Buffalo wings are a game night staple- and rightly so! But everything is improved with pizza so we set about working on this Detroit style buffalo chicken pizza.
Buffalo Chicken Detroit Style Pizza
Spicy charred meat, incredible blue cheese sauce- all present and correct as you would expect- but taken to the next level when paired with this incredible Detroit dough.
[start]
1. For the Dough;
– Place the water and yeast in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment and begin to mix on the lowest speed.
– Gradually add the flours while continuously mixing and scraping the dough down the side of the bowl as required. Once you have added around 2/3rds of the flours, add the salt before adding the remaining flours and mixing for around 3 minutes.
– Turn the mixer off and leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes.
– Mix for a final 30 seconds to bring the dough back together before transferring to a large oiled container, covering with a lid or cling film/shrink wrap and leaving to ferment at room temperature for 24 hours.
2. For the Chicken legs;
– Combine the spices in a bowl and mix together before rubbing all over the chicken legs.
– Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
3. For the Blue Cheese sauce;
– Pop all the ingredients into a small blender and whizz briefly till smooth.
– Transfer to a squirty bottle and keep refrigerated until required.
4. The next day…
– Remove the fermented dough from the tub onto a clean work surface and split in half. Set one half aside (you can put into the fridge to use the following day or cook 2 pizzas should you have two trays) and place the other half in an oiled 8’x10′ Detroit style pan.
– Gently push and stretch the dough towards the corners of the pan (don’t be worried if it doesn’t quite reach the corners yet, you can stretch it now and again during its proofing time) cover, and leave at room temperature for 2-3 hours before baking.
– Just before you’re ready to bake the pizza, you’ll need to cook the chicken legs. Ensure Roccbox is preheated to 350ªC/660°F and turn the flame down to its lowest setting before preheating a cast iron pan in the oven for a minute or 2.
– Once the pan is warm, rub the meat with a little oil before popping the legs skin side down into the warm pan and returning it to Roccbox to cook for around 4 minutes.
– Flip the legs over and cook them skin side up for a final minute before leaving to one side to rest.
– Once the dough is proven, it’s (finally!) time to bake our pizza!
– Ensure the hot Roccbox has its flame turned down to its lowest setting before popping the un-topped Detroit pizza into the front third of Roccbox (it’s important to ensure the entire bake takes place in this front third- too far back in the oven and you’ll burn the pizza!) and par-bake for 2 minutes, rotating halfway through.
– Working quickly, remove the pizza from the oven and sprinkle over the cheeses before returning the pizza to bake for a further 6 minutes rotating regularly.
– During this final bake time, slice the chicken legs and, when the 6 minutes is up, lay the sliced meat over the top of the pizza, turn Roccbox off completely and allow the pan to sit in the cooling oven for 2-3 minutes.
– Remove the pizza from the tray and drizzle with blue cheese sauce, hot sauce and the celery leaves before portioning up and eating!
[end]Ingredients
For the Dough;
310g 00 Flour
310g Bread Flour
440g Water
4g Fresh Yeast
15g Salt
For the Chicken;
1 Tsp Soft Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Celery Saly
Pinch each of Cayenne Pepper, Onion Powder and Garlic Powder
2 Chicken Legs, boned out with skin still on
For the Blue Cheese Sauce;
200g Sour Cream
100g Buttermilk
100g Blue Cheese (such as gorgonzola)
70g Low Moisture Mozzarella, diced or grated
70g Jack Cheese, diced or grated
40g Blue Cheese
Small handful of celery leaves
Hot sauce (we liked to use Franks)