BBQ Chicken Pizza and Getting Your Picky Kids to Eat!

Here's another recipe for ya!

Do you like pizza? How about BBQ chicken?

I adore both so why not combine them?

BBQ CHICKEN PIZZA

(aka BBQ Whitey Pizza or There Once Was a Rooster Named Whitey! Just joking, just joking, settle down, Whitey is still among us. Note: If this makes no sense to you, you need to read the last post.)

Okay, here is another recipe that proves "Sauce is Boss"! You can be lazy and use store bought BBQ Sauce and cheat your family from delicious homemade sauce that says "I love you guys" or you can make this homemade sauce and have your children giving you foot rubs because they love you so much! LOL that would be the day, right! But I'm getting ahead of my self. We need to talk crust first.

I also make my own pizza crust, it is so easy, there is not an excuse not to, unless you simply don't have time. But there is no excuse for not making the BBQ Sauce. It's easy and you can make it way ahead of time. Like on the weekend, if you work during the week. If you work during the week, this is a perfect recipe for a Saturday afternoon.

This might get lengthy so hold on.

Pizza Dough

I make mine in the bread machine on the dough cycle.

6 ounces water (80 degrees F)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons yeast

Put ingredients in the bread pan in the order they are given. Program your bread machine for the dough cycle. When the dough is done, turn it out on a floured surface and knead it about 1 minute or so, then let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll dough out in a 12 to 14 inch crust. Place on a pizza pan or pizza stone (that's what I use) and bake in a 400 degree oven for 8 minutes.

Now while the crust is rising in the bread machine, you can make the BBQ Sauce. I like this one which is a smokey, sweetish and a little hot. I modified a BBQ sauce I got out of this cookbook that I have and adore called "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes" by Todd Wilbur. The sauce is from Tony Roma's.

Smokey Honey BBQ Sauce

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup garlic flavored red wine vinegar

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup honey

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

2 tablespoon Franks Red Hot sauce (more or less depending on how hot you like it)

1. Combine all the ingredients for the barbecue sauce in a saucepan over high heat. Blend the ingredients with a whisk until smooth.
2. When the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer uncovered.
3. In 30 to 45 minutes, when the mixture thickens, remove it from the heat. If you overcook it and make the sauce too think, thin it with more vinegar.

This makes more than you'll need for the pizza. You can keep the extra in the refrigerator and use it for another meal. I used mine with left over roast and made BBQ Beef Sandwiches. Oh la, la... so good!

Okay, we've got our crust and our sauce, now it time to make the pizza.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1/2 cup BBQ Sauce

1/2 cup pizza sauce (someday I'll share the recipe for my homemade pizza sauce!)

1 cup cooked chicken, shredded (farm fresh of course)

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Shredded Cheddar cheese

1 thinly sliced onion

2 tablespoons butter

And any other toppings you want like black olives, green pepper, diced green chiles...

Spread the combined sauces over the crust. Add as much cheese as you feel you need, use 1/2 mozzarella and 1/2 cheddar. Spread chicken and onions on top of cheese. Then sprinkle, (sprinkle? sounds like we're making sugar cookies!) a little more BBQ sauce over the chicken and top off with a little sprinkle of cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the pizza is hot and bubbling.

Here's a great tip for those of you who have children to feed. This is especially helpful if your little darlings are picky eaters!

When making homemade pizza, divide your dough into four pieces and allow your children to make their own personal pizzas! Kids love to eat what they make and also you need to be teaching them how to prepare meals for themselves or they may never leave the home. Or if you never take the time to teach them any cooking skills, they will live on Kraft Easy Mac and Ramen Noodles for the rest of their lives. Not healthy at all.

I think it is extremely important to teach your kids to cook. If you start young enough, they think it is something fun to do, but if you wait too long, they won't want to do it simply because it is something that you want them to do. So the earlier you start the better!

You do need to set a few rules with these personal pizzas. This also discourages kids from becoming picky eaters.

Rule #1: Do not use more than what is required. Set limits on the cheese and sauce. You want to teach them what is appropriate! Don't let them be wasteful. As my mom use to say, "There are thousands of starving children in this world..."

Rule #2: You have to eat what you make. This discourages them from experiments that they won't eat when it turns out to be a bad idea, like Captain Crunch and Sausage!

Rule #3: They get to clean up their own mess while the pizza is cooking! This teaches them wise time-management and encourages cleanliness in the kitchen.

