Day 341 - BBQ Chicken Pizza

As  mentioned elsewhere in this blog, we do not eat a lot of pizza.  When we DO, we often make it ourselves using TJ’s dough ( reviewed here).  But because I wanted to try a product we had not eaten before, I picked up a frozen pizza – TJ’s BBQ Chicken Pizza topped with tangy BBQ sauce, chicken, mozzarella, Gouda, and red onions. 

 

Here's the box.  It is in the frozen food section.

I popped that sucker in the oven the other night when we had some friends from Kansas City staying with us.  They were on a cool quest – Tracy decided she wanted to see as many Christmas trees as she could this holiday season and Vince works for an airline (which means free flights!) so off they went!!!  I had tickets to the White House Christmas tree lighting ceremony so they put DC on their list to visit!  They had been outside for a few hours waiting for the tree to be lit, then had stopped in a pizzeria on the way back to our house (unbeknownst to me, or I would not have tried to feed them PIZZA!).  Anyway, of course I made them try it and help review it even though they weren’t hungry.  J  Cuz that’s  what friends are for, right?

David was the "limo driver" to pick up the guests at the airport.

The box said it was 3 servings of pizza.  We had 2 hungry people (David and myself) and 2 full people (the guests).  After a couple of bites I brought out the Trader Joe’s Green Dragon sauce for those who were interested.  Here is what people thought of the pizza:

After cooking, before eating.

David – “I like it.  It is nice.  I like the sauce and items like the chicken ratio in the middle.  As it gets toward the ends there is quite a lot of CRUST.  Thank God someone recommended Sriracha sauce and that makes it ok in the crusty area, otherwise it would be a little barren.  This could be a dinner.  It is convenient and it is tasty.  I would give it a 4.” (Editor here:  it was not sriracha, it was TJ’s Green Dragon sauce (not yet reviewed), and “someone” did not recommend it, I (Susan) went and got it out of the fridge and walked it allllll the way to the dining room (like 15 steps maybe!).  But TJ’s DOES do a good sriracha sauce, it was reviewed here .

Guest reviewer Vince (married to Tracy, from a small town that loves to shoot off fireworks near Kansas City, where they KNOW their BBQ sauce) – “I enjoyed it, it was very tasty.  But the sauce was lacking and it could use a little bit more BBQ sauce.  I give it a 3.” 

Guest reviewers VINCE and TRACY!

Guest reviewer Tracy (a very fun woman) – “I would give it a 4.5. I REALLLLLY liked it for a frozen pizza.  I am most impressed with the cheese ratio because I always have to add additional cheese to my frozen pizzas and this one I didn’t find lacking in that area at all.  The BBQ sauce was a little sweet for my taste but I got over that pretty quickly and the sriracha sauce was a nice tip!”  (Editor again:  IT WAS GREEN DRAGON SAUCE, PEOPLE!  J )

Me – I thought there was too much CRUST around the edge.  I wish the cheesey part would have spread out further so there was less naked crust.  I could have used more SAUCE on it, too.  I thought the chicken was good, but overall I thought the pizza was a bit boring.  The Green Dragon hot sauce helped a lot, but I do not think you should have to add hot sauce, I think the pizza should be able to stand on its own.  I give it a 3.5. 

Not a bad price.

Well, scores were pretty varied – from a 3 to a 4.5.  I will average them together and give it a final number.

Tracy on her quest to SEE MANY CHRISTMAS TREES - this one is at Union Station, Washington DC.  

Price – $4.99

Rating – 3.75

Day 307 - Pizza Dough

Before I review today’s product, let me give a shout out to my cashier at TJ’s (Bailey’s Crossroads) tonight.  The whole store seemed a bit “down” tonight, maybe it is because I rushed in half hour before closing time, or maybe  because they have been super busy changing over all of their Halloween displays to Thanksgiving displays.  But no employees were smiley or friendly like they usually are, except my pretty blue haired cashier.  I didn’t see her nametag but my receipt identifies her as “R. Sydney”.  She was very sweet and friendly.  And she did something that TJ’s employees always do – when she was checking me out and noticed something wasn’t right with a product, she gave a quick shout to a co-worker nearby, held up the product, and said, “Grab me one of these, please”.  And quick as you please, without me even being aware of what was wrong with my pasta, her co-worker brought back another one and we were in business.  Isn’t that great??  They CARE.  They even CHECK YOUR EGGS, people, to make sure none are broken.

