Home-made Chicken Thin Crust Pizza

Nothing beats a home-baked pizza and with such a wide variety of toppings to choose from, there's a pizza for every taste.My first attempt with home-made pizza base and pizza sauce was an instant hit. With just a little bit of preparations, we all can stack it up.

I'm not much fond of buying frozen stuffs. Fresh pizza dough is always better than the frozen pizza base. Making pizza dough is really simple. So lets knead !!!

Ingredients for Pizza dough:

All purpose flour - 1½ cups
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Dry yeast - 1 tsp
Lukewarm water - ½ cup
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - ½ tsp

Ingredients for Pizza sauce:

Egg (Roma) tomatoes - 3 nos
Garlic cloves - 3 nos, finely chopped
Capsicum - ¼ cup, finely chopped
Dried mixed herbs - 1 tsp, according to your taste
Oil - ½ tsp
Salt
Sugar

Toppings used:

Chicken strips - ½ cup, shallow fried
Green capsicum - handful,  sliced
Yellow capsicum - handful, sliced
Button Mushrooms - 5 nos, sliced
Onions - handful, sliced
Chilli flakes
Mozzarella cheese - garnish
I used Cheddar and Parmesan cheese to garnish

Marinated the chicken strips with ginger garlic paste, turmeric and kashmiri chilli powder, lemon juice and salt. Then shallow fried in oil.

How to make Pizza Sauce:

• Blanch the tomatoes. For blanching, place water in a deep pan and let it boil. Slit an X mark at the base. Place the tomatoes in the boiling water and let it sit only for a minute. Transfer the tomatoes to cold water and peel off and discard the skin. Blend the skinless tomatoes and make a fine paste.
• Pour oil on a hot pan and add finely chopped garlic. Sauté for a minute making sure not to burn them.
• Add chopped capsicum and sauté till soft.
• Now add the tomato purée and add a pinch of salt and sugar.
• Close with a lid and let the sauce get thickened well like a spreadable consistency.
• Add the mixed dry herbs before switching off the flame.
• Left-over pizza sauce can be refrigerated for later use.

How to make Pizza dough:

• Dissolve yeast and sugar in lukewarm water. Leave the mixture to prove for a few minutes. The yeast should start to bubble or foam in the water.
• Sift the flour and salt. Make a well in the centre and pour the oil and dissolved yeast,sugar mixture.
• Stir with a wooden spoon until dough becomes too firm to stir.
• Using hands, knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. 
• Coat a bowl with a drizzle of oil so that the dough doesn't get stick.
• Transfer the dough top the greased bowl and cover with a cling wrap.
• Leave it for 1 hour to rise. Wait until the dough has doubled it's size.
• Pre-heat the oven to 220 degree Celsius.
• When the dough has risen, knock out the air bubbles on the dough using your palms.
• Lightly flour the kitchen counter and knead the dough for 2-3 minutes.
• Transfer the dough on to the baking tray and pat and push dough outwards until it reaches the edges, forming a thick rim on the outside. Choose any desired shape.
• If you wish to have a thin crust, flatten it up very thin else go for a thick base.

To garnish the Pizza:

• Spread the pizza sauce on top of the flattened dough.
• Add all the toppings. 
• Bake pizza for 10-15 minutes until the cheese has melted, the veggies get crunchy and the edges of the pizza base has turned slightly golden brown.