Clean Eating's Chicken Pizza with Mushrooms and Arugula

I'm reading a book called Taste What You're Missing; The Passionate Eater's Guide to Why Food Tastes So Good.  The book is long, and I'm probably only 1/4th of the way into it, but I've already learned so much.  I'll dedicate an entire post on it one of these days, because it's that good, and fascinating.  I've come to the conclusion that I am slightly addicted to one taste; umami, or "savory" (if you love mushrooms and nutritional yeast, you may be too).  Here I thought it might be sweet or even bitter tastes I loved most (I enjoy bitter pale ales, very much, and I could literally eat buttercream frosting all day long) but no, it's umami.  This pizza recipe called for two sources umami; parmesan and crimini mushrooms.  I sometimes find Clean Eating Magazine's recipes to be too "clean" for my liking, so I jazz them up a bit (yes, it's true, sometimes they are too bland for me, what can I say?!). In this case I added more umami taste to enhance the flavor, in the form of extra mushrooms (that's clean....right?) and parmesan (ok, more cheese probably isn't the most healthy idea, but to be fair this recipe called for 1 Tablespoon, ONE TBSP!!! Yes, you read that right. That's absurd. Who wouldn't add more?!)

Chicken Pizza with Mushrooms and Arugula

Source: Clean Eating Magazine

Servings: 4

Ingredients

Olive oil cooking spray

2 bone-in skinless chicken breasts

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

2 tsp. olive oil

8 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced **

2 cloves garlic, chopped **

12 oz. frozen (or fresh) whole wheat pizza dough, thawed **

2 cups arugula

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp. dried oregano

Fresh ground black pepper

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mist a large baking sheet with cooking spray.  Place chicken on sheet and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Bake until cooked through, 25-30 minutes; set aside to cool.

2.  Keep oven at 400 degrees.  In a large skillet heat olive oil on medium high heat.  Add mushrooms, and garlic cloves and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are softened and start releasing liquid; set aside.

3.  With a rolling pin, pizza dough into 1/2-inch thick circle or rectangle.  Coat a separate large baking sheet with cooking spray and transfer dough to sheet. With a fork, shred shicken meat from bone into 2-inch pieces.  Top dough with 2 cups arugula, chicken, mushroom-garlic mixture and parmesan cheese.  Sprinkle with oregano and season with fresh ground pepper, to taste.  Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until edges are golden brown.

**NOTE:  If you are following a low FODMAPs diet you may want to omit the mushrooms and replace them with another lower FODMAPs vegetable, such as green or red pepper.  Also, use a gluten free pizza crust (although some people may be able to tolerate 1 small piece of whole wheat crust).

Still not very cheesy, but yet this pizza was fantastic.

Full of umami, savory, goodness.

Estimated Nutrition Facts for 1/4th of pizza
Source: CalorieCount.com

Nutrition Highlights:  Under 350 calories, good source of calcium and fiber, excellent source of protein.

QUESTION:  Tell me, what's your favorite pizza topping?  Other than mushrooms (which I can't eat in endless amounts, sadly) I would say green and black olives are my favorite pizza toppings. Oh, and tomatoes. Is that weird?


What are your plans for the Fourth of July?  My parents are having a party, of sorts, so of course Nick and I are going to be crashing it.  Why not, right?  They live really close to the local fireworks so we'll get to walk down the road and watch the beauty in the sky.  I just hope it doesn't rain all day. That would be a serious bummmmmmmmer.  Happy Birthday America!

Thanks for reading!

The Candid Rd