Malaysian Chicken - Part II

[Holly in KC]

Okay - I know another thread has already been started on this recipe, but I can't seem to post a reply. And - since I have this need to share my opinions with y'all :D , I'm starting a new thread.

Another thumbs up here!

My only changes: used 1/2 the sugar (as suggested), subbed 1/4 t galangal for the fresh ginger (lazy + i thought it sounded interesting), and used (gasp :o ) refrigerated pizza crust.

I was very worried SO wouldn't like it. He had been skeptical all day - nearly suggested we go out to dinner instead. One bite, and HE LOVED IT!!! Yippee! If you like different flavor combinations - sweet, spicy, peanutty & sour - you'll like this one.

Next time: use a pizza stone to crisp it up a bit, and add red bell peppers per JeAnne's suggestion.

[MKSquared]

This pizza has put me at my wits end! When I saw the recipe, I thought it looked amazing: I love all those flavors.

So ... I made the pizza crust. It looked beautiful until I tried to roll it out. I made a rectangle - it wouldn't go into a circle. I made one dough for BF, one for me.

MINE:
Tried the Malaysian Chicken pizza. The sauce never thickened -- I let it boil for abou 15 minutes! It never, ever, EVER acheived anything close to syrup. I tried putting it on the crust, just not using as much. It boiled over the sides, onto the pan it was on, overflowed the pan and landed on BF's pizza and the bottom of my oven. I gave the pizza a try, anyway. The chicken was rubbery. The sauce was burnt. And the pizza hadn't cooked for even CLOSE the amount of time the magazine called for. Totally ruined. My house smells like smoke, and I have to go to work tonight - no dinner.

HIS:
Topped with homemade pizza sauce, cheese, pineapple, canadian bacon. First, it wouldn't slide off the back of a cookie sheet that had been dusted with cornmeal. It folded itself onto a preheated pizza stone and I kinda of reshaped it. Then, it got dripped on. And now, it's slightly burnt and it's stuck to the stone.

I am just FURIOUS right now and I don't want anythign to do with my kitchen. Unfortunately, the smoke-filled apartment reminds me that everything was for naught.

[LaraW]

Mary Kate, I am sorry your pizza was a disaster. :( ((hug))

We had this for dinner tonight. I made this with 1/2 the sugar called for since I've seen several reviews that said to do that. I didn't think that there was quite enough sauce. Maybe my crust was bigger than the recipe called for.

Mary Kate, do you pre-cook your crust? I had nothing but problems when I did not do that. I just pop it into the oven for about 2-3 min just enough to let the crust set up on the stone. Then I pull it out of the oven and top it with my toppings.

Lara

[Tizzylish]

Mary Kate, I'm sorry to hear your pizza didn't turn out. :(

I made this last night and it was fantastic! I made the recipe exactly the way it was printed for the sugar (we have a sweet tooth) :D but instead of Swiss cheese I used Monterey Jack, we don't care for Swiss, and it was delicious, I also added a few red peppers to mine.! I too was worried about not having enough sauce, I even had my fiance measure the circle to make sure I stretched it out to the right size, but after eating it I realized a little sauce goes along way. It was the best pizza I ever made! ;)

[Abby]

MKSquared - My sauce wouldn't thicken either, so I added a little bit of cornstarch, and it thickened up perfectly. Can't comment on the crust - I used refrigerated (gasp!).

[Jewel]

Mary Kate, you're giving me the shakes! I'm having flashbacks to my pizza disaster from a few months ago while reading your post! :eek: I feel for you Girlfriend!

I still haven't tried this pizza! I want to so bad, but when some of the reviews came back a little strange I chickened out. Now I'm going to have to give it a try. I also think I'm really nervous about using 3/4 cup of VINEGAR in a sauce! :eek:

So is the general opinion that you leave the recipe as it stands in regards to toppings placement or do you all think the sauce should go on first as in a traditional pizza and the cheese next? :confused:

[Molli526]

When I made this, I did put the sauce on top, but I think if you wanted to put it on first, there would be no difference in flavor.

[Holly in KC]

Jewel -

My sauce didn't get overly thick, but I'd say it was about the consistency of a can/jar of pizza sauce. Just be sure to roll up the edges of your pizza crust a bit and you should be fine.

Re: quantity of vinegar. I was also skeptical - but I didn't find the resulting sauce to be too vinegary. I think it's probably because rice vinegar tends to be a little mild. I won't cut back the next time a make it.

[Grace]

I made this too, and just want to comment on the vinegar amount. The sauce recipe is just a homemade barbecue sauce. If you look at the back of a bottle of any barbecue sauce, you will see that the first or second ingredient is vinegar. So if you like barbecue sauce, you will love this sauce. And I personally wouldn't cut down the amount of vinegar. It was perfect, IMO.

