PW Wednesdays: Carnitas pizza

This pizza is a carnivore’s dream. It’s well documented on here that I eat meat, but it’s not like I need it in every meal. If I saw a pizza like this on a menu in a restaurant it probably would be one of the last things I’d pick and yet, for some reason, it spoke to me from the cookbook. So welcome to the PW Wednesday that I chose, carnitas pizza!

I’m going to preface this post by telling you that it’s highly likely I will end up using words that usually make me cringe. Words that are thrown around on the internet far too much and make you wonder if those people are really as flaky as they make themselves sound online. Words like epic. Words like amazeballs. Words like nom nom. Ok, just kidding, I will never use nom nom. Unless I’m making fun of someone for saying it.

Guys, this pizza was flippin EPIC (that didn’t take long).

Let me give you a glimpse of how it all starts.

What do you get when you combine one big ass piece of chuck roast + some pineapple juice and 4 hours in the oven?

Pure freakin bliss.

That meat with those juices was the seriously the most amazingly flavorful thing I’ve ever tasted. The recipe calls for a 3-4 pound roast. The pizza takes maybe a pound at most. One might think that’s wasteful. Don’t be so foolish, make the extra. You’ll want it, believe me. I know some of the other girls used broth and did this in slow cooker. You can read their experiences below, but I highly, highly recommend the juice. The pineapple flavor was the perfect sweetener and flavor combined with the roast.

Ok, so step 1 done.

On to the pizza.

Hi, my name is Gina and I can’t roll pizza dough for crap.

I used Ree’s pizza dough recipe in the book and in defense of my rolling skills (or lack thereof), it came out weird. Yes, it rose but it just looked and felt weird texture wise. I don’t know if it was my yeast or if that’s the way it’s intended, but it was funky and definitely not like ordinary pizza dough.

Regardless, it got layered with tomatillo salsa, mozzarella, sauteed peppers and onions and went into the oven.

Despite my doubts on the dough, it turned out thin, crispy and beyond delicious.

I took pretty pictures in the natural light and counted the minutes until Ulysses got home so we could eat it. That wasn’t torturous at all.

Oh, and I made Ree’s mango margaritas with a couple of twists too at 12:30pm on a Friday, adding to the torturous wait. And yes, I waited. I might work from home but I didn’t think my client would appreciate my buzzed banter on our 3:30 phone call. I sorta still need my day job.

I texted Ulysses pictures to lure him into coming home early. It sort of worked if you consider “early” the time he’s supposed to actually get home, but never does.

He walked in the door, we drank margaritas and didn’t speak but to say, no less than 5 times, how unreal this pizza was. When I felt bad about eating a third slice, I picked at the leftover meat sans crust instead and had to have it physically removed from the front of my face. These last few days with the leftovers have proven one thing about me. Apparently, I have absolutely no self control when it comes to a good piece of meat, (twss intended) you’ll see what I mean tomorrow.

For other epic carnitas pizzaness check out these girls posts.

Tina – My Life as a Mrs.

Rachel – Baked by Rachel

Julie – Table for Two

Megan – Wanna be a Country Cleaver (who’s also hosting the mango margaritas this week. Wednesday’s are the new Friday. Obvi.)

Other PW Wednesday Posts:

Swiss mushroom sliders

Fried chicken tacos

5.0 from 3 reviews

Carnitas Pizza

 

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Prep time

25 mins

Cook time

4 hours 15 mins

Total time

4 hours 40 mins

 

Author: Ree Drummond

Recipe type: pizza

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3-4lbs. chuck roast
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 12oz. cans pineapple, papaya or mango juice
• 1 recipe for pizza dough
• olive oil, for drizzling
• 1 cup jarred tomatillo salsa, plus more for serving
• 12 ounces fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
• 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced and sauteed until golden
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced and sauteed until golden
• 3 green onions, sliced
• sour cream, for serving (optional)
• guacamole, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Mix the chili powder, cumin, oregano & salt in a small bowl.
3. Rub the spice mixture on both sides of the roast.
4. Heat the canola oil in a large pot over high heat, then sear both sides of the roast until nice and brown, about 2 minutes per side.
5. Pour the juice into the pot with the meat.
6. Cover and roast for about 4 hours, until falling apart.
7. Use 2 forks to shred the meat then return to the juices.
8. Roll out pizza dough into a thin rectangle.
9. Drizzle baking sheet with olive oil and transfer dough to the baking sheet.
10. Spread tomatillo salsa thinly all over dough.
11. Lay mozzarella slices next, then yellow onion and pepper.
12. Bake pizza for 12-15 minutes (*book does not say at what temperature-I did 500 degrees as that’s what her other pizza recipes said)
13. Lay the warm shredded meat on top, making sure to get plenty of the juices on as well.
14. Sprinkle with sliced green onions and slice into pieces.

Notes

Cook and prep times are my own, it’s not noted in the book.

2.2.6

Tagged as: peppers, pineapple, pizza, PW Wednesday