Homemade Chicago Style Pizza

Have you ever had ingredients in your refrigerator you didn't fancy eating, and therefore, didn't know what to do with them? Me too!

I had some lean deli ham, fresh mozzarella, shredded cheddar, red bell peppers, a small amount of jalapeño pepper, yellow onion, as well as, a can of chuncky tomato sauce.  Sometimes, "the whole is other then the sum of its parts."  In this case, hot pizza was more appealing then a ham sandwich with raw crunches.

In my freezer was something I don't often buy, a can of Grands biscuits. Now I remember why I don't buy them. It's a lot of bread for breakfast. Mostly, I like making buttermilk biscuits from scratch, because you can make only what you will eat.  Once you open a can of biscuits, you have to eat all of them. So they became my pizza crust. (I usually use homemade bread dough for a homemade pizza, but it was a nice break, not to have to prepare ahead.)

I added spices: dried garlic powder, onion powder, green Italian seasoning, extra oregano, a tiny amount of crushed red pepper, a little bit of salt and black pepper too. The idea was to give the pizza a little kick without setting your month on fire.

Sounds like a little of work, doesn't it? But, it wasn't. It involves 10 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of baking in a very hot oven. Trying to mimic brick oven pizza, I set my oven for 400 degree F.

My iphone 4 doesn't do the finished pizza justice. (That's why this is a writing, not a photography blog.)  Poor lighting aside, the pizza was delicious: Good crust, hot, stringy cheese, seared meat, some veggies!

Try it sometime, using ingredients you like. Fresh basil and pepperoni make scrumptious ingredients also, but I didn't let what I didn't have on hand stop me!

Use a 10 inch cast iron skillet for Chicago style pizza, or a cookie sheet to spread the dough out for a thinner crust. Tasty with ice tea, or craft beer.

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