Growing up, I preferred a chewy, soft pizza crust. Buffalo's La Nova and Just Pizza were both greasy childhood favorites. I have fond memories of the former's just-crisp pepperoni and the honey barbecue crust of the latter. In my recent home of Northampton, Massachusetts, I had a soft spot for Luna Pizza's fresh mozzarella, imported romano, and painstakingly executed crust, a pillar among hand-tossed, semi-thick crusts.
In the last few years, though, especially with excursions to visit Jen's family in Milwaukee, where thin crust reigns supreme, I've developed a real appreciation for a cracker-thin, crisp crust. For my money, Bigg's Roadhouse and Pizza Man make a couple of the finest varieties. Pizza Man (which could also be the name of an out-of-work superhero with unhelpful pizza-making powers--delicious, sure, but terrible in a fight against a super-villain) serves traditional Milwaukee-style pizza: the thinnest of crusts, with the most popular toppings being sausage, mushrooms, and onions. The latter restaurant, in addition to traditional toppings, offers an unusual but delectable specialty pizza. Their BBQ Slow Roasted Pork Pizza includes BBQ Sauce, pulled pork, jalepeno peppers, and cream cheese. The cream cheese, especially, cuts across the kick of the peppers very nicely.
In the spirit of Beach City Cooking, I've modified below a popular rosemary, chicken, and potato pizza I've seen on menus everywhere from Massachusetts to Los Angeles. Follow the step-by-step pictorial below for easy homemade flatbread pizza.
P.S. I use Flat-Outs flatbreads for these pizzas. Use whichever flatbread you prefer, homemade or otherwise. For Flat-Outs, start out by pre-heating your oven to 350 and brushing your flatbreads with olive oil; once hot, pre-bake the Flat-Outs for 5-7 minutes until near-crispy.
While the oven is preheating and the crust is pre-baking, prepare your chicken and potato. In a cast-iron skillet, dry-fry your sliced potato (I used a white potato here, but yellow would work just as well) while cooking your chicken through. One medium-sized potato, thinly sliced, will yield enough potato for 2-3 pizzas. I used boneless chicken tenders here; any kind of boneless chicken will make your life a little easier in this recipe.
Time to break out those fresh herbs. I used parsley, sage and thyme for this recipe. Rosemary would go nicely as well--just like in the song--but I forwent the Rosemary in favor of brushing Bittersweet Herb Farm's Garlic and Rosemary Oil on the crust. Chop your herbs very finely and divide into desired amounts for each flatbread, to make the pizza-making process a little quicker and more efficient.
Top first with your sliced, cooked potato--
--pull apart your chicken and add it next--
--and top with grated mozzarella. I used whole-milk mozzarella for this recipe because of its eagerness to melt.
You can top your flatbread pizzas with herbs now or after cooking, ideally after. In this case, I added them prior to cooking, and so the consistency of the herbs was definitely lessened somewhat by their time in the oven; in the future I'd probably add them at the end, instead. Either way, pop your pizzas in the oven for 10-12 minutes.
This delicious creation will be the end result. Bon appetit!
A closer look.
Thanks for stopping by Beach City Cooking, and I'll see you tomorrow for something surely delicious (but as-yet undecided)! Have a great day, and enjoy the nice breeze.
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