You can also try this with calzones. Give it a try and let me know what your kids think about it!

Tatee-cakes was sleeping on the couch while I was baking this.

Yummm, Yummm, this Rooster sure makes good pizza!

Who knew that jerk would taste so good!

Just joking, I told you the rooster was still among us!

Sensational Slow-cooked Roast with Onion-Mushroom Sauce

Sensational Slow-cooked Roast with Onion-Mushroom Sauce

The other night I made the best roast I have ever made in my life! I'm not trying to brag or be prideful, I just want you to know that it was so absolutely delicious, that I want to make it over and over again.

Let me tell you how I feel about beef.

First of all, I love roast, but only if it is tender, juicy and flavorful. If roast is cooked to my stringent specifications, I like it better than steak. Unless the steak is grilled properly and is fork tender with an out-of-this-world rub. Those kind of steaks don't come around very often.

I usually prepared my roasts in the crock pot. They are my "go to" meals when I'm going to be gone most of the day and want an easy-to-serve meal. Sometimes my roast are tender and juicy, sometimes they are not so tender and juicy. I know they would be better if I took the time to brown them in oil before I put them in the crock pot, but that doesn't always happen. Actually, it hardly ever happens.

The main reason for this laziness concerning the browning of the roast is because I hardly ever think far enough in advance to get the roast out of the freezer and thaw it before it is time to cook it. I would say that 80% of all my roasts are thrown in a crock pot, fully frozen and left to their own mercy in the crock pot.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't throw them in there without any devices. I usually throw in something, like a can of cream of mushroom soup, a package of onion soup mix, etc. Then after the roast is cooked, I pour the left over juices on the roast for flavor.

But let me tell you, I simply adore sauces. Any kind of sauce. Sauce just adds such dimension to any dish. Let's consider a few...

Cheese sauce... who can eat broccoli or cauliflower without cheese sauce?

Vanilla sauce... oh my goodness, add to any dessert and you make it a dessert you'll never forget.

Fudge sauce... now I'm drooling.

Marinara sauce... what's pasta without marinara sauce? Naked, that's what!

I could go on and on, but I won't. I can't spend all morning on this computer! The house needs to be cleaned.

Anyway, sauce is boss! Especially homemade sauce. I know you can buy sauces at the store, but please don't. You don't know what you are missing if you have not made sauce, any kind of sauce, from scratch.

Okay, back to the roast beef. Have you guessed that a sauce is involved?

Here goes the recipe.

Sensational Slow-cooked Roast with Onion-Mushroom Sauce

I used an English Cut Roast, but you can use what ever you want to. I don't see why any kind of roast wouldn't work.

Place the roast in the crock pot. Frozen or thawed, doesn't matter.

Have you tried the new, well not so new, crock pot liners??? If you haven't, saddle up your horse, git to town and buy yourself some. You can find them in the plastic wrap and foil isle. I do not use my crock pot without them anymore. Talk about easy cleaning!!!! They make me so happy!

Back to the recipe, sorry, but you really do need to know about those liners.

Dump 1 can of cream of mushroom soup on top of the roast. Dump 1 package of onion soup mix on top of the soup. Dump 1/2 cup of water over that. Cover with lid and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

Remove roast from crock pot and place on the cutting board to rest.

In a large skillet, I use a cast iron skillet, saute 2 cups of sliced mushrooms in 1/4 cup of melted butter. When the mushrooms are beginning to turn a golden brown, add 3 cloves of chopped garlic and saute for a few more minutes until the garlic is lightly browned. Be careful not to burn it!

Remove the mushrooms and garlic from pan and set aside. Carefully dump the juice from the crock pot into the pan. Make sure to get all the stuff that might be stuck to the bottom. You need about 2 1/2 cups of liquid, so you may need to add a little water. Bring this to a boil and add 1/2 cup of red wine or cooking sherry. Allow this to reduce and then add the mushrooms. Combine 1 tablespoon of corn starch with 3 tablespoons of cold water. Add to sauce to thicken it. Mmmmmm... I can smell it just by thinking about it.

Slice your roast and serve with the sauce. We even poured the sauce over our garlic mashed potatoes.

I think that the onion soup mix makes this sauce.

Give it a try and tell me what you think!!

Sorry I didn't do this in true recipe form, but I figured there wasn't that many ingredients that you couldn't just write them down yourself. I'll try to get this in recipe form and when I do I will post it.