The other day I wanted to make a little lighter pizza that did not have the heavy red sauce on it. So I decided to make a nice light chicken pizza. With a base of seasoned whipped ricotta topped with chicken and sauteed spinach and mushrooms. It was one of tastiest pizzas I have ever made.

On a side note, make sure that your ricotta cheese is good.  Mine had an expiration date of two weeks from now and it was moldy.  Yeah, I know.  So gross.

Chicken Spinach and Mushroom Pizza

I finally broke out the stone again after getting a new pizza peel. So much better than using a pizza pan.

Chicken Spinach and Mushroom Pizza

• 1 pizza dough – (recipe for Basic Pizza Dough)
• 1/2 pound chicken
• 1/2 pound mushrooms (any variety will do)
• 1 bag pre-washed baby spinach
• 1 cup ricotta
• 2 cups mozzarella
• 2 tbs fresh basil – chopped
• 1 tbs fresh oregano – chopped
• 3 cloves garlic – diced
• 2 shallots – diced
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 cup white wine
• salt and pepper
• cornmeal or semolina for dusting the peel

The first step is to make the pizza dough and let it rise till it doubles.  Here is a simple and easy pizza dough. If you are running short on time, almost all grocery stores have pre-made pizza dough in the deli section and/or freezer section, or you can always stop by a local pizzaria and purchase the pre-made dough.

Next cook the chicken.  I grilled the chicken, but baking or boiling work too.  When I was at the store the chicken tenders were $2.95 a pound while boneless skinless chicken breasts were $4.95 a pound.  Simple choice if you ask me.  Grill till just cooked and then let cool.

Grilling chicken tenders

Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to as hot as it will go, mine tops out at 550 degrees.

Heat a large pan over medium/high heat and add the 2tbs of olive oil.  Add the garlic and shallots and quickly saute.  Next add the mushrooms with a little salt and pepper.  It will look a little dry to begin with, but the mushrooms will release all of their moisture.

Mushrooms getting friendly with a little garlic and shallots

Next add the white wine and stir.  Then add the spinach.  Quickly cover and let cook for a minute or two.  Cook till the spinach wilts.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

Wilt the spinach

In a bowl combine the ricotta cheese and a little salt and pepper.  Whip the ricotta till light and fluffy.  I unfortunately purchased a tub of ricotta cheese that was moldy.  Didn’t realize that this happened, but it did.  So instead of using ricotta, I had to use 1 cup more of mozzarella.  Not the same, but still gets the job done.  The pizza is 10 times better with ricotta.

Next cover a pizza peel with cornmeal or semolina and then form the pizza dough.  If you do not have a pizza peel or a pizza stone, form the pizza on a pizza pan.  Still preheat the oven to as high as it will go.

Cover the crust with the ricotta mixture.  It doesn’t have to be thick, just enough to add some flavor.  Once again, my ricotta was bad so the pictures will be of mozzarella cheese. 

Next sprinkle the fresh basil and oregano over the cheese.

Top with the fresh herbs

Now layer on the chicken and then top with the spinach/mushroom mixture.

Layer with the chicken and then the spinach mushroom mixture

Finally layer on the mozzarella cheese.

Top with cheese

Bake in the preheated oven for 12-18 minutes.  This will vary based on the temperature that your oven will go to.  With mine at 550 degrees it took about 12-14 minutes to cook.

Remove from the oven when the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted

Slice and serve.

The Slice

Enjoy!!

-Rex