Chicken Bacon and Spinach Pizza

This is my favorite pizza, by far. Even my vegetable-fearing kids will eat all the toppings. It takes a little preparation, but from start to finish in about an hour. Make it your own by using a different crust, a smokey Gouda, or some red onion. 

Pizza Crust

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1 Tbsp dried rosemary

1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp salt

2 1/4 tsp yeast or 1 yeast packet
1 cup warm water
3 Tbsp olive oil

Mix 1 cup flour and the next 4 ingredients in a mixer with a flat beater. Slowly add the warm water and oil while mixing, until most lumps are gone.

I switch to my dough hook on my Kitchen-Aide mixer at this stage and add the remaining 1-1/2 cups flour. Mix for 4 minutes until soft and smooth. 

Put into a greased or sprayed large bowl and let rise 30 minutes.

For the Pizza:

3 slices turkey bacon (I like oscar mayer), cooked and diced

1 chicken breast, cooked and sliced into 1/2" pieces

1 jar Classico Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo sauce (the SECRET ingredient!)Only use as much as you need, the whole jar would be WAY too much

1/2 6 oz bag of baby spinach

Handful of cilantro, minced

8-10 oz. of mozzarella cheese

Grated Parmesan cheese

1.Start by cooking the chicken. Throw it in a crockpot with some garlic salt in the morning on LOW and forget about until you're ready to make the pizza. Very tender.

2.Next cook the turkey bacon until crisp.  Then use the same pan used to cook the bacon, to wilt the spinach.

3.Throw the raw spinach into the hot pan and stir around until shriveled and much smaller, only 2 minutes or so.

4. Preheat the oven to 375, and roll out the crust. Oil the pan with a drizzle of olive oil and parmesan. Place crust in pan of your choice. I use a deep-dish pan, about 18" diameter.

5. Cook the crust for 8 minutes (give or take depending on the thickness of crust and pan-type).

6. Remove the crust from the oven and spread with sun-dried tomato alfredo sauce. Add remaining toppings, ending with the cheese.

7. Cook for another 8-10 minutes until cheese is slightly golden and crust is cooked through.

This is the pizza before adding the cheese. I start drooling at this point, it looks so good!

Hope you're hungry!