Months ago I hosted a Pampered Chef party and got a small recipe book for free. In that book there is a recipe for California Club Pizza. As you'll see from the ingredients for the topping there are some in there that I was SURE the boys wouldn't eat. But, I decided to make it anyway. It turns out the boys LOVED it! So, we make "Arizona Pizza" quite often for lunch. Nate can't remember what it is called so he always seems to call it Arizona pizza. Wrong state. LOL. Yesterday I starting making the pizza and run into a few problems. Let me give you the recipe first...
1 pkg refrigerated pizza crust
2 cups diced or shredded cooked chicken
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 small container of grape or cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1 medium avocado, chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
6 slices of bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled
1. Preheat oven according to crust package directions. Roll crust onto baking pan. Top with cooked chicken and shredded cheese. Bake until crest is golden brown. (follow crust package instructions, probably 15-18 mins)
2. Meanwhile, put tomatoes, onion, avocado and lemon juice in a mixing bowl. Stir gently to mix.
3. When pizza is done baking, distribute tomato mixture evenly over pizza. Sprinkle with bacon.
Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, it is....if you follow the directions I gave you and NOT the one from the recipe book. The book has a higher temperature because it is using a different pan (a Pampered Chef Bar Pan). I totally forgot this!!!!!!!!!! I cooked the pizza at 425 for 16 mins just like the recipe said. FAIL!!!! The crust was burnt to a crisp!!! I pulled it out of the oven and just felt horrible!!! How could I screw up this recipe that I have done many many times?? Well, I hated to throw away the chicken and cheese because it looked so appetizing. I had cooked the chicken in the pressure cooker and it was SO moist! I had to figure out a way to use this good chicken!
I looked around the kitchen and saw I had pita pockets that I really needed to use. I thought, "what goes good with chicken and cheese and this tomato mixture? The only thing I could think was to just use a jar of spaghetti sauce to top the pitas with and then continue with the recipe. My husband actually said I should use Ranch. What a GREAT idea! Why didn't I think of that?? Crisis averted!!!!!
Here is what we did: scraped the chicken and cheese off the burnt crust. Topped the pitas with the salvaged chicken/cheese, drizzled with Ranch dressing, topped with tomato mixture, sprinkled with crumbled bacon. Baked at 350 for about 10 mins just to get the whole thing warm. It turned out GREAT!!! The kids loved it and had seconds!! I guess this is how cooks/chefs come up with recipes....trial and error. Thank goodness my error turned out to be a great trial for a new recipe!!
