Mexican Pizza or What you Will.

We tend to have so many clichés when it comes to children and food habits. At the risk of sounding rather insensitive, I think one of them is labeling a dish as “kid-friendly”.

Let me explain this one, before I am certifiably disowned from the world of “mommy blogging.” Like most people, I also cook stuff for my kids, that is different from our regular fare, at least occasionally, most of the times we reach that medium ground they we both  find palatable.

However, what my children like may or may not work for other kids and then again, I often have cooked stuff that other kids love so much that I have had moms clamoring for the recipe, while my own children give the same dish the evil eye.

In a nutshell, what I am trying to say is that I use the term “kid-friendly” with a dose of caution. Because kid friendly depends on the kid, some kids like mine are fine with brocolli others are not. To get my kids to try something new, I just need to tell them that the dish belongs to a different country, irrespective of the ingredients. I did not know I had an inner marketing personality hidden in me, oh well…

I use fancy or exotic names to disguise the mundane, such as this recipe for Mexican Pizza, which really is my way of getting the kids to try the fragrant cilantro that is growing in my garden. Well, my ploy worked!  The kids loved these open pizzas and in fact, my son even wanted to visit Mexico on his next vacation. That makes the two of us, except that chances are he is not going to be very happy once he gets there.  Chances are, that  he is most unlikely to find something like this dish being sold as Mexican Pizza in Mexico, but again who knows?

Well as far as I know, there really is no such thing as authentic Mexican Pizza, this dish probably works as well as any other. For that matter, any pizza I have had in Italy north or south, tastes nothing like the good stuff that I like to call Pizza. Call  this dish what you will, I would however, encourage you to give it a try if you are trying to get some interesting on the table on short notice.

I did poach the chicken before adding it to the pizza, because my kids tend to like their chicken very soft. I think depending on your household preference, you can skip the poaching step.

Mexican Pizza with Garlic and Cinnamon Poached Chicken

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time:45 minutes (mostly unattended)

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the chicken

1 cup water

3 pieces (about ¾ pound) boneless skinless chicken

2 pods garlic

1 teaspoon salt

1 large stick cinnamon

1 lime

1 tablespoon oil

2 tablespoons chopped red onion

3 tablespoons chopped bell pepper

For the Pizza

4 8-inch whole wheat tortillas

1 cup grated jack cheese

2 tomatoes, diced

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Place the water, chicken. garlic, salt and cinnamon in a pan and cook for 30 minutes, until the chicken is soft.

2. Remove the chicken from the pan and shred and squeeze in the lime juice.

3. Heat the oil and add the onion and bell pepper and cook for a minute.

4. Add the chicken and sauté well.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

6. Place the tortillas on a greased baking sheet.

7. Add the chicken mixture over the tortillas and cover with the cheese and tomatoes.

8. Cook for about 7 minutes, until the cheese is nice and melted and the tortillas are almost crisp.

9. Sprinkle with the cilantro and serve.