Hatch Chile Pepperoni Pizza

Check it out: my first time making pizza from scratch! I've been wanting to dive into the pizza-making world for the longest time, but anyone who follows this blog regularly knows my oven is capricious on a good day, homicidal on its worst. The oven doesn't even go up to 500°F that is usually recommended. I even bought a Boboli pre-made crust as emergency backup, that's how much I feared this endeavor.

But I had to try this combination of toppings. I have heard so much about delicious green chile pizzas in New Mexico I knew that it was worth a try to create at home, even with zero pizza skills. With Hatch chile season going strong, it was a man-up moment.

Of course, I had a little bit of trepidation with the dough. I obviously did not use nearly enough flour, made the rookie mistake of not picking the dough up and loosening it after spreading and before applying toppings, and as a result my pizza stuck rather badly to the sheet and my nice thin round pizza ended up being thick and crumpled because I needed a spatula to pry it off onto the pizza stone.

Also, I don't have a pizza peel, or even an rimless baking sheet. In fact, I have one baking sheet to my name, and I'm pretty sure it's older than me. So I flipped it over and used the bottom to spread my dough out. Which in retrospect was a dumb idea, because the 1" sides made it elevated above the pizza stone and my dough crumpled even more when transferring because of it, and the toppings fell off a bit.

I possibly shouldn't go on and on about my lack of pizza-making skills on my own blog. I should pretend that I wanted my pizza to look rustically handmade/asymmetrical and I wanted my pizza to have a thick crust.

Whatever. It still tasted amazing, and both the Bro-chi and Mr. Mochi were very impressed with my first attempt. The pizza was gobbled up in seconds, and I plan on stealing a rimless from my mother to perfect my technique. Just goes to show you can make a great tasting pizza that isn't very pretty, so don't fret if yours doesn't look perfect. If you're serving guests, just pretend that's what you were going for.

For this recipe, I used roasted green chiles, because I wanted them to almost melt into the cheese, but if you want a bit of crispness you can use fresh as well. This particular combination of green chiles and pepperoni is called a "Roadrunner" Pizza

I always cut my pepperonis into quarters, I think it makes the pizza easier to eat because you don't bite into a large slice of pepperoni and end up pulling off all the toppings in one go.

Even after all that, I had so much fun eating this pizza I am grabbing a rimless baking sheet and making another pizza this week. I seriously want a baking steel, because this borrowed stone is too small for a 12" pizza. I'm hooked on making pizzas, and cannot wait to make this again (especially so I can take better pictures!)


The Roadrunner: Hatch Chile Pepperoni Pizza

1 lbs of your favorite pizza dough (I used the sauce and dough from here)
1/2 cup of your favorite pizza sauce
1-3 tbs diced Hatch chile, depending on how spicy your individual peppers are
1 cup of shredded low moisture mozzarella cheese
10 pepperonis, cut into quarters

To remove extra oil from the pepperoni, you can either pour boiling water over them and then drain after a minute, or simmer for 4 minutes in a skillet with 1/2 cup of water. Dry thoroughly before placing on your pizza.

Preheat oven to 450°F, unless your oven goes up to 500°F or even 550°F then preheat to that and I'm jealous of you. Place your oven rack on the highest rack available, and if you are using a pizza stone, slide that puppy in. If no stone, use a rimless baking sheet instead. Make sure to do this at least 25 minutes before putting your pizza on.

Do as I say and not as I do: Flour both the ball and your work area with several pinches of flour. Either use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and shape your dough ball into an approximate 12-13" pizza, making sure that the edges are slightly thicker than the middle. Transfer your pizza dough to either a pizza peel or a rimless baking sheet that is dusted with several generous pinches of flour or cornmeal.

Spread the sauce, leaving a 1/2" border. Sprinkle with mozzarella, and distribute the pepperoni and hatch chiles evenly over the cheese.

Transfer your pizza from your peel to the stone. Depending on how hot your oven can get, it will take around 8-9 minutes at 550°F and 12-14 minutes at 500°F to cook. Because my apartment is cheap and crappy, and my pizza was thick, mine took around 18 minutes.

See Also:
Hatch Chile Apricot Jelly
Hatch Chile & Smoked Cheddar Cornsticks
Hatch Chile Jelly