Friday Favorites - Pizza!

You know, there are just some days when you come home and the thought of cooking something is just a chore. Ordering a pizza would make life that much easier.

I have these thoughts quite often, but then I think about how gross a pizza from a chain restaurant would really be and how I don't actually want to eat something that's not really great. For times like this, I keep a recipe like this in my back pocket.

Marinated Chicken & Gouda Pizza

Oh hello, beautiful pizza!

This is a copycat recipe from a really great joint down in Duluth, Pizza Luce. We went there a few weeks ago, and I was blown away by how good their pizza was. Since it's a bit of drive to get down there, I thought maybe I could recreate the "Spanish Chicken" pizza I had there.

My only problem was that I couldn't figure out what they marinated their chicken in. It wasn't spicy like you would think with "Spanish" being in the name, and the gouda cheese gave it a nice, earthy taste. So here's what I came up with:

Marinated Chicken & Gouda Pizza

2 chicken breasts

1/2 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tbsp garlic

1/2 tbsp cumin

1/4 tbsp oregano

1 cup mushrooms, chopped

1/2 cup red onion, diced

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup gouda cheese

1 cup pizza sauce

pizza crust

1. Cut your chicken into bite sized pieces. Marinate them in the spices for about an hour. 

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook marinated chicken on the stove top until heated through - about 5 minutes. 

3. While chicken is cooking, prep your veggies. Place pizza crust (homemade or store bought) on cookie sheet or pizza stone. Read instructions if you're using store bought! Ours required pre-cooking the dough for about 8 minutes. 

4. Layer pizza sauce (store bought or homemade), chicken, veggies, and chicken on pizza crust. Bake in the oven until cheese is melted and slightly bubbly. About 10-15 minutes. 

I pulled it out and added some olive oil and Italian seasoning to the crust, then popped it back in the oven for a minute or two to let that set. 

I'll tell you what, this pizza is great! Served with a side salad, it really hit the spot on a cold Friday when I didn't really want to cook. Even though it took a little prep work, it really was an easy meal, and 100 times better than delivery pizza. Or frozen - yuck!

Do you have a yummy pizza recipe? What do you usually make when you don't feel like cooking?