Irish Cheddar Chicken Potato Leek Pizza

Chicken, blue potatoes, and leeks under a blanket of Irish cheddar cheese. Irish pizza? Cockaleekie pizza? Colorful pizza with chicken, leeks and potatoes? You choose the name that works.

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A community supported agriculture (CSA) farm share is not typically a source of exotic produce. Although turnips, kohlrabi and celeriac were novel and exotic to me--and Swiss chard may be new to some--these crops have been around.

When we got purple potatoes in the share last year it was a surprise and a delight. I've played with blue potatoes from Costco before, and it's also fun to make colorful food straight out of the farm share box. For this pizza I wanted to punch up the color of a chicken, leek, and potato pizza. Yes, that's practically cockaleekie pizza, but according to Google Trends no one searches for that. So you get a boring-yet-descriptive name. I've got a Corned Beef & Cabbage Pizza coming up, but to help mentally shift gears from Valentine's day/Mardi Gras/Chinese New Year to St. Patrick's Day I'd like to share this pizza now.

Why am I sharing St Patrick's Day recipes when I'm Scandinavian/Scottish, not Irish? Advertising, folks . . . it works on me. Cabbage goes on sale shortly after I've finished up the farm share veggies and had my fling with mushrooms from the store. We like corned beef and potatoes and eat them despite not being kissable due to our heritage. Shoot, we eat a bunch more seafood because it's also on sale. Speaking of ads, I'm playing around with Amazon ads in my sidebars. Please let me know if they are intrusive, thanks.

For another Irish-themed pizza, please check out my Tremendously Green Pizza (talk about a non-SEO friendly title!) that has bacon, cabbage, and potatoes. You can find other pizzas for your Friday Night Pizza Night at my Visual Pizza Recipe Index.

For general hints, tips, and photo collages please check out my Pizza Primer post, a brain dump of all things related to making pizza in my home kitchen. For a photo album of pizza dough troubleshooting tips, please see my FB page.

Irish Cheddar Chicken Potato Leek Pizza 

Ingredients

• 1 pound pizza crust (see my Visual Pizza Recipe Index for suggestions)
• olive oil for brushing on the crust
• ½ cup chopped leeks
• ½ pound blue potatoes, boiled until fork tender (in salted water for about 20 minutes for me)
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
• several pinches of salt and several grinds of pepper
• 2 cups shredded Irish cheddar cheese (I used Kerrygold that I picked up at Costco)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. I recommend using a pizza stone, because it really makes a difference in my crust which makes me successful in my endeavor and therefore happy and wanting to replicate the homemade pizza thing another week. All from a simple stone. And parchment paper.  Can't forget that key element. Where was I? If you've got a stone, preheat it. 
2. On an oiled piece of parchment paper, stretch out pizza into a pleasing shape. 
3. Brush crust with a bit more olive oil, then scatter leeks across evenly. 
4. Slice potatoes and add to the pizza, then top with chicken. Scatter salt and pepper across the chicken & potatoes, then top with copious amounts of cheese. It's really good on this pizza--don't skimp. 
5. Slide the whole thing, parchment paper and all, onto the preheated pizza stone. After 5 to 8 minutes, shimmy the pizza off the paper and bake directly on the stone until the cheese is bubbly. This takes another 3 to 5 minutes for me. 
6. Transfer to a rack to cool slightly, then slice and serve. 

Don't skimp on the cheese. You'll thank me.

This post is shared with What's Cookin' Wednesday