Brok's Fabulous Low Carb Pizza - Buffalo Chicken Style

Well, I returned from vacation and promptly caught the sinus-yuck that has been going around.

As a result, I haven't felt much up to cooking. But I have been craving pizza, so for lunch today, I  decided to make a variation of Brok's awesome pizza recipe. I can't thank Brok enough for sharing this recipe. It is a perfect DS food, and it definitely does fill the pizza craving.

So here's my twist on it. Read on for instructions, step-by-step pics, and nutritional information.


Low Carb Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:
12 ounces (3 cups) Sargento Shredded Pizza Double Cheese (for crust)
6 ounces (1 1/2 cups) Sargento Shredded Six Cheese Italian Blend (for topping)
3 eggs
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dry basil
4 ounces cooked chicken
12 ounce bottle Frank's Original Redhot Cayenne Pepper Sauce
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/3 cup unsalted butter

Directions:

The first thing you're going to want to do is marinate the chicken in some of the Frank's Redhot. Now, this would be a great way to use leftover chicken, but since I didn't have any, I decided to use Oscar Mayer grilled chicken breast strips instead.

Take about 4 ounces of chicken (2/3 of the package, in my case), and cut it into nice bite-size pieces.

Put it in a plastic container, and add enough Frank's Redhot sauce to coat. Cover, and place in refrigerator to marinate for at least 30 minutes. If you like your chicken really spicy, you can marinate it for longer.

Now it's time to make the amazing cheese crust, but before you do that, pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. So, Brok's original recipe calls for a ratio of 2 parts mozzarella to 1 part cheddar. I tend to just use Sargento Pizza Double Cheese, which I find to be a nicely balanced blend of the two.

Whisk three eggs together, and slowly stir in the 3 cups of shredded pizza cheese until well-mixed. Add garlic powder and basil and stir again. Thinly and evenly spread mixture onto a pizza pan or baking sheet with non-stick aluminum foil.  It never goes all the way to the edges for me, but that's okay. One of these days I'll get a pizza pan.

Pop that in the center rack of your oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. DO check it at 10 minutes, and if the edges are browning too quickly, turn down the temp to 400. My oven cooks quickly, so I end up doing this.

If you're anything like I was the first time I made this pizza, you're looking dubiously at that cheesy, gloopy mess and wondering how on earth it is going to transform into a respectable pizza crust. Just you wait, Henry Higgins; just you wait.

While waiting, it is time to multitask. The next step is making the sauce. Take 1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut it into pieces, and put it in a microwave-safe bowl.

Nuke that in the microwave for 45 seconds or until melted. Pour the melted butter into 1/2 cup of Frank's RedHot Sauce and stir well until blended. Immediately stick the sauce in the freezer. No, I'm not kidding, the freezer. Being in there for a few minutes will cause the sauce to thicken slightly, and will also help keep it from bubbling up too quickly when it cooks.

While you're at the freezer, it's time to take out the chicken from the fridge. By now it will have absorbed a lot of that yummy Buffalo sauce. Blot it with some paper towels to absorb any excess sauce. (Okay, if you REALLY love hot sauce, you can leave the extra.)

It's important to warm up the chicken while waiting for the crust, because it won't be on the pizza long enough to get heated through. I put it in my toaster oven on low (200) for about 10 mins. You could also wrap it in foil and put it on the top rack of your oven for just a couple of minutes (but not too long, or it'll overcook).

Okay, now back to the crust. Once the crust is done, take it out of the oven. Mine never ends up a perfect rectangle; it ends up looking more like North Dakota. No worries!

This is how I like it to turn out: nice and golden on top, and a deeper brown underneath:

Time to take that sauce out of the freezer, and add it to the pizza. I like to do a fairly thin layer, so that it doesn't overwhelm the other flavors on the pizza. This can be varied to your own taste, but you will likely not need all of the sauce.

For the cheese topping, I highly recommend Sargento Shredded Six Cheese Italian Blend, which is a mixture of Mozzarella, smoked Provolone, Asiago, Romano and Fontina. Yum, right?

Now at first, you're only going to sprinkle a tiny bit of cheese over the sauce. Maybe 1/4 cup-ish. Just a dusting, to absorb the sauce, like so:

Now you're going to add the warmed chicken and crumbled blue cheese. Do not be shy with the blue cheese, it tastes so delicious on this pizza. Trust me. See this blurry picture below? My hands were shaking. That's how excited I was about the blue cheese.

Time for a second layer of shredded cheese, and don't go easy on this one. It gives an illusion of being more voluminous before it's melted. Sprinkle on as much as you like; I used well over a cup.

Now, put the pizza under your broiler, until all the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 minutes.

So very tasty. You will notice that the northeastern corner of North Dakota there appears a little burnt. Those well-done edges actually taste quite delicious, so don't be discouraged if you get a similar result. If I break down and buy a proper pizza pan, I suspect it won't happen.

I like to cut this into 8 slices, but I know a lot of folks like to cut it into 12. I did a nutritional breakdown for both.

12 slices, per slice--Calories: 208.1; Fat: 14.8 grams; Carb: 3.3 grams; Protein: 14.7 grams
8 slices, per slice--Calories: 312.2; Fat: 22.2 grams; Carb: 4.9 grams; Protein: 22.1 grams

Now, for anyone who wanted to cut down the fat and calories, you could use reduced-fat cheeses. I personally prefer the flavor of the Sargento, and lucky for me, the fat is not an issue.