Pizza Dough

This is my go to pizza crust recipe. It's adapted from a recipe my brother uses. It makes almost exactly 2 lbs of dough so I usually divide it into 2 balls for 2 large pizzas. We like to grill our pizzas out on the grill at 500 degrees for 5 minutes. We preheat our grill with a pizza stone on it. I roll out the dough on a piece of parchment paper, top with sauce, cheese, and toppings and then transfer it paper and all to the pizza stone with a long handled pizza peel. It's our favorite way to make pizza. You can also bake it in the oven at 450 for about 8-10 min just until the cheese starts to brown. The dough rises for a total of at least 5 1/2 hours, so I usually start making it about 11am for dinner that night. This picture is a double recipe after the first rise, and I'm just getting ready to divide it into balls.

Pizza Dough
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tsps salt
1/4 tsp instant yeast
4 cups flour

1. In a large bowl add warm water and salt. Stir until salt dissolves. Sprinkle yeast on top of the water and let it sit for about a minute. Stir yeast into the water. Add 4 cups of flour and stir with wooden spoon until dough begins to come together. With a little flour on your hands knead the dough in the bowl a few times to create one big mixed lump of dough. Leave the bowl on the counter, uncovered, and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
2. After 20 minutes, remove dough from the bowl and place on floured surface. Knead dough for one minute. The dough should be very smooth. Brush clean large bowl with oil and place the dough into the bowl. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours.
3. After rising, remove dough from bowl and place on a floured surface. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces (you can use a scale for this). This should give you 2 one pound portions of dough. Shape pieces into 2 tight balls being careful not to tear the dough. Place the dough balls onto lightly floured dinner plates. Lightly flour the tops and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature for 4-6 hours until ready to use.

 Dough balls ready for 2nd rise. 

Dough balls all finished rising.

Ready to roll out for pizza.

Here's a shot of the crust. Chewy but crispy on the outside.

Coronation Chicken

I've visited England twice and both times I've had coronation chicken. The first time I tried it was 2 years ago in a tea sandwich at the Orangery Restaurant in Kensington Gardens. Just a couple of months ago I had it at a cafe down the street from Rochester Castle and Cathedral. It was served on a baguette. Then 2 days later, I had it again at coaching inn/pub called The Hen and Chicken in Alton. Gavin ordered it as well because he had tried my sandwich and liked it. His was served on a jacket potato (aka baked potato) and my was again on a baguette. I love chicken salad, but this isn't normal chicken salad. For one, it's practically royal. The original recipe was created for Queen Elizabeth's coronation banquet in 1953. The other thing I love about it is the flavor! It's a curried chicken salad with fruit! I looked up a few recipes and decided to make some of my own. I need to say a few things about ingredients. The recipe I based this one off of called for bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts which I have discovered are practically impossible to find, at least in my regular grocery stores. I used boneless, skinless, instead and it worked great. I substituted burgundy cooking wine for red wine, but you could also just use chicken broth. Mango chutney might be hard to find. It'll be in the jam/jelly section. I found mine at Walmart and the recipe used about half the jar. I put the rest in a ziplock bag and froze it for next time. The mango chutney adds a lot of flavor, so don't skip it. Tomato puree is in the canned tomatoes section. My store only had Hunt's brand. I also froze the leftovers of that for next time. I really wanted to add crème fraîche to my coronation chicken. BUT it's hard to find and if you do it's gross stuff in a jar (just like the clotted cream) and is not the same and it's expensive. You can make your own, but that takes pasteurized whipping cream, NOT ultra-pasteurized which is also not carried at the regular grocery store, so I improvised! I bought Mexican Crema because I live in San Antonio and THAT is something that IS carried at my stores and is not expensive. Mexican Crema is Mexican table cream and is comparable to crème fraîche (google it!) but runnier. So I added it last to make my coronation chicken just as creamy as I wanted it to be. 

Coronation Chicken
adapted from a nytimes recipe
3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 TBSP olive oil
Salt
Pepper
2 TBSPs unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, diced
½ cup burgundy cooking wine or chicken broth
6 TBSPs mango chutney
¼ cup tomato purée
3 TBSPs curry powder
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 dried bay leaf
1 cup mayonnaise
3 ounces dried apricots, finely chopped (about 15 apricots)
1/2 cup golden raisins (aka sultanas)
1/2 to 1 cup of crème fraîche (OR Mexican crema OR more mayo)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rub chicken on all sides with olive oil, season generously with salt and pepper and arrange on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until cooked through, about 45 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Let chicken cool slightly chop meat into bite-size pieces or shred. Set aside.
2. While chicken is baking, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the cooking wine, mango chutney, tomato purée, curry powder, lemon juice and bay leaf and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering, stirring occasionally and adjusting heat as necessary, until sauce is thick, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaf. Transfer sauce to a large bowl and let cool to room temperature
3.Once sauce has cooled, add the mayonnaise and stir to combine. Add the cooled chicken, apricots, and the golden raisins, and stir to coat them in the sauce. Stir in 1/2 to 1 cup of crème fraîche (OR Mexican crema OR more mayo) to create desired creaminess. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve on bread for sandwiches or on baked potatoes.