What you're seeing here is the result of some serious pizza experimentation! It all started when we tried out some interesting pizzas at a local pizza joint (for my B-D!) Their pizzas were topped with all kinds of foods that I didn't usually associate with pizzas and it was pretty delish. That got me thinking about ways to make a different kind of pizza, a kind that tasted not like a pizza but was still totally a pizza.
Sounds confusing, eh? I was confused at first too. After a bit of thought I realized what I wanted was a pizza to taste like two things: 1) a pizza and 2) another dish of my choosing. So if you've got a favorite dish like barbeque chicken and you love pizza as well, you could make a barbeque chicken pizza that tastes like both barbeque chicken and pizza! Double the yummy, amirite?!
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| The original Gong Bao Chicken Stir Fry |
Daringly (for us kitchen nerds:), we took on the Chinese Gong Bao Chicken Stir Fry 宮保雞丁 (click to check out our recipe), a powerhouse of flavor and texural contrasts, as our other 'taste/dish'. Note that this dish is a stir fry and its many different ingredients are meant to meld together in the wok during a hot and furious stir fry session. But pizzas are made in the oven. So a stir fry on a pizza? Would that even work?
Well, we decided to take a gamble and see.
As our experimental stir fry pizza baked in the hot, hot oven, we wrung our hands and sweated. If it didn't turn out that meant major effort wasted and, gulp, no dinner :( and a very grumpy family. At long last the pizza was done and slid out of the oven looking a beautiful golden brown. We cut it into slices and bit in thoughtfully, silence reigned for a quiet few seconds as we all chewed... and pheeeew YAY, it totally worked!
The spirit of the stir fry was different but present, probably due to the hot, hot oven required for pizza baking. The taste of the Gong Bao Chicken was clearly there and delicious. And it totally was still rocking it as a pizza! Yeah, our Stir Fry Pizza ala Gong Bao Chicken was a mixture of tender and crunchy textures, its flavors ranging from savory to peppery to tangy to spicy to spicy numb, all cradled in deliciously melted cheese and a golden crusty pizza crust.
Man oh woman, this Stir Fry Pizza was some serious yummiliciousness!
For the meat topping the preparation is pretty much the same as for the real Gong Bao chicken stir fry as we marinate the chicken in a soy and rice wine sauce. A bit of cornstarch is added to help the marination cling to the meat.
For the vegetable toppings we added some fresh vegetables that aren't used in the Gong Bao stir fry. The stir fry usually only has lots of spring onions as the 'veg', but I thought that the Gong Bao Stir Fry pizza version should have more veggies so we added some bok choy 白菜 and bell peppers. These also added a vibrant splash of color.
A more unusual veggie is the water chestnuts. These are sweet and crunchy, a wonderful texture food and an important part of the Gong Bao Stir Fry. It takes a bit of time to slice the skin off but absolutely worth it. If you can't find the fresh water chestnuts you can look for canned water chestnuts.
All the veggie toppings sliced and ready to top the pizza. So fresh and lovely and perfect for the fierce heat that baking pizza requires. The high oven heat is rather like the high heat of the stir fry isn't it? Just takes longer and is dryer.
We also threw in some shrooms cuz every pizza needs shrooms. We used japanese shimeji mushrooms but shitake or any asian mushroom is good to use.
Besides the meat and the veggies there are the aromatics. There is the spring onion ( I forgot to put in photo...oops!), ginger, garlic, dried chili pepper and dried Sichuan pepper 花椒. Note that we soaked the ginger in cool water to lessen the peppery bite a bit.
The aromatics of the Gong Bao stir fry are an absolute sensory explosion, from peppery to garlicky to spicy to tongue numbing. Oh, and don't forget the roasted peanuts! They add a roasty crunch to the Gong Bao experience!
The first secret to transforming your ordinary pizza to a pizza that tastes like another dish is in this step. We want this pizza to taste like Gong Bao stir fry, right? So we roll out the pizza base, brush on a thin layer of oil, then add a layer of the Gong Bao stir fry sauce. Presto, you're well on your way to a Stir Fry Pizza ala Gong Bao Chicken!
Tip: If you get inspired to make a pizza like this one but based on your own favorite dish, just remember to use the sauce of that dish as the base sauce for the pizza instead of the usual tomato sauce. Also drizzle that same sauce over your toppings!
