I Bake For Attention: Grilled Chicken and Mozarella Flatbread

I love this meal. It feels like such a treat! I am not very good with just throwing things together and making something cohesive and edible. I'm more of a one-pot kind of person. So what I do is steal ideas from my favourite places to eat. Which is what I have done here. Don’t judge, just make it.

And the other great part of this meal is that making it can set you up really well for leftovers! For instance, I was able to use the rest of the flatbreads as a makeshift garlic bread by cutting into slices, putting them on their sides and covering them in garlic butter. I used up the pesto with pasta and on pizza, and I roasted a bunch of peppers at the same time (thrifty!) to use on top of pizzas and to make hummus. For this reason, it is a great meal for the start of the week, because it gives you a leg up on the rest of the week! We are talking some serious “meal prep” without filling a million Tupperware containers with sad looking rice-salads.

Serves 2 (but 4 makes flatbreads)

Ingredients for the flatbread (makes four flatbreads, and you only *need* two. But it is good bread)

500g bread flour
7g sachet yeast
1 tsp salt
350-400ml lukewarm water
45ml olive oil

Ingredients for the toppings

1 red pepper
2 chicken breasts
1 few tsp green pesto
½ tomato
1 ball of mozzarella

Method

Okay, begin with the bread. I always make double the amount that the recipe calls for, because it is no more effort, it’s goooood bread, and can easily be used the next day for another flatbread meal.

Measure out the flour, yeast and salt, and stir together. Make a well in the middle. Pour in 300ml of water and the oil.

Mix around with your hands until a soft, springy dough is formed, adding more water as needed.

Kneed for a few minutes (I always just do this in the bowl) until elastic and easy to work with. Form into a ball in the bowl.

Drizzle over some more olive oil and roll the dough ball in it to coat the surface. Cover the bowl in cling film and allow to rise for an hour.

Now, you can prep the rest. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Clean the pepper, place on a baking tray and drizzle over some olive oil.

I made a lot of peppers together because roasted red peppers are awesome and I am frugal

Roast your pepper in the oven for 30 minutes until the skin is blackening and wrinkled. Turn once or twice (carefully!) during cooking.

Remove from the oven, place some tinfoil over the top and allow to sit for 30 minutes or so until cool enough to handle.

Sat and flattened - but easy to peel!!

Peel and slice the pepper, discarding the seeds and top part.

Now, when your bread is double the size, remove the cling film and punch down the dough.

Leave for 10 minutes.

Now, divide into quarters. One by one, form each into a ball, roll out into a rough oval shape and place on a baking tray. Gently poke some dimples into the dough with your fingers.

Cover with a teatowel and let prove for 25 minutes. Drizzle with oil.

At this point I put the chicken breasts on the grill – just a little electric stand-alone one. While these cooked, I made my pesto (but feel free to use jarred!), chopped my tomato and sliced the mozzarella.

When the chicken was cooked, I sliced it up thinly.

Now, turn the oven back on and cook the flatbreads for 20 minutes until golden on top.

Remove from the oven, smear a generous helping of pesto on top, then layer over the chicken, tomato and/or pepper, and then cover the whole thing in mozzarella.