Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza

Friday night is pizza night at our house. This has been a tradition for our family for a while now...at least a year or more. I make a couple pizzas then we plop in front of the TV and watch AFV or Wipeout or a family movie we've gotten from Netflix. It's something fun we all look forward to, and my oldest likes to help make the pizza, too. For the longest time I made a crust recipe I found in the Tightwad Gazette, but about a month ago, I ran out of yeast, and our grocery store no longer sold the 1 pound vacuum sealed bags. I had to buy one of those little 4 oz jars, and it was so expensive! I decided to try out other recipes that used less yeast. My go-to recipe from Tightwad Gazette used 2 Tbsp of yeast for 2 pizzas, and my current recipe uses 2 1/4 tsp for 2 pizzas. So much better.

The texture between the doughs is quite different. The quick 2 Tbsp recipe is much more bready while the 2 1/4 tsp recipe is chewy and comparable to carry-out pizza. They're both very yummy. When making this first recipe, I would start mixing dough about 1 hour before I wanted to start eating. When making the new recipe, I need to have the dough mixed and rising about 2 1/2 hours before I want to be eating. Okay. Enough. Here are the dough recipes:

Quick Pizza Dough (yields 2 pizzas)
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 Tbsp yeast
2 tsp sugar
4 cups flour
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
2 Tbsp olive oil
~1 cup lukewarm water

Combine water, yeast, and sugar and let sit for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast is foamy. Mix together flour, salt, seasonings, and olive oil in a medium bowl. Add yeast mixture. Slowly mix in enough water to form a soft, smooth dough. Divide into 2 equal pieces, place on greased pizza pans, cover, and let rise for about 10 minutes, or as long as it takes to get all your pizza toppings together. Roll out your dough and top with your favorite sauce and toppings. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

Now this is my new recipe from Annie's Eats:

Technical difficulties. For an odd reason, I can't copy and paste the recipe. Well, just click on the Annie's Eats link and it will take you there. If you're familiar with her blog at all, you'll know that she has some really tasty recipes and knows what she's talking about. She gives some good tips like weighing the flour instead of just measuring with a cup. Do it. And brushing the crust with olive oil. Do it. I know I should preheat my pizza stone, but I don't. You should. Do it.

Now as the title suggests, here is how I do my Chicken Bacon Ranch pizza (yum!)

Ingredients:
Ranch dressing
chicken, cubed and cooked (I like to season it with garlic salt and pepper)
2 strips bacon, cooked and chopped
1 green onion, slices
about 2/3 of a tomato, chopped
mozzarella cheese

Layer it all on to your heart's content. I do sauce then cheese, chicken, bacon, onions, tomatoes, then a little more cheese. Yum.