Add the cheese next and then the marinated meat. The cheese is necessary to to make everything stick together. At first I was worried that the cheese flavor would clash with Chinese elements but it turns out that cheese does go with everything!
Next the vegetables are layered on. And then the aromatics are sprinkled over it all. Toss the peanuts on as well. The final step is also the second secret to this type of pizza. More of the Gong Bao stir fry sauce is drizzled over all the toppings. Sauce on the bottom and sauce over the toppings. This saucy treatment will infuse your pizza with the distinctive flavors of whatever second 'taste/dish' that you have chosen.
Doesn't it just look gorgeous already?
Pop into the hottest oven you've got and watch that homemade base bake to a thin golden brown crust, the cheese to bubble and caramelize, veggies to turn some parts soft some parts crispy, the aromatics and Gong Bao sauce infusing their intense and delicious flavors into everything. Your Stir Fry Pizza ala Gong Bao Chicken is now ready to gobbled down in all its yummilliciousness.
Enjoy and let us know if you try your own version of this pizza. We'd love to know what favorite dish you based it off on!
Gong Bao Chicken Pizza Recipe
宮保雞丁比薩
宮保雞丁比薩
(makes 4 nos 10" pizza) Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 20 mins
Ingredients:
Chicken Marinade
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp Shaoxing rice wine
- 1 tsp cornstarch
Gong Bao stir fry sauce
- 6 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
- 2 tsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 6 tsp Chinkiang black Chinese vinegar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
Pizza
- 1 portion pizza dough as per our New York Crust Pizza Dough recipe
- 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 17 oz mozzarella cheese, 480g
- 12 oz chicken breast, 350g
- 2 bell peppers, red or yellow
- 6 baby bok choy
- 6 water chestnuts
- 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 sprigs spring onions
- 4 tbsp fresh ginger
- 4 dried chili peppers
- 3 tbsp dried sichuan peppers 花椒
- 1/2 cup roasted peanuts
Directions:
Make pizza dough as per our recipe. After shaping the dough into four balls and covering, start on the toppings as follows:
Prepare the meat and the veggies. Slice chicken into 1/2 inch thick shreds or 1/2 inch cubes. Mix with soy sauce, rice wine and cornstarch marinade and let sit 10 mins.
Wash and deseed bell peppers. Cut into thin slices lengthwise. Wash boy choy, then separate the leaves. Wash water chestnuts. Use knife to slice off skin, being careful of fingers. Dice to small cubes. Wash mushroom caps and slice to proper size for pizza topping.
Prepare the aromatics. Peel and mince the garlic. Wash and then cut the roots off the spring onion. Slice into 1 inch pieces. Peel and then slice the fresh ginger to very, very thin matchsticks. Soak in cool water for 10 mins before draining. Use scissors to cut the dried chili pepper into rings, discarding the stem.
Make Gong Bao stir fry sauce by mixing sugar, cornstarch, dark and light soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil together.
Preheat the oven to 450°F (232°C). If you use a pizza stone (I love mine!) remember to put it in before heating the oven.
Take one dough ball out and, on a lightly floured 12 by 12 inch piece of baking paper, press out with hands or rolling pin to a 10 inch circle, leaving a slightly thicker 1/2 inch edge all around. Sprinkle the edge with flour for a nice finish.
Brush dough lightly with olive oil, excepting the 1/2 inch edge border. Brush with Gong Bao stir fry sauce, enough to coat well. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the cheese. Top with 1/4 of chicken pieces, evenly spaced. Add 1/4 of the bell peppers, bok choy, water chestnuts and mushrooms evenly over the pizza dough.
Evenly sprinkle 1/4 of the aromatics: minced garlic, spring onions, ginger matchsticks, dried chili pepper rings and dried szechuan peppers. Sprinkle 1/4 of the peanuts all around. Drizzle Gong Bao stir fry sauce generously over everything.
Use a pizza peel if you have one or just a chopping board with a handle to insert under the pizza, baking paper and all. Slide pizza with the paper from paddle onto oven shelf or pizza stone.
Bake 15-20 mins or until pizza crust is golden and chicken is cooked. Use peel to remove pizza from oven. (Tip: you can pull the baking paper to help shift the pizza out, the paper won't be hot!) Let cool for a couple of mins then slice into 6-8 slices. Enjoy!
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