Grilled Chicken Parmesan Pizza

A few weeks back, I had the pleasure of posting a recipe for a delicious savory crust pizza. This week’s new recipe uses the same crust (or any crust you like, really, whether home-made or purchased) in a different way: Grilled Chicken Parmesan Pizza. Rolling the dough out thinner than for a baked pizza, and grilling it rather than baking it, results in a crisper crust that combines wonderfully with any of your favorite toppings. Here we’re making it with a chicken parmesan topping, crowned with parmesan and one of the truly great cooking cheeses: fontina. (The parmesan is grated, and the fontina is shaved into thin slices with a cheese slicer.) The saucing method – grilling tomatoes till soft and then mashing them onto the dough and adding an herb or two – is borrowed from a classic method for saucing margarita pizza.


A note about the grilling part: Although grilled pizza is generally made on an outdoor gas or charcoal grill, my weapon of choice for such things is a stove-top grill pan, and this recipe was prepared on that basis. If you prefer an outdoor grill, heat it to about medium hot and the recipe should work just as well.


Now let’s grill some pizza! This recipe makes 4 single-serving pizzas.


Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.


Blanch 3 large tomatoes (beefsteak or similar) for about 1 minute, rinse in cold water till they’re cool enough to handle easily, and remove the peels. Slice the tomatoes into ½” thick slices, and set aside.


Dry 1-1/2 pounds of chicken tenders or thin-cut breasts with paper towels. Brush each side with olive oil, and season both sides with salt, pepper and fresh thyme.


Put the sliced tomatoes into a hot grill pan lightly coated with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and few drops of white wine vinegar and heat until just soft, turning over half-way. Set the tomatoes aside. Scrape any tomato residue off of the pan with a wooden spoon.


Place the chicken on the grill pan. Cook until the chicken is browned and cooked through, turning over half-way. Set the chicken aside. After it has rested for a few minutes, cut the chicken into bite size pieces.


Divide a pizza dough (large enough to make a normal 16” pizza) into 4 equal parts on a floured surface, and gently roll each out to about 1/8” thickness.


Working one dough at a time, lightly brush one side of the each dough with olive oil and place on the grill pan, oiled side down.


As the dough cooks, air pockets may form as shown in the photo at right. This is a good thing; it means your dough will have a light crispness.


When the dough is browned, after about 2 minutes, brush oil on the top side and turn the dough over.


Immediately place ¼ of the roasted tomatoes on the dough, crush them and spread them around as a sauce. Sprinkle ¾ teaspoon of chopped fresh oregano on the dough.


Put ¼ of the chicken, 1/3 cup of shaved fontina cheese, 3 tablespoons of grated fresh parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon of chopped fresh basil, ½ teaspoon of chopped fresh parsley and ¼ teaspoon of butter substitute on the dough. (If you like some heat on your pizza, you can also add a pinch of dried red pepper flakes.) Cover with a large bowl and cook for about another 2 minutes until the cheese is melted.


Keep the finished pizza warm in the oven while cooking the remaining pizzas as described above. For an extra special touch, drizzle each pizza with olive oil before serving.


And there you have it: a special grilled treat your whole family will enjoy. (At least my whole family enjoyed it; I assume yours will too.) If you’d like a cookbook-style, notebook-ready copy of this or any other Kissing the Cook recipe, send me a note with your e-mail address and I’ll send it along.


See you next week with a special family recipe from my favorite cook. Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Tuna Cakes with Honey Slaw

Welcome to new subscriber Nancy, a friend from Facebook!


[Note from Ben: A couple of days after posting this, I realized there was a mistake in the original posting. Not in the recipe itself, but in the original title, which referred to "baked tuna cakes": as you'll note below, the tuna cakes in the recipe are actually cooked in a pan on the stove top, and are not baked. I don't know why it is my computer makes mistakes like that.]


