the topping:

1 boneless skinless breast of chicken, rubbed with the following and cooked on grill pan:
extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
kosher salt

Cook through, allow to cool and slice into thin strips

1/4 cup thick-cut bacon pieces, cooked until crispy
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar

fresh cilantro, minced for topping

Favorite BBQ sauce (we like KC Masterpiece Original) (NOTE: I have made my own BBQ sauce with this, but we love this BBQ sauce, and sometimes, the shortcut is worth it).

Roll out pizza dough and top with the BBQ sauce, 3/4 c of the mozzarella cheese, chicken slices, bacon pieces, remainder of mozzarella cheese and the cheddar cheese.

Bake in a 425 degree F oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and top with fresh minced cilantro.