This fennel chicken sausage pizza is brought to you by my cast iron skillet. Make this fennel chicken sausage pizza for your next night in! The cast iron skillet gives the perfect browning to the crust and makes for an easy clean up!
I bought my cast iron about 2 years ago and I can honestly say I never used to use it. Sure, its got its drawbacks.. the fact that its big and clunky, difficult to clean and high maintenance given the fact you have to 'season it'.
But all that aside, its a pretty good kitchen workhorse once you get the hang of it.
I mean look at this crust...
Cast iron skillets provide such a good sear on food and the more it is 'seasoned' the better it gets. Cast iron skillets are also versatile and pretty inexpensive. I got mine off amazon for about $20 but you might have some luck finding one at garage sale this summer.
Enough about that, lets move onto the ZAA!
Whole wheat crust[/caption]
Fennel Chicken Sausage Pizza
Tis' the season for fennel and I cannot get enough of it. Not only is fennel tasty but it is high in vitamin C and potassium. It also contains phytonutrients which act as anti-oxidants and help reduce inflammation and some studies have shown it to prevent cancer.
Most sausage recipes have fennel seeds in them but I added more to this dish to really give it a good punch of anise. If you are looking for another use of fennel it is great to be used in a slaw for salmon burgers!
I used chicken sausage for this recipe because personally, I don't like to eat a lot of red meat. I will save that conversation for another post.
This fennel chicken sausage pizza is a great go-to for your next night and is way healthier than any delivery or frozen pizza.
Hope you guys enjoy this cast iron skillet pizza on your next night in, cheers!
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Fennel Chicken Sausage Pizza
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 2 1x
Description
Make this pizza your next night in! The cast iron skillet gives the perfect browning to the crust and makes for an easy clean up! | Mealswithmaggie.com
Ingredients
- 6 oz chicken sausage
- 10 oz pizza dough, at room temperature
- ¼ cup goat cheese, crumbled
- ¼ cup chopped asparagus (mine was pre-cooked)
- ¼ cup pizza sauce
- 4 tbsp oil, divided (I used avocado and EVOO)
- 1 tbsp cornmeal
- 1 tsp fennel
- ½ tsp salt
- Torn basil
- crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- Extra parmesan or asiago for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 475 and place cast iron skillet on oven rack to heat up ( this essentially acts as a pizza stone).
- While oven is preheating, take pizza dough on working surface and flour so it doesn't stick. Use some of your oil ( I used extra virgin here) to oil up the dough and form into a 10 inch round or just enough to fit inside your cast iron.
- Remove skillet from oven ( CAREFULLY!). Pour 1 tbsp of avocado oil in cast iron and turn heat up to medium high.
- Take chicken sausage and remove casing so it becomes ground. Sauté in cast iron skillet until no longer pink in the middle. Turn off heat from burner.Remove sausage from skillet and place into a separate bowl.
- Sprinkle your salt and cornmeal to the bottom of your skillet. Then place the dough in the skillet and make sure it touches the edges. This will brown the bottom of your dough and should take about 3-4 minutes.
- While the dough is browning, start to assemble your pizza. Add the pizza sauce, cheese, fennel, asparagus and sausage to your pizza.
- Place cast iron skillet back into oven and bake for 13-15 minutes or until dough is cooked through and brown on the edges.
- Drizzle 2 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil, crushed red pepper flakes and torn basil to top.
- Wait about 5 minutes so you don't burn the roof of your mouth and enjoy!
Notes
- I trialed this with both white dough and whole wheat. No surprise that the whole wheat dough will be a bit tougher of a dough.
- I used Italian chicken sausage.
- This recipe is pretty flexible so if you don't have goat cheese- mozzarella, parmesan or asiago would work well!
- As I stated above, I really like fennel, if you aren't sure I would adjust the amount to ½ tsp of fennel.
- Prep Time: 8 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Saute/Bake
- Cuisine: Italian
My husband and i made this this past weekend and LOVED it. We did not cook the asparagus before hand but it cooked just fine once it went in the oven with the pizza!