Friday Night Pizza!

Because April is my Money Month (income taxes, boat insurance, house insurance, flood insurance AND wind storm insurance all come due in the next 45 days ... I need to stay focused on them little green soldiers and be lining them up to do battle for me!   So I've opted to make April a Money Control Month and will be doing things, even more intentionally, to reduce my outlay of cash!  Not to mention, we hosted the Princess and her Hubby's reception late February and I had a real hard time reining in the spending for March 😂

First Up is Friday Nights ... and it's all about Friday Night Pizza!

I have no idea how I came across this recipe on Pinterest, but it's been hanging around for a while and with our Pantry Challenge underway, it was PERFECT that I had everything on hand to make it one night this week!

Now, granted, Kalyn does call it a "Low Carb Pizza Chicken Bake" but I just can't do call it low carb ... although, it does NOT have a crusty base like you'd expect ... and I will say, it was really tasty ... I'll be making this again real soon!

The beauty of this is that it can be a very inexpensive, a/k/a FRUGAL, quick meal if you shop right! All this can be bought at Aldi's this week for a little less than $5 right now if you don't have ANY of the ingredients...I had everything on hand, thankfully, but it's nice to know that a quick run will get me what I need without spending a whole lot ... of course, I must keep my blinders on and not look to either side as I zero in on the ingredients needed ;-)

I'm still just amazed at how a few simple ingredients made this really yummy dish!

So ... here's what you do!

2 pounds (or so) of boneless skinless chicken breast
1 jar of pizza sauce of choice (I used a jar from Trader Joes)
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
8 oz pkg of shredded mozzarella cheese OR mozzarella cheese slices (I used slices)
half a package of pepperoni (honestly, not sure how much I really used, I just loaded up)

So, first things first. Dump your sauce in a small saucepan and heat over medium low heat til it reduces by half. I was impatient and didn't let it reduce THAT much but you just don't want it as runny as it is currently in the jar.

Turn oven on to heat to 400 degrees.

While sauce is reducing, grab your chicken breast, lay them flat on a cutting board and butterfly each in half so you have 2 thinner pieces for each piece. I was lucky in that I had a package of thin sliced breast in the freezer already (score for those mark downs!). Just make sure that they are thin and not too bulky in areas.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add your oil. Sprinkle the chicken with the oregano and garlic powder.  Cook breast til slightly golden brown and flip to add color to both sides. You will need to do this in two, possibly three batches. You are not worried about cooking them all the way at this point, just browning them a bit. As you remove them from the skillet, lay them in a single layer in a glass baking sheet. The whole point is to have the chicken as close together as you can, but not overlapping.

Once chicken is all in the pan, take your sauce and spoon over each piece of chicken, spreading the sauce evenly over each piece.

Top each piece of chicken with cheese, making sure, again, to fully cover each piece ;-) Cheesy is good ... 

NOW grab that pepperoni and go to town. Like cheese, PEPPERONI is good too! Lay those slices on and go ahead, have a sneak taste of a slice if you need to.

Slide that tray of yumminess in to the oven and let it bake for 25 minutes or so.  Nope, don't cover the tray ... don't worry, the chicken will not dry out ... it's smothered in sauce, pepperoni and cheese!

Remove from oven, let it sit for a few minutes to set and then grab yourself a spatula and dish up!  Here's hoping that YOU have more leftovers than I did ... one piece that made it to lunch ... I could have eaten this every day this week had there been more!

Enjoy!

Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties ... go check them out!

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