Recipe Thursday: Chicken and Spinach Alfredo Pizza

Hi Everyone!

So, this week's recipe  is one of those "Gee, I wonder if this would work?" creations. When I made it for the first time, it was simply done with a desire to take the ingredients I use to make chicken Alfredo Pasta and turn them into a sauce for pizza. A little tweaking and Viola! a new pizza was born! Well, new to our house anyways! It is a simple recipe and I hope you can take some time to try it out for yourself.
Ok, here we go:

Ingredients:

-- Pizza Crust. I use the Boboli Pizza Crust. It's just easy; but if you are inclined to make your own, please by all means do so.

-- 1 chicken breast cut up. This is a great recipe to do if you have an extra breast left over that perhaps you didn't use for a previous recipe.

-- 1/2 small onion chopped; and 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic (grated, minced or chopped fine)

-- 2 or 3 Artichoke hearts (the kind in the jar) finely chopped.

-- 1 package frozen spinach thawed and drained. You can get all the liquid out of the spinach by placing the spinach in a clean kitchen towel and then squeezing the liquid out over the sink

--1 jar of your favorite Alfredo Sauce

-- Splash of White Wine or Chicken Broth (personal preference)

--Handful of Feta Cheese

--Mozzarella or Italian Cheese for the top of the Pizza.

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 425. Sautee the cut up chicken in some Olive Oil over medium high heat until pieces are browned and cooked. Remove the chicken to a separate bowl. (Do NOT rinse the pan out)


2. Put the pan back on the stove, and lower the heat slightly and add the onion and if desired a little dash of red pepper flakes. Wait until the onion softens a bit. Lower the heat to medium low (4 or 5) and then add the garlic. If you aren't used to cooking with fresh garlic, be sure your pan is not too hot because the garlic can burn quickly and if it burns...it's no good. Add the artichoke hearts and continue to stir for a few minutes and soften the ingredients some more.

3. Add the white wine or chicken broth...one turn or so around the pan and using a wooden spoon scrape up all the little bits from the bottom of the pan. This is why you don't rinse the pan after cooking the chicken. There's TONS of flavor and yumminess in those little black bits on the bottom of the pan!


4. Turn the heat back up slightly (6 or 7) and let the wine and liquid reduce down by at least 1/2. Pretty much all the liquid should be just about gone before you go to the next step.

5. Add the jar of Alfredo sauce, and then the chopped spinach. Now, you may not use the entire package...I usually don't. Just add however much or little you want.

6. Add the feta cheese and return the chicken to the pan. I usually go ahead and cut the chicken up into even smaller bite size pieces at this stage. Again, this is optional and only necessary if you desire to do so.


7. Now, this is where it gets just slightly tricky. Remember, you are making a pizza, not a pasta sauce, so you need to sauce to be a little thicker than you would normally expect it to be. It should be thick with a nice body to it; but not don't let it get so thick it looks like paste! If you notice that it's getting a little too thick, just add a splash or two of chicken broth and thin it out a bit.

8. Add your desired seasonings. Avoid any salt, however because the Feta and the artichoke hearts have plenty of salt in them. I usually just add a sprinkle of Italian Seasoning and a little black pepper. Lower the heat to about 3 and let the sauce simmer for a few minutes.

9. Spread the sauce onto the pizza crust and sprinkle with the Italian or Mozzarella cheese. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the edges turned slightly brown.


Now for today's crafty creation. I made this card for the Wednesday's SCS sketch. Since this post has already been quite long, I'll just jump right into the challenges I am entering it in to.

1. Amber's Craft and Stuff: Swirls and Circles

2. Crafts and Me: Add a Flower

3. Flutter by Wednesday: Open Challenge

4. House that Stamps Built: Glitter


5. Clear it Out Challenge: Anything Goes, use an old supply. The butterfly image is from an old SU set "Garden Whimsy" that I haven't used in AGES!

6. Craft Room Challenge: Butterflies

7. Jac-inks Papercraft Challenges: Monotones

8. My Time To Craft: Citrus Colors

9. Shopping Our Stash: Technique Turn back. Use a technique you haven't used in a while. I used the Shaving Cream technique for the background piece across the center. I also used the "rock and roll" technique when I stamped the butterfly.

10. SCS Sketch challenge 342