Mexican Style pizza recipe

[lilbuddypizza]

;DI like to make this type of pizza on occasion because it has the best of both worlds.
For the crust, follow your favorite recipe except substitute 1/3 of the flour with fine ground cornmeal, and add black pepper to the mix.
For the sauce, I make a 50/50 mix of tomato puree and Ortega Mild Taco Sauce (I'm sure any of your personal choice is fine too). I also add a bit of cumin to the sauce.
Toppings: I used precooked, crumbled chorizo sausage (should be available nationwide at this point), and precooked chicken (diced). Black Olives are a nice touch too.
I add Chihuahua(sp?) cheese, or if unavailable, a blend of Jack, mozzarella, and cheddar. I top the cheese with chopped green onions(only the green part) , cilantro (fresh or dry is okay), and crushed red pepper flakes to taste.

This is great for mexican food lovers and pizzaholics. You can try giant tortillas too for the crust-just watch for burning!
Topping choices are plenty too!

[bhize]

It's interesting that you use pureed tomatoes and taco sauce for the sauce.  Seems like most places use refried beans for the sauce.  One pizza place I used to work at did a 50\50 mix of La Preferida refried beans and pizza sauce.  The customers really loved it!  I was thinking of trying a variation on that, using a 50\50 mix of the refried beans and salsa.  I had also thought of possibly using refried black beans too for something different.  I had also thought of just trying straight salsa too. I know the Tostitos Restaraunt Style Medium Salsa isn't very runny, and might be a good candidate.  I had also thought of using chorizo, and had thought of trying taco seasoned beef, fajita chicken or fajita beef.  Of course all of them would be topped with lettuce, diced onions, diced tomatoes, black olives, sour cream, crushed totilla chips/Doritos and maybe a few jalapenos...

Has anybody tried any of these?  If so, how did they turn out?

[youonlylivetwice]

Just made a taco pizza over the weekend, and it turned out VERY good...

my wife makes and cans salsa with tomatoes from the garden, this was some left over from one of this year's batches.  no refried beans though, added a mix of ground chicken and ground beef with taco seasonings.  baked it just like that on a neo-neapolitan dough from P Reinhart's book.  then added cheddar/mozz cheese right when it came out of the oven, then diced fresh tomato and shredded lettuce, and crushed (not crumbs, just broken) tortilla chips.   
I lived in LaCrosse Wisconsin awhile, and there was a place called Happy Joes that had GREAT taco pizza.   Same idea, beans, salsa, and meat baked on a crust, with fresh tomato, lettuce, and chips on top.  I would have added black olives but my wife isn't so crazy about them.
all the same, a really good pizza!   (if you can call it pizza... let's just say good eats   )

[bhize]

Mmmmmmmm, Happy Joes!!  I love their pizza!  The Taco they have is just awesome! Another one of my favorites there is the Happy Joe's Special, the Canadian bacon ad sauerkraut pizza.  Not sure what is is about their's, but nobody else even comes close to that one!

I did recently do a taco pizza and my family loved it!  I did the beans/salsa sauce, taco meat and Mexican cheese on a neopolitan crust.  When it was done, I topped it with shredded lettuce, onions, dice tomatoes, black olives, more cheese and crushed Taco Doritos.  I have to say it was pretty tasty!    Not quite as good as Happy Joes, but close!

[youonlylivetwice]

Hey bhize, where are you?  Is Happy Joe's in places other than LaCrosse WI??  I always thought it was a single place.  is that where you've had their pizza??  going to look online for them next.....


by the way, yours does sound really good too!  We agreed it is a great Sunday afternoon / watching football kind of pizza.....!!

[bhize]

I am in the Des Moines, IA area, and have been to a few different HJs.  They do have a website http://www.happyjoes.com, and you can even have pizzas shipped to you!  Never realized that they started in Iowa...

[Jack]

I did the beans/salsa sauce, taco meat and Mexican cheese on a neopolitan crust.  When it was done, I topped it with shredded lettuce, onions, dice tomatoes, black olives, more cheese and crushed Taco Doritos.

This is kind-of how I've always made Taco Pies, with a few exceptions; I use NY style crust, some mozz cheese and add the crushed tortilla chips after the sauce, under the cheese.

Jack

[Bill/SFNM]

I gotta say my first reaction to these "Mexican Pizzas" was pretty negative. I really like my pizzas and really like my Mexican food and the thought of the twain meeting did not do good things in my imagination. But the more I think about, the more appealing these become - whatever name you want to give them. I think I'll have to give these a try, maybe adding some roasted fresh NM chiles.

Bill/SFNM

[bhize]

That's interesting that you say that Bill.  I wonder if the Taco\Mexican pizza is more of a regional thing.  I know several places in Iowa have had it for years.  Pizza Hut has it too, but I know the Iowa market is\was often a test market.  The PH version isn't the best tho.  Godfather's and Happy Joes have awesome Taco pizzas, but they are just in the Midwest.

[Johnny the Gent]

For the crust, follow your favorite recipe except substitute 1/3 of the flour with fine ground cornmeal, and add black pepper to the mix.

Did you roll out the crust, or simply pat out?