Personal White Chicken Pizzas

This week, I had grand plans to feature two dishes that resulted from buying a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. This is a trick I use often...it's a great short cut for having meat on hand for salads, sandwiches, soups, you name it. However, my grand plans were cut short by a power outage that lasted for nearly 36 hours, making the leftover shredded chicken I planned to use to make soup inedible.

So instead of two recipes, I can only offer you one for this week. But this one is a great option for those who want to make a lot of something and then freeze a portion for later. I used this recipe to make several individual pizzas, many of which I have frozen for later. And in case you were wondering, they were salvaged, along with a 3 pound piece of pork shoulder, and transferred to a neighbor's freezer for safe keeping until my power came back on.

At this time, I have yet to test how well these frozen pizzas do, but I'm confident in the instructions in Cooking Light that they will be wonderful. I'm including the recipe to make these but also the instructions on how to prepare for freezing.

Personal White Chicken Pizzas (makes 12 personal pizzas)

Ingredients:

30 oz. refrigerated fresh pizza dough, divided

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1 tsp. crushed red pepper

8 garlic cloves, crushed

4 thyme sprigs

4 cups 2% reduced-fat milk

1 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt

4 tsp. cider vinegar

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

12 oz. shredded cooked chicken breast

6.5 oz. preshredded reduced-fat 4-cheese Italian-blend cheese (about 1 2/3 cups)

3 oz. fresh part-skim mozzarella cheese, torn into small pieces

2 TB fresh thyme leaves

1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup small fresh basil leaves

Directions:

Place a pizza stone or heavy baking sheet in oven. Preheat oven to 450° (keep pizza stone or baking sheet in oven as it preheats).

Let pizza dough rest, covered, at room temperature as oven preheats.

Combine oil, basil, red pepper, garlic and thyme  in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook 4 minutes or until garlic begins to brown, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes. Strain mixture through a fine sieve over a small bowl; discard solids.

Combine milk, yogurt, and vinegar in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH for 6 minutes. Gently stir to form small curds. Strain curds through a fine sieve; let stand 5 minutes. Discard liquid. Combine oil mixture, cheese curds, and salt, stirring gently.

Divide dough into 12 equal pieces (about 2.5 ounces each). Roll each piece into a 6-inch circle on a lightly floured surface (keep dough covered with a damp towel to prevent drying). Spread about 1 1/2 tablespoons oil mixture over each pizza, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Divide chicken, Italian-blend cheese, and mozzarella cheese evenly among pizzas; sprinkle evenly with thyme leaves and black pepper. Carefully remove pizza stone from oven. Arrange 3 to 4 pizzas on pizza stone.

Bake at 450° for 8 minutes or until dough is golden and cheese browns. Repeat procedure with remaining pizzas, or follow freezing instructions. Sprinkle pizzas evenly with fresh basil leaves.

TO FREEZE: Bake pizzas on preheated stone for only 5 minutes. Cool; wrap individually in heavy-duty foil, stack, and freeze up to 2 months.

TO REHEAT: No thawing: Place frozen pizzas on a baking sheet that's not preheated; bake at 450° for 13 minutes or until cheese browns.