Two of the most valuable cooking lessons I’ve learned have been these:
• A fast and simple way to make yourself a better cook is to make the same things you’ve always made, but with better quality ingredients.
• “Better quality” doesn’t have to mean more expensive. As often as not, it just means fresher. (Ironically, this can end up being less expensive.)
This week, we’ll be making delicious use of both of these ideas with a recipe for Baked Tuna Cakes with Honey Slaw. The tuna cakes are similar in concept to crab cakes except, of course, they’re made with tuna. And here’s the best part: although it’s certainly possible to make these with canned tuna, the best and freshest tasting result comes from using fresh cooked tuna. If you’ve had fresh cooked tuna already, you know it’s a taste you just don’t get out of a can, from any brand, at any price. This is the tuna you thought you knew, raised to a glorious new level. And if you’ve never cooked tuna steaks yourself, you might be surprised at how easy it is to make something that tastes so good.


And it’s the same for the slaw: easy, fresh, and delicious. Can’t ask for more than that!


The recipe following makes 4 tuna cakes and 4 cups of slaw.


Since the slaw tastes best when the flavors have had a chance to blend, we’ll make that first and let it rest while we make the tuna cakes afterward.
Thinly slice half of a medium red onion, and put the slices in ice water for about 10 minutes to reduce the “bite.” While the onion is soaking:
• Shred half a small head of cabbage (about 3 cups) and ½ cup of carrot (about 1 large), and combine in a large bowl.
• In a separate bowl, blend the dressing ingredients: 1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise; 1/2 tablespoon of brown mustard; 1/2 tablespoon of  lemon juice (juice of about ¼ lemon); 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar; 1 tablespoon of honey; 1/2 teaspoon of celery seed; and salt and pepper to taste.
• Add the dressing to the cabbage and carrot mixture, drain and add the onion, and mix well. Refrigerate the slaw mixture for 2 hours and garnish with 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley before serving.
While the slaw is resting, prepare the tuna cakes:
Coat ¾ pound of tuna steaks (about 2 steaks) with olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook on a grill pan over medium-low heat until they’re browned on the outside and about medium-well inside, about 3 – 4 minutes per side. (The tuna should still be a bit pink in the middle.) Using a fork, separate the cooked tuna in to chunks, cover, and refrigerate till cool.
Combine ½ cup of minced onion, ¼ cup of minced celery, and ¼ cup of grated carrot to form a classic mirepoix. Add 1 clove of minced garlic. Saute the mixture until it is cooked but not browned. When it’s done, cover the mixture and refrigerate until cool.


While the tuna and mirepoix are cooling, make the sauce by combining ½ cup of reduced fat mayonnaise, ½ tablespoon of lemon juice (juice of about ¼ lemon), 2 teaspoons of brown mustard, and ½ teaspoon of chili powder. Refrigerate the sauce until you’re ready to serve.
Now everything is in place, and we’re ready to make the tuna cakes!
Make a mixture of 1 cup of Panko crumbs and 1/2 cup of plain bread crumbs. Add ¼ cup of the breadcrumb mixture, ½ tablespoon of lemon juice (juice of about ¼ lemon), 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire, 1 egg-substitute egg (or 1 beaten fresh egg), 1/2 tablespoon of dried parsley, 1 teaspoon of mustard powder, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1 teaspoon of celery seed, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 teaspoon of dried marjoram, ¼ teaspoon of cumin, ¾ teaspoon of salt,1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper, and low-fat mayonnaise to texture (about ¼ cup). Mix well, then fold in the tuna and mirepoix. Divide the mixture into four parts and form each into a cake.


Coat each cake with the bread crumb mixture, and let them rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. When they’re rested, spray both sides of the tuna cakes with cooking spray and cook at medium-high heat on the grille pan until browned. Turn the cakes over and repeat for the other side.
In the photo at the top, I served the tuna cakes on a bed of cooked julienned celery and carrots, topped each tuna cake with a slice of lemon, and added mashed potatoes with a slice each of uncooked julienned celery and carrot on top. (I wanted to keep the starch side dish simple, to contrast the fact that both the tuna cake and the slaw have a good bit of seasoning.)


And there it is, for your cooking and dining pleasure! (Once you’ve seen how easy it is to grille the tuna steaks, you might want to cook some more the next time you’re making a tuna salad sandwich. You’ll be amazed at the difference just that one change makes!


For a cookbook style, notebook-ready copy of this or any other Kissing the Cook recipe, just let me know and you’ll have it before you know it!


That’s it for now. See you next week! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)