Living on the edge

In an effort to spice up our weekly dinner menu, Ben and I decided to give a new recipe a whirl: Buffalo Style Chicken Pizza - with homemade dough. You all have seen how well I bake, so this decision was obviously of deep concern for me.

First, I prepared for battle.

The local wine here is quite nice. I recommend trying it if you get a chance.

Then I cooked and seasoned the chicken. For some reason, I decided that slicing instead of cubing made it more buffalo wing-y. No idea why.

A quick test (to make sure it wasn't poison, of course) showed the chicken to be quite nom-able.

Australians don't put much stock in spicy foods (many cast fearful eyes at even the mildest of jalapenos, and I swear I know one person who actually sweated when eating pepper gravy), so this was the best we could find in our local grocery store.

Note my disdain for common measuring spoons. "Eh, a regular spoon will do, just whack the sauce in there." Probably explains why so many of my dishes are...uniquely flavored.

With the dough finished, it was time to assemble the pizza. This, by the way, is what happens when you don't have a circular pizza tray:

I swear this pan doesn't give us diseases.

At this stage, Korben the Wonderdog was invaluable. Some call this begging - I call it moral support.

He sits very neatly when begging. You should see what a lazy sitter he is when there's no food around. Looks like a sack of potatoes with ears.

All done and ready to shove in the oven.

We added olives to the recipe because, frankly, it's just not pizza without them. Never trust a person who dislikes olives. They inevitably have small hands and smell like cabbage.

Ben also requested sun dried tomatoes on his half. I think they'll clash with the hot sauce, but he's a rebel like that.

Stroke of culinary genius or an awaiting tragedy?

At this stage, I'm going to mention that I strongly doubt the crust will rise properly, and fear that the juice from the chicken is going to make the whole thing a soggy mess. We shall see.

Obviously, the crapness of my camera is why I will never have a cooking blog. Well that and my questionable talents in the kitchen.

It's done!

Is there any greater site than melted cheese, even when the photography is questionable? I can feel my thighs growing already.

After a bit of cooling, the final result:

Relevant cheezburger for the devotees out there.

Well, as I suspected, the dough didn't really rise. I'm really not surprised - I have never used yeast successfully. Ever. I am yeast-challenged. It also turned out a wee bit doughy (probably should have been pre-cooked for a few minutes) but otherwise it's pretty good, and the chicken is particularly delish.

So, thus ends the Great Dinner Experiment.

Not bad, really.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say I'm not a pizza crust leaving type of person. As soon as the photo was done, I snatched that last bite up. Carbs rule.