Pizza Style Chicken Melts

Chicken with a pizza style topping, or even no dough chicken pizza - whatever you fancy calling it!  A great fridge clear out recipe to use up the odds and ends in your fridge.

Serve with chips for a quick and simple meal - even if all that cheese probably wont do you a bit of good - it's nice!

 Print Recipe

There are no exact measurements for this - just use up what you have - that's the idea anyway.

Pre-heat your oven to 200C/400F or Gas 6

To serve 2 you will need:

a glug of olive oil

a handful of diced pancetta or bacon

2 nice fat skinless chicken breast fillets

salt and pepper to season

a green bell pepper - sliced

1 or half a red chilli - de-seeded and finely sliced 

150g ricotta cheese

a few baby plum tomatoes - halved

a handful of grated extra matured Cheddar

How to do it:

In a frying pan heat up just a small glug of oil and add the diced pancetta.  Cook until it's nice and getting on for crispy.  Remove and set aside.

Using the oil left in the pan (more would have appeared from cooking the pancetta) although you should drain some away if you think you have too much.  Add the sliced peppers and sliced de-seeded chilli and cook for a few minutes over a low heat, stirring all the time so nothing burns.  You just want them to get a bit soft, they will cook properly when they go in the oven.

Now put the chicken fillets (one at a time) between two sheets of cling film and bash them with something bashable just to make them a bit thinner.  If you don't the topping will end up burnt before the chicken is cooked through. 

Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.  

Get your self a nice baking dish that's not too deep.  Put the chicken fillets in the bottom side by side and season with a little salt and some pepper.  Spread over the ricotta cheese and then add the cooled pepper mixture.  Add halved the tomatoes and lightly season.

 Sprinkle over the grated cheese.

Cover with kitchen foil and pop into the oven for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil and add the cooked pancetta.

Return to the oven uncovered and cook for another 5 minutes by which time the chicken should be nicely cooked through.

Serve straight away whilst piping hot.  Chips and a side salad go nicely.