Kitchenette

This winter is making me crazy. Snow, melt. Snow, snow, melt. Snow, snow, snow, snow, melt, melt, snow. And so on.

Hi, my name is Jen, and I live in Chicago. And I am NOT very happy about it.

In the spirit of misdirected rage, I bring you this: my spit-in-the-face-of-Chicago-and- all-it’s-deep-dish-monstrously-overrated-pizza-glory. The truth is, I first made this pizza in an attempt to copy my favorite pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. However, they have since dropped it from the menu (oh, the horror!), so looks like I’m flying solo on this one.

In order to be abso-fabulous, this pizza requires five things: crust (duh), a butter sauce, chicken, cheese, and a potato. The rest is up to you - it’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure pizza!

And because this winter is wearing thin on my patience, hey look! A recipe!

Garlic Chicken & Potato Pizza
Adapted from the lonely recesses of my troubled mind (aka a Kitchenette original)

1. Choose your own crust! A few that I have enjoyed are here at Use Real Butter and here at Smitten Kitchen. I always ordered the whole wheat crust at CPK. Alternatively, use a premade crust or even one of those little tubes of pizza dough that come in a can if you’re feeling frisky (or brave!). Anyway, prepare your crust according to recipe instructions. Preheat the oven and partially bake the crust if desired.

2. Choose your own potato! I typically use a russet, but nearly anything will work - a smallish russet (or equivalent) will cover one pizza. Cook the potato however you like - I typically slice mine, drizzle some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast it at 350 for 45 minutes or so. You could also slice up some leftover baked potatoes or boil it. The point is to cook those taters until they’re almost, but not quite, done. They will finish cooking on the pizza.

3. Choose your own chicken! I’ve found one boneless-skinless chicken breast to be adequate. Roast it, grill it, poach it, whatever. This is also a great recipe for using up leftover chicken. Once it’s cooked, shred or cut it into bite-size pieces.

4. Choose your own cheese! Mozzarella is still my favorite for this pizza, but anything goes. It’s YOUR pizza.

5. The butter sauce: Okay, this one actually has rules, people. Melt 6 tbs butter and add 6 tbs olive oil. Once hot, add and saute 2 cloves of minced garlic (or more - the choice is yours!) until fragrant. Add 2 tbs white wine and mixed herbs to suit your palette - I love fresh rosemary and basil, but dried herbs work well, too. Simmer 15 minutes or until it’s a consistency you can live with. If you like a lemon-butter sauce similar to the CPK pizza, squeeze in lemon juice to taste.

6. Spread the butter sauce on the crust and top with remaining ingredients. Using your crust recipe as a guide for time and oven temperature, bake until the cheese is just beginning to brown on top and the crust is nice and golden.

7 . Now come over and shovel my driveway!