Amazing, Alfredo, Chicken & Bacon Pizza!

Thursday night means pizza night in our house.  In an effort to make at least three more meals from the roasted chicken dinner that we made on Sunday, I am using some of that chicken in a fabulous pizza for our pizza night!  Pizza is a wonderful use for leftover meats and veggies because you can really stretch a little to go a long way.  Add a bit of dough, either store bought or homemade and you have pizza.  You could even sub out the dough and use some sliced French bread to make this pizza.  Whatever you choose, you are going to love this deeply flavorful and decadent pizza that you make using leftovers!

This is no ordinary pizza, and required only a few ingredients that I had on hand.  I made my dough earlier in the day in a double batch and divided it into four balls, each of which I wrapped in a plastic bag and then placed them all in the fridge to "rise" before dinner.  Then I pressed the dough into an oiled pizza pan.

In advance of putting the pizza together, I cooked cut bacon in my skillet low and slow to assure a crispy product.  Removed that from the pan and removed all but a tablespoon of the rendered bacon fat which I sautéed 8 ounces of Crimini mushrooms, 1 medium sliced onion and four cloves of chopped garlic.  I removed those from the skillet and then tossed in about two cups of cubed dark meat chicken which I pulled from the remaining leg and thigh quarters from Sunday's dinner.  I tossed those around in the warm pan just to take the chill off the chicken.

I used some prepared Alfredo sauce on the bottom, topped with some shredded Mozzarella cheese and then topped that with the warm chicken, some of the sauteed onions, mushrooms and garlic and topped that with a bit more cheese.  Then for the piece' de' resistance, the crispy crumbled bacon, strewn across the top of the beautiful pie.  I sprinkled a bit of grated Parmesan as well as a bit of pizza seasoning to top everything off just right.  If you like, you could apply a light drizzle of a high quality olive oil if you like, Who would complain about that?

Baked at 425 degrees for just under 20 minutes until the cheese was lightly browned and bubbly, the crust was browned and crunchy and the house was permeated with the amazing aroma of this luscious pizza.  I allowed this to cool for about 10 minutes before cutting into it and enjoying a taste.  I was not disappointed!  This pizza was amazing!

The flavors in this pie are incredible.  Bacon, onion, garlic, herb roasted chicken, cheese and crunchy crust.  My mouth is watering just writing this and I'm wondering if there is a slice left this morning to enjoy with my coffee. 

So with a little effort, I can tick another meal off of my list in which I used the chicken from Sunday evening.  So far that makes two meals, including the Mexican Style Chicken Lasagna, which really will end up feeding us for two dinners for four people, so you could easily say that I have made three extra meals from that chicken.  I plan on at least one more project with the chicken that I have leftover now, which really consists of the carcasses and the wings.  I suppose a soup of some sort is in order and I know you are going to love what I have planned. 

Creating meals from leftovers can be a challenge, especially if you are like me and cannot really stand to eat some types of leftovers. So the challenge is even bigger for me.  I love to "makeover" the original meal so that it is not evident that we are actually eating leftovers.  It takes some doing, and it takes some creativity, heck, it even takes some "outside the box" thinking.  Give it a try.  Cook one large protein a week and see what you can get out of it.  I think you'll have a blast creating dishes your family will love and in the end you will increase your recipe repertoire. 

Remember that if you don't have any leftover chicken and just can't wait to give this a try, then get yourself a rotisserie chicken and use some of that meat for your pizza.  See how many meals you can make for yourself out of one chicken.  You'll have fun and your family will love you!

I hope that you are going to give this recipe a try and I hope you love it! 

Happy Eating!

If you would like to see how I made the pizza, you can watch here: