Sunday, May 31, 2015

Chicken Pad Thai Pizza


Here I am, enjoying Bangkok's amazing street food scene that rivals that of Mexico City.
สวัสดี! My four hour “flight” from New Delhi to Bangkok got me to Thailand around 1 p.m. local time, so I was starving for some lunch when I “arrived.”

And what immediately comes to everyone’s minds when they think of Thai food? Pad thai (ผัดไทย), of course, a stir-fried rice noodle dish filled with a multitude of flavorful ingredients and toppings. Thai cuisine is known for its complexity, variety, and depth of flavor, and sweet, spicy, sour, savory pad thai reflects all of those elements.

Pad thai is often served out of street stalls in the streets of Bangkok, which has a strong street food culture similar to Mexico City's. Therefore, I thought yet again about the ideas of ease and efficiency. How can I make my pad thai better suited to a quick, on-the-go lunch? Well, a favorite, portable lunch in America (and in Italy) is pizza. You guessed it; we’re making fusion food again!

For my tasty Thai lunch, I decided to take all of the classic pad thai elements and put them on a pizza (yes, even the noodles)! Haven’t you ever had spaghetti pizza? Not only is my pizza topped with a traditional chicken pad thai stir fry and all of its garnishes, but its base is also influenced by another popular Thai flavor—instead of tomato sauce, I spread spicy peanut sauce on the pizza dough. I hope you enjoy my unique, mouth-watering chicken pad thai pizza!

This is the end of my three-week edible adventure; now I'm headed home to Philadelphia. But I won't stop "traveling" through cooking, so keep up with my blog for some weekend trips "abroad" this summer!

Pad thai pizza:

2 chicken breasts

½ lb rice noodles
1 egg
2 cloves garlic
1 medium carrot
1 red pepper
1 tbsp cilantro

½ cup tamarind paste
OR
½ cup lime juice and 3 tbsps brown sugar
2 tbsps fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp water
2 tsps cornstarch

½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup hoisin sauce
¼ cup canola oil
2 tbsps soy sauce
2 tbsps water
1 tbsp honey

2 1lb balls of store-bought pizza dough

3 cups mozzarella

½ cup bean sprouts
¼ cup crushed peanuts
2 tbsps green onion
1 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsps cilantro
2 tbsps Thai chili sauce or sriracha

1. First, prepare all the ingredients that will go in the pad thai stir fry. Sauté the chicken and cut it into bite-sized pieces, julienne the carrot and pepper, mince the garlic, chop the cilantro, and crack and beat the egg. Then, cook the noodles in boiling water for 4 minutes. Immediately drain them, and rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking process.

2. While the noodles are cooking, whisk together the tamarind paste (or the lime juice/brown sugar substitute), fish sauce, soy sauce, and water, and cook it in a wok with the cornstarch to thicken it.

3. Then, mix in the noodles, carrot, pepper, and garlic, and toss to coat everything with the sauce. Once this mixture has cooked for a few minutes, make a well in the middle and add the egg. Let it cook, then toss to combine it with the rest of the pad thai. Stir in the cilantro, and take it off the heat.

4. Make the peanut sauce that will be the base of the pizza by combining the peanut butter, hoisin sauce, oil, soy sauce, water, and honey in a food processor.

5. Roll out the dough into two large rectangles on a floured surface, then place them on two lightly greased baking sheets.

6. Cover the dough with the peanut sauce, then spread ½ cup of mozzarella on each pizza. Put ½ of the pad thai noodle mixture onto each pizza, then put 1 cup of the remaining mozzarella on top of the two pizzas. Bake the pizzas at 425 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.

7. When the pizzas come out of the oven, top them with a drizzle of chili sauce, a squeeze of lime juice, crushed peanuts, bean sprouts, green onion, and cilantro. Use a pizza cutter to cut slices (or leave it as one big slice for you and only you!). สนุก!



1 comment:

  1. I just ADORE this blog! Delicious Dougherty you are such a star and your passion for food and "travel" really stands out to me. I can tell you love cooking and going on these amazing food "trips." This pad thai pizza has really inspired me to create a pizza with my favorite food on top: mac and cheese! Hope to see you posting again soon after this 4 year hiatus!

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