Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Rachael Ray's Wingless Buffalo Chicken Pizza and Celery Succotash Salad

It was snowing so bad the day we made this and my husband and I were tired of sitting around watching television. I thought it would be fun to find a recipe that we'd never tried before and spend a few hours in the kitchen making it.
My husband doesn't do much cooking so I let him choose the recipe for enlisting his help. After scouring a few cookbooks he decided on a Wingless Buffalo Chicken Pizza with Celery Succotash Salad from '2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds by Rachael Ray (Paperback - Nov 7 2006)'.
The only thing we knew about 'succotash' was that 'sufferin' succotash' was what Sylvester oftenly muttered from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Succotash is actually a food dish consisting primarily of corn and lima beans.



Wingless Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Serves 4

Ingredients
•3/4 pound chicken breast cutlets
•Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), for drizzling
•2 teaspoons grill seasoning, such as McCormick brand Montreal Chicken Seasoning (eyeball it)
•1 pizza dough, store-bought or from your favorite pizzeria
•Cornmeal or flour, to handle dough
•2 tablespoons butter
•1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (eyeball it)
•2-3 tablespoons hot sauce, depending on how hot you like it
•1/2 cup tomato sauce
•1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (a few generous handfuls)
•1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
•3 scallions, thinly sliced


Preparation
Pre-heat the oven to 425°F. Pre-heat a grill pan to high.
Place the chicken on a plate. Drizzle EVOO over it and season with grill seasoning. When the grill is hot, add the chicken and cook about three minutes on each side.
On a cutting board, stretch the dough to form the pizza crust, using cornmeal or flour to help you handle it. If you let it rest and warm up for a few minutes, it will handle even more easily. Set the pizza on a pizza pan to the side and clean board.
In a medium skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and stir in Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and tomato sauce.
Remove the chicken from grill and thinly slice it. Add the chicken to sauce and coat. Cover the pizza dough with the saucy Buffalo chicken, cheeses and scallions. Bake 18 minutes or until crisp.




Celery Succotash Salad
Serves 4

Ingredients
•2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
•2 tablespoons honey (a healthy drizzle)
•1/2 lemon, juiced
•2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (eyeball it)
•1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
•Salt and pepper
•1 whole celery heart, thinly sliced
•1/2 cup shredded carrots
•1 box frozen corn (10 ounces)
•1 can chick peas or garbanzo beans (15 ounces), drained
•1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
•1/2 small or medium red onion, chopped
•2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped

Preperation
In a medium bowl, combine the mustard, honey, lemon juice and vinegar. Whisk in EVOO and season the dressing with salt and pepper. Add the celery, carrots, corn, chick peas, peppers, onions and thyme. Toss to combine the salad and adjust salt and pepper, to taste.






Final Thoughts:
Delicious!! My husband and I both loved it!
The pizza was yummy. We made the pizza dough from scratch too and that was something I had never done before. Next time I would make the pizza crust thinner.
The salad was very colorful and we really enjoyed the salad dressing for it. I would make the salad dressing on it's own and put it on a regular garden salad.
I also wish I would've taken a better picture of the meal.

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