I’ve always wanted to try making pizza on the grill. I just needed an excuse to do it. Today is the day, a beautiful bluebird 27C day and a preference not to turn on the oven.
I defrosted the leftovers from my last pizza party – one piece of dough, caramelized onions and tandoori chicken. Prep the chicken, onions, and mayo before grilling.
Tandoori Chicken
This recipe is adapted from the book Simply More Indian by Tahera Rawji. It is actually part of the butter chicken recipe, but I omitted the sauce ingredients and adapted the instructions.
2 lb boneless chicken pieces
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp tumeric
1 tbs tandoori powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbs ghee or oil
1/4 C crispy fried onions (buy at an Indian grocer)
1 C warm water
Cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes. Combine the ginger and garlic pastes, chili powder, tumeric, tandoori powder and salt. Toss this mixture with the chicken in a plastic bag and let sit for 30 minutes in the fridge.
In a large, deep, saucepan (dutch oven works well), melt the ghee over medium high heat. Add the crispy fried onions and the chicken. Saute the chicken until browned, about 5-8 minutes. Add the warm water and simmer for 15 minutes, until the chicken is tender. Let the chicken cool, and pour into a strainer to remove any excess liquid. This will make more than enough for one pizza. I suggest freezing the remainder.
Caramelized Onions
I love caramelized onions and usually double or triple the recipe to save for other uses.
Slice a large yellow onion into 1/2 inch rings. In a heavy bottomed pan, (Dutch oven is great), heat 1/4C oil suitable for high heat such as ghee or grapeseed oil. Saute the onions on medium until they turn golden brown. This may take at least 20 minutes. Take off heat and cool.
Mango Chutney
I cheated and used some store bough Patak’s chutney. I used about 1/2 the 250 ml jar.
Curry Mayo
2 tbs plain yogurt
1 tbs mayonnaise
1 tsp curry powder, to taste
Mix all three ingredients together. The colour should be a slight tinge of yellow. Add more curry powder to taste.
Pizza Dough
Use whichever pizza dough recipe suits your fancy. I froze my dough before proofing, so I let it sit on the counter in a large zipper bag for an hour.
I stretched it out, and it was round when it hit the cookie sheet. I basted olive oil on the top and tried to pick it up and put it on the grill. Unfortunately, it stretched and turned into sort of an oval. The temp was less than 500F but I had to reduce the cooking time as it was already starting to brown. The olive oil and the grill marks make for a satisfyingly crisp crust. Next time I will just do flatbreads using the pizza crust. So good! Or maybe naan…
Back to the recipe. After the first flip, I slathered on the chutney, followed by the chicken, and then the caramelized onions. Do not put on the mayo!
I followed the instructions from The Kitchn for grilling.
After taking it off the grill and cutting for serving, top off with the curry mayo to your own taste. Delicious!
