Welcome to the first post of the new “Cooking Through” series! I love international foods. There are so many cuisines that are underrepresented in American food. I want to bring some representaiont to those foods and celebrate them. By eating them. Because nothing says “I love country x, y or z” like jamming all of their recipes down your throat. America.
But I DO love other countries and cooking through their common recipes is a wonderful way of paying homage to them and of understanding them. This series will be ongoing and a tremendous journey for myself and anyone who decides to cook alongside me. I’m honored to experiment with the traditional recipes of countries, my own included, the world over.
Pizza in Brazil is a crazy thing. Seriously. Cray-cray. Crazy to the point that a concoction with three cheeses, chicken and a hot sauce topping is considered simple. This is the first of many Brazilian pizza recipes to come, because trust me, there are some combos that they do that would blow. your. mind. In the best way possible.
Whenever the Brazilians import a food, or import anything for that matter, they kind of take it to the max. The first time I ever ordered pizza in Brazil, I had been serving as a Mormon missionary for about 3 months. The guy that I was assigned to work with decided that we should get some pizza.
He brought out a menu that had 96 flavors. 96. A nine and then a 6. 96. That’s a LOT of different flavors of pizza.
I loved the pizza. It was like any other country’s pizza on steroids.
Something that’s really interesting about Brazil is that they don’t put tomato sauce on pizza. Once you try it, you might reconsider ever putting tomato sauce on your pizza again.
What you do instead is put olive oil on the pizza beore you top it. It’s declicious.
Another thing that defines brazilian pizza is the crust. It’s MUCH more bread-like and thick than the pizza crust that we use here in the States. Some Brazilians are also known to put a bit of cachaça (a common brazilian alcohol) in the dough because they swear that it makes it crispier.
This recipe is more basic than almost anything you’ll find in a brazilian pizza parlor, but it’s a good start for the uninitiated. I like to put at least three cheeses on the pizza, but it’s common to see at least four cheeses on any given pizza. If you do a little bit of hunting you’ll find up to eight-cheese pizzas. Which are amazing. 96 flavors of pizza, guys.
The shredded chicken that you see on top is a staple of Brazilian pizza. I recommend letting it sit in a crock pot and cooking it that way before you shred it. It’s easy and it just locks in so much flavor! But, if you want to boil the chicken before shredding it you can. You can even grill or fry it. But remember that the authentic version uses shredded chicken. And it’s worth it.
And that’s all there is to know about this simple brazilian pizza. Love it! Because there are so many more recipes where that came from and I plan on sharing it all with you! Come and cook with me more often, and you’ll be satisfied — I promise!
- 3 and ¾ cups whole wheat flour
- 3 cups warm water
- ¾ cups olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 30 grams yeast (1.05 oz)
- 1 medium chicken breast, shredded finely
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup cheddar cheese
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- Sriracha to taste
- Prepare yeast by putting in a small amount of water with the teaspoon of sugar
- Mix flour, salt and olive oil
- Slowly mix the yeast and water mixture with the flour mixture
- Once well mixed, let sit (covered) for 30 minutes
- Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees
- Let chicken sit in crock pot overnight or boil
- Shred chicken finely
- Top pizza with 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Put on cheeses
- Put on shredded chicken
- Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until chicken is lightly browned
Valerie says
I could have sworn there was refried beans on that crust…but it WAS the crust. It looks good, but I would add more CHEESE. 😀
themormonfoodguy says
That’s a lot of cheese! Try it out and let me know what you think!