Ingredients list
First, let's take a look at the ingredients.
Red onion - I swear, this thing looks like it's covered in purple wax. But as can be seen in the photo below, unless there were some very diligent growers applying wax to every layer of the onion as it grew, I guess it's natural. Nature is cool, eh?
BBQ sauce - just about every barbecue sauce on the shelf at the grocery store is a high-fructose corn syrup jubilee. I finally picked up a relatively expensive, not quite major market, type (don't even recall the brand name now), and then I wandered past the mark down section of the store. Lookee there, Bullseye BBQ sauce at half-price. I had to scratch and scratch to peel off the yellow markdown sticker so I could see the ingredients list, and finally could tell that it did not contain HFCS. I bought two bottles then, and went back later in the day to buy another bottle of "regular" and two of hickory flavor. So I'm all set with BBQ sauce for the summer, I think. On the other hand, I probably ought to hunt down a barbecue sauce recipe of my own.
Cheese - The only pre-shredded pepper jack cheese available was Sargento brand, which I won't buy because of their support of Wisconsin (hopefully soon to be ex-) Governer Scott Walker. So I bought a brick of the store brand. I have a mandoline and I'm not afraid to use it.
Chicken - I chose a non-Hormel brand which came in a 12.5 ounce can. Unit price-wise, it was still significantly cheaper than the name brands.
Pizza crust - suppose you were going to the grocery store and wanted to get one of those pre-made pizza crusts. Boboli is one brand name. Where would you look? I checked the bread/baked goods area. No dice. OK, then how about the aisle where they have the pasta sauce and such. Nope. Finally I stumbled upon the display at the end of the frozen food aisle. SRSLY? Who is merchandising this place? I guess it was close to the frozen pizzas, so maybe the idea was that you'd go looking for a Tombstone, see the Bobolis and say "hey wait! I could make a fresh pizza instead!" They did have some pepperoni and a couple types of jarred/canned sauces there, so I guess it almost kind of makes sense. Whatevs.
The preparation was super simple. Cook the sliced onion in the olive oil until caramelized. Pour the sauce onto the crust, then add the chicken, onions, and cheese. I might have used a lot more cheese than called for, but I'll never tell.
Cook it up in a 450 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, end Bob's your uncle.
Verdict: This was really good, and with a bit of tweaking, it could be great. I can hardly believe I'm about to type this, but maybe there was a bit too much barbecue sauce, because it was a bit hard to handle the slices. Also, if I work on finding a BBQ sauce recipe (as mentioned above), I'll have a bit more control on the amount of sugar. As hokey as the name of this recipe may be, it actually works - the sauce and the caramelized onions provide the sweetness, the pepper jack cheese give it sass. When I baked the pizza, I went with the low end of the 12 to 15 minute range, but I should have gone for the high end.
Lessons Learned - Obviously, this recipe did not teach me any new cooking skills. And while it might seem like an obvious recipe, sometimes I just need ideas to get me out of the rut of "things tossed into a skillet" (for $600, Alex). I will definitely make something like this again, and I can imagine using the pre-made crusts for other pizza styles as well.
Tools needed - nothing new this week.
Skills needed - nothing new this week.
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