Cooking for Beginners: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

For a beginners recipe, this got a bit more detailed than I intended but it still turned out really good so I thought it was worth it.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Servings: 2 pizzas, 16 slices 

Ingredients:
1 package chicken tenders (I forgot to include these in the picture)
1 package pre-made pizza crust
Jar of pizza sauce (we used Ragu)
mozzarella cheese
hot sauce
garlic powder
honey
oregano
crushed red pepper
black pepper
butter (not pictured)





Buffalo Chicken:
1. Put the chicken tenders into a large zip lock bag.
2. Add 1/2 cup hot sauce, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, and 1 tbs. honey into the bag.
3. Squeeze the air out of the bag, seal, and squeeze chicken around until it is all coated with the ingredients.
4. Marinate for 15-20 minutes.

Cooking the Chicken:
1. Once marinated, heat a large skillet (bigger than the one I used, preferably) over medium-high heat and add the chicken.
2. Cook for 5-7 minutes on each side or until the chicken is lightly browned and cooked through.

3. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let cool for 5 minutes or until its cooled enough to handle.
4. Shred the chicken. I used my fingers for this and just pull it apart into small pieces.

Making the Buffalo Sauce
1. Melt 2/3 cup butter in a microwave safe bowl. Add 1/3 to 2/3 (depending on how much heat you like) of hot sauce to the butter and stir to combine.

Preparing the Pizza:
1. Preheat the oven to the temperature suggested on the pizza dough. Mine said 450. It also said to brush some olive oil onto the dough, which we did as well, but its not a necessary step. If you choose to do this, I used about 1/2 tsp. on each.
2. Spread the pizza sauce over the dough to your liking.
3. Season with garlic, oregano and crushed red pepper flakes. (optional)

4. Add 1-2 cups of mozzarella cheese.
5. In another small bowl, add half of the chicken and half of the buffalo sauce. Using your fingers or a fork, mix to coat the chicken.

6. Spread the chicken over the cheese and repeat on the other crust.

7. Bake the pizza for the amount of time directed on the pizza dough. Mine said 7-10 minutes, but it took about 12 minutes before the cheese was fully melted and the crusted started to brown.

8. Cut and enjoy!