[newtricks]

Are we all working off the same recipe? Too funny. My sauce didn't thicken. I didn't use all of it but it still ran off the pizza and burnt on the pan. Grace's post just nailed it for me - I don't love barbecue sauce so this sauce was way too vinegary for me. My crust was great. I put the cheese on first and couldn't even tell it was there, what with all the vinegar and all. Dh wasn't thrilled either.

All that and I still might try it again, just play with it. The peanut/chicken/spicy thing is great.

Barbara

[MKSquared]

Despite my awful experience with the pizza, the sauce was so yummy that I'd be willing -- maybe -- to give it another shot. Actually, I was trying to devise a decent way to use the sauce without dealing with the stinkin' pizza dough. :)

Jewel, the 3/4 cup rice vinegar was a good amount, for my tastes anyway. A warning: my sauce bubbled and foamed while it was (supposedly) reducing. It kept growing and growing and I thought it'd overflow the skillet it was in (ack - a killer souffle!), so keep an eye on it. (BTW, did this happen to anyone else?)

[memartha]

Another disaster here... just tried to make the pizza for lunch. Same problem... the sauce never thickened, and yes, it did keep foaming UP instead of cooking DOWN. Hmmmm. After about 17 minutes I gave up and topped the pizza and put it in the oven. The only substitution I made was using reduced fat peanut butter (it was all I have here). The burned result (with watery topping) is on top of the stove cooling right now. I sent the kids outside so I could fume in private! In a few moments I will see if the edges are edible. Quite the waste of time, unfortunately. Martha

[Jewel]

I had to dig up this thread to say that I made this pizza on Friday night, and with a few modifications, it is now one of our favorite pizzas! :D

I used 3 TBS peanut butter instead of 2, and I used Reduced Fat Jif. I've found that natural peanut butter doesn't 'mix' as well in most recipes so I usually keep a jar 'o Jif around for the cooking stuff. I also used 3/4 tsp of red pepper flakes instead of the 1/2 tsp, and I used my 'coarse ground' pepper flakes that I always keep a supply of. I just put regular flakes through a few spins in my coffee/spice grinder so they're a coarse grind instead of huge flakes. Anyway, my sauce thickened perfectly! After reading that some of you had troubles with the sauce foaming up and not thickening, I was a bit concerned, but mine did fine! I used an 10" nonstick sautee pan and cooked on medium-high for about 7 or 8 minutes and it did foam a bit, but I kept stirring and it kept thickening! In fact, mine started to thicken too much and I had to pull it off the heat or it would have been too gloppy! :eek: I added my chicken and set it aside to cool. I used a bit more cheese than the recipe called for, probably 1 cup of swiss and a half cup of mozzarella. I also added diced red bell peppers and sprinkled both the peppers and the green onions on before the pizza cooked because I didn't want either to be raw. I also prebaked my crust for about 7 minutes so it wouldn't be doughy.

DH was sniffing when he walked in the house saying "Wow, I smell Peanut Butter!" Then he walked in and saw me stirring the chicken/sauce mixture on the stove, then saw the pizza crust on the peel....and did he look confused! :p I told him he was trying another 'alternative pizza' and to keep an open mind. He kept an open mind all right! 3 slices worth! Between the two of us I'm embarrassed to say we inhaled that entire 12" to 13" pizza in one sitting. :o

This one is a keeper...

[mb]

this was a definite keeper in our house.

i haven't been on the boards much, so i didn't read the reviews prior to making it. adding red peppers sounds like a good idea. there weren't really enough 'veggies' on the pizza for me, but it was still really great.

i didn't have a problem reducing the sauce at all. it was very busy foaming and bubbling, but i was busy doing other stuff, so i just gave it a stir every now and then, and it ended up nice and thick after about 15 min boiling. no problems with the vinegar, although the "fumes" coming off the boiling mixture were a bit pungent at times!!!:eek:

i bought dough at the publix (i usually do for making homemade pizza now - all you have to do is let it rest and roll it out) instead of making my own. {for those of you in the south, our publix started selling bags of their own dough. if they don't have it in a little refrigerated section by the bakery, you can just ask them for some. it's pretty good, and easier than making your own!}

my only real modification was adding more cheese than what was called for. i initially put down swiss and a 4-cheese blend (i already had the shreds in my fridge - mont jack, cheddar, american, and ?) after adding the chicken and sauce, i sprinkled some additional mozzarella on top. kinda defeats the purpose of being 'light', but DH really loves cheese. (i am just as guilty though!!!!:D )

anyhow, this rated a 5-star meal at our house. sorry some of you didn't have much luck. :(

marisa :)

[Peggy]

I made this pizza last week, exactly as written, (except I used a Boboli crust) and it was wonderful. My sauce thickened just find, we didn't think it was too sweet and the vinegar flavor was fine. Hmmmm... this seems to be a contraversial recipe just like that lemonade cake last month. A big thumbs up in my house!

Peggy