Taco Pizza

Last weekend I made deep dish taco pizza. I've been on a kick lately, trying to make fast food at home and healthy. I think I may be suffering from a slight 'cabin fever' with all this snow and living 2 hours from the city, but at least its forcing me to think of new ways to enlighten myself.

I found this recipe from which I used for the pizza dough. Make enough for two pizzas and freeze the second one! I have an orange Artisan Kitchenmaid standing mixer, so I just throw all the ingredients in and let it work its magic! Here are the ingredients for the topping of the pizza: 

1 lbs ground elk (beef for you unlucky folk that don't get elk)

1 pkg Taco Bell taco seasoning, or whatever brand you like

1/2 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 roasted green chile, not for the faint of heart 

1/4 cup Tapatio hot sauce, this is your sauce, you may wish to use a different brand

1 1/2 cup monterrey and cheddar cheese, shredded

Brown the meat, add the taco seasoning following the directions on the package. By  now your pizza dough has risen. You have two options, roll it out 1/4 inch thich OR form a deep dish pizza by flattening it with your fists into a large cast iron skillet. Assemble the pizza first with Tapatio, then layer the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes. If you chose the deep dish pizza, it may take longer for the middle of the dough to cook through. 

There really is enough topping to make a second pizza and freeze it, cook this at 400 degrees directly on the rack for 30-40 minutes.

STUFFED CRUST: I had some mozzerella string cheese on hand, cut them into quarters lengthwise, then placed them around the edge of the dough and folded it over to form stuffed crust. Good stuff!!

ROASTED GREEN CHILES: I loaded up on Anaheim peppers at Wal-Mart a couple weeks ago. I roasted 6 at once, just put the oven on Broil at 350 and put the peppers on a cookie sheet on the top rack. Once they are blackened, turn them over and blacken the other side. I found that blackening them really helps the bubbled hard outter skin peel off much easier. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes or so. Peel the skin. I used one of the green chiles on the pizza, skin, seed, and chop. I took the other 5 chiles, split them open on one side, took the seeds out then stuffed them with cheese and wrapped them in tin foil and put them in the freezer for Chile Relleno. 

In future blogs, I will tell you how my Chile Relleno turned out!!!