Week #10: Georgia – BBQ & Fried Chicken Pizza on Cornbread Crust

State:  Georgia

So I have only been to Georgia a handful of times and it usually involved driving through the state, having a layover to my next flight, or a very quick trip.  I have never experienced a vacation or the fun life of Georgia.  My dad's parents were both from Stone Mountain, GA, so I tried to remember what my grandmother used to cook for us when we were kids.  My grandmother could throw down in the kitchen with some mean southern recipes.  My mom, sister, and I all use her recipes to this day.  

This pizza was in honor of my grandparents.  I used her friend chicken recipe, minus the cast iron skillet.  I know, it is almost a travesty!!  Either way, this pizza turned out pretty good and the sauce was very tangy.  Heres to Georgia!!!  
Ingredients Needed: 1 Pizza Serving Size

2 Serving Sizes of Cooked Grits (see package)

3 Chicken Strips

1 cup of freshly grated Cheddar cheese

4 leafs chopped Collard Greens

1/2 cup of Brown rice flour

Salt & Pepper to Taste

1/4 Tsp of Ground Red Pepper

For the sauce:

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (Recipe called for 1 ½ cups of apple cider vinegar, which was way too much)

½ cup yellow mustard

½ cup ketchup

⅓ cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. ground black pepper

¼ tsp. cayenne

2 cloves garlic or 1 tsp garlic powder

Pizza Crust:
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plain yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt $
3/4 cup cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces $
1/4 cup chilled shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
8 to 10 Tbsp. chilled apple cider

Meat:

Since my wife has food allergies, I made gluten-free fried chicken strips.  They key here was to brown rice flour, salt, pepper, and a little bit of red pepper to give it some heat.  I did a simple olive oil glaze, and then tossed in the flour mixture and into the frying pan.  I did not deep fry but merely fried the sides of the chicken.  You do not want to overcook the chicken when baking it.  

Crust:

For the pizza crust, I made a cornmeal crust.  See ingredients above for details.  I added an extra 3-4 tbsp of cornmeal to make it more like a cornbread, but the texture came out a little flimsy and probably should have stayed with the original recipe.  Here is the preparation:

1. Stir together first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Cut butter and shortening into flour mixture with a pastry blender until mixture resembles small peas. Mound mixture on 1 side of bowl.
2. Drizzle 1 Tbsp. apple cider along edge of mixture in bowl. Using a fork, gently toss a small amount of flour mixture into cider just until dry ingredients are moistened; move mixture to other side of bowl. Repeat procedure with remaining cider and flour mixture.
3. Gently gather dough into two flat disks. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill 1 to 24 hours.

Pizza:
After cooking the crust for 5 minutes, I spread out the grits on the crust and a layer of the BBQ sauce on top of the grits.  Then, I added the cut up pieces of fried chicken to the pie and pieces of collard greens on to the pizza but with enough space between each piece.  Finally, I sprinkled the cheddar cheese on top and put it in the oven for 10 minutes at 415 degrees.  

Please Note:  Each stove may vary.    

Pairing: 

For Georgia, there are a few craft beer companies that are really growing.  For this pizza, I chose to go with a Terrapin Pumpkinfest Ale, only because it was the only Terrapin beer that I could find at Whole Foods that night.  I would recommend pale ale or something hoppy from Terrapin, such has Hi-5 or Recreation Ale.  

Learning Moments:
I learned that going by a recipe when baking is very essential and unless you have been baking for a long time, stick to the measurements.  When I added the extra cornmeal, it changed the texture of the pizza.  It wasn't as firm and was a little flaky.  You couldn't tell the first night, but the crust was breaking apart the following day.  The second learning lesson from this pizza was that when a recipe calls for a lot of vinegar, do a taste test before adding the whole amount in.  When this person made the recipe, they must have bad taste buds.  The vinegar was burning the back of my throat when I would taste it.  It is like hot sauce, use cautiously!   Hope you try this recipe and hopefully you are inspired from this one!!