Healthy Pizza Recipes: Chicken Spinach Feta Mushroom Pizza Recipe

I mostly advocate homemade but let's face it - sometimes we all have to cut a few corners if we need to make something quick and still have it resemble homemade. Tonight, I was faced with making something quick and the 'something' just happened to need to be pizza. I could have ordered takeout but thankfully, I had a flat bread thin crust pizza shell in the freezer. See my recipe further down for making the crust from scratch though.

I will list the basic recipe but I decided to just do my own thing with it and it turned out wonderfully. It is more of a Florentine concoction than regular pizza but you can make it to your own specifications very easily. Think about what pizza you like best - Canadian bacon or pepperoni - and just improvise. Took me all of about 10 minutes to prepare - 6-7 minutes to cook - even faster than delivery!

For another vegetable pizza you'll love, try my butternut squash and basil pizza recipe!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Thin crust pizza (I used Signature flat bread - Napoli style) - or substitute fresh pizza dough
• 1 8 oz. Classico Sun Dried tomato Pesto Sauce and Spread
• 1/4-1/2 cup shredded mozzarella or shredded cheese blend - any Italian white cheese will do
• Fresh spinach leaves washed and dried
• 1/4 cup feta cheese
• 1/4 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1/4 cup olives - regular will do but I used pitted kalamata
• 1 boneless chicken breast cut into small chunks/slivers
• 1/4 teaspoon or so of dried oregano
• Fresh Parmesan cheese
• Olive oil

PREPARATION

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place chicken strips/chunks in skillet with a teaspoon of olive oil (or substitute cooking spray). Sprinkle with oregano. Cook until brown on one side, flip and cook on other side. Set aside. (You can also grill the chicken breast and cut into small pieces)
3. Place thin crust pizza or dough on pizza plate.
4. Spread tomato pesto sauce/spread over the pizza dough on pan.
5. Sprinkle with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
6. Sprinkle cooked/roasted chicken over sauce on pizza.
7. Slice olives and place on pizza.
8. Sprinkle mushroom slices over pizza.
9. Add fresh spinach leaves to pizza.
10. Sprinkle on feta cheese.
11. Sprinkle with mozzarella or other white Italian cheese.
12. Sprinkle on just a bit more of Parmesan cheese.
13. Bake at 450 degrees for 6-7 minutes.
14. Let stand about 5 minutes or so before slicing.

Serves 1 or 2 as a main course.

• For Canadian bacon pizza, use cheeses except feta and Canadian bacon and pineapple tidbits
• For pepperoni pizza, use cheese except feta and substitute bite-size pepperoni slices, mushrooms, green peppers
• For meatless pizza, omit the chicken
• For a different meat pizza, substitute another meat such as cooked ground beef or chicken - or try Italian sausage cooked
• Substitute any other prepared pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce or substitute homemade such as Italian sausage

Makes 2 pizza crusts

INGREDIENTS

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups flour

PREPARATION

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water.
2. Stir in sugar, salt, oil and 1-3/4 cups flour.
3. Turn onto well floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (5 minutes). Or place in mixer or food processor with dough hook and knead for 5 minutes. Add additional 1/4 cup of flour to prevent sticking.
4. Pat into a 10-inch circle on lightly greased cookie sheet or pizza pan with floured fingers.
5. Spread with sauce and toppings.
6. Bake in 425 degree oven until cheese melts and is bubbling, 15-20 minutes.
7. Let stand 5 minutes or so before cutting.

NOTE: You can refrigerate or freeze other pizza half if not used right away - refrigerate up to about 5 days.

While takeout is great, it is very expensive and in most cases, laden with salt.  It really doesn't take that much time to make your own - and even if you have to make do and use a few non-homemade items, I have to think it is still better for you in the long run. 

Be creative above all - pizza is after all a man-made pie of sorts and the sky is the limit on what you can do with it!  Check out other sites on the Internet for millions of variations and ideas.