Yes, Trader Joe’s cares.  Thanks R. Sydney!

Now, onto the review!  PIZZA DOUGH!

Hey, hey, hey!  It's a PIZZA!  

We really like Trader Joe’s pizza dough.  “Why?” you ask.  Because it gives us an excuse to MAKE PIZZA!  We are one of the very few households in America that rarely consumes pizza.  Like, we eat so little pizza that if we called Domino’s for delivery, our address wouldn’t automatically pop up associated with our phone number.  I KNOOOOW – bizarre, eh??  J

But when we buy this pizza dough (which is probably ever 3 or 4 months), we make our own pizza and it is lovely!  Before we bought this dough we almost NEVER made pizza.  One other reason that I have always liked this dough is because I enjoy watching David stretch it out into a flat circle, it looks so much like a “David thing” that I thought he liked doing it.  Only the last time we made this and I mentioned that, he informed me that stretching out the dough is actually sort of stressful for him (he doesn’t want to mess it up I guess).  Oops, sorry David! 

Stretch that dough David!

One pizza, comin' up!

Our most recent pizza invention was:  dough, homemade pesto from our garden basil, mushrooms, red onion, green pepper from our garden, tomato from our garden (end of October, end of garden season in Northern Virginia), garlic, and THREE different kinds of cheese!  We had leftover parmesan from pesto making so we threw that on, and we bought Romano recently when David made eggplant parmesan, so we threw that on, and we topped it all off with mozzarella.   Yummmmm – cheeeese…

Here it is before going into the oven - ahhhh pizza perfection!

But I digress, this is supposed to be about the pizza DOUGH.  It is a fine dough.  I have no problems with it.  It is FUN to put all of the toppings on yourself.  I am a fan!

David says:  “GREAT PIZZA CRUST.  Moreover, the CONCEPT of being able to buy a pizza crust, have it in your fridge for a few days, take it out whenever you are ready, and have a pizza crust and throw WHATEVER YOU WANT on it – FABULOUS.  Try it!  You will love it.  All you need is something on the bottom – tomato, or pesto, or I guess maybe you could even just do olive oil or you could put a cheese sauce on there!  Then throw every vegetable you can think of on there!  Maybe add some olives.  Top it with cheese.  A sprinkle of olive oil.  Put it in the oven – it’ll be FABULOUS!  The thing about this crust is that it tastes great.  It tastes like “homemade” (that is if you were an Italian in a pizza kitchen) crust!  And you can feel it, you can smell it in your hands as you are dealing with the ball of dough.  It is stretchy.  One caveat:  do not forget that you need to take it out of the fridge 20 – 30 minutes before you want to work with it.  You know, if you are hungry you are gonna feel the temptation to go, “Ya know, it is squishy, it is just outta the fridge, I can work with it…”.  But it will be so much more pliable if you let it sit at room temperature for 20 – 30 minutes.  It will make it all easier.”

HOMEMADE PIZZZZZZA - this is the "before" photo

And you will feel kind of proud ‘cuz you made it YOURSELF.  It is also a good way to get rid of vegetables that you have that might be getting ready to go off. 

We are a fan of this dough.  Find it over by the cheese at Trader Joe’s.  It makes for a fun dinner.  If you have kids you could separate the dough into little balls and have the kids make their own pizzas.  I remember doing that once at a party as a kid and I was ultra proud of making my own dinner.

David says that this dough is a gateway and the key item to the whole EVENT of being able to make your own pizza (maybe as a group!) with fresh ingredients and eat it!  It is fabulous.

This is one "after" photo....

And the true "AFTER" photo...  

We give this pizza dough a top rating, both for the TASTE and for the EXPERIENCE that it provides of making your own pizza.

Sure, the dough doesn't have tons of ingredients, but for what it saves you in stress and effort, and for the delicious taste, and mostly for the EXCUSE TO MAKE YOUR OWN PIZZA PARTY, this price is crazy cheap.

Price – $1.19

Rating - 5