Sisig Pizza Unleashed

If you're familiar with the pizza chain Greenwich in the Philppines, you probably have seen advertisements for a savory little thing called Sisig Pizza.  That's right.  Triple-cooked calmansi-soaked crunchy pork faced embedded in the Italian goodness of buttery crust and bubbling mozzarella.  If you're hungry, rushing everywhere this holiday season, and a little bit kuripot, here's a Southern Californian (budget) take on the Sisig Pizza.

Caveats:

1. This recipe's for the lazy young professional or college student on a time and fiscal budget.  If you can find better ingredients, go for it!
2. I used chicken because I wanted to save my arteries some probably unneeded stress.
3. I seriously couldn't find calamansi anywhere the day I made this.  I used key limes instead (I know I know!)
4. This is no way traditional nor is it meant to be.  Feel free to make it as 'traditional' as you'd like.

Part 1: The (Chicken) Sisig

Ingredients

• 1 Whole lemon pepper roasted chicken (I got it from Albertsons)
• 1 Red Bell Pepper
• 1 Large Red Onion
• 1/4 cup of Mascarpone cheese (you'll see how it helps chicken sisig especially)
• 6 Serrano peppers
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• Handful of peppercorns (or crushed peppercorns if you're timid)
• 3-4 Dried bay leaves
• 6-8 Calamansi
• 4 tablespoons of non-olive oil
   

Step 1 - Heat a non-stick pan with the non-olive oil on medium-high heat. (Do the next few steps fast...or do the chopping beforehand!)

Step 2 - Dice the roasted chicken, serrano peppers, onion, and bell pepper and combine them in a large microwavable bowl.

Step 3 - Mix in the the crushed peppercorns, soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves, and mascarpone cheese.  Zap the bowl for 5 minutes  in the microwave.  (Lazy guy's version of sautéing)

Step 4 - Take the "sauteed" mix and spread it out on the hot pan.  Take out the bay leaves and squeeze 4-6 calamansi over everything.

Step 5 - Let it cook until the edges look a bit brown.  Flip everything over and cook while peeking under the entire thing.  When you see the bottom's very dark brown in some spots, it's done! Turn off the heat and mix everything up to spread around the smoky flavor.

Part 2: The PIzza

Ingredients

• 2 Packages of Trader's Joe's herbed pizza crust
• 1/2 Jar of Trader Joe's Vodka sauce
• 2/3 Package of Trader Joe's skim shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 Cup of ketchup
• Dash of cane sugar
• Butter or butter-like spread (I used the one that doesn't choke your heart)
   

Step 1 - Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Step 2 - Butter a 12" (?) pizza pan. I used imitation spread, so your pizza crust may vary by what you use

Step 3 - Spread out the two packages of pizza dough on the buttered pan.  It helps to let the dough sit for a 5-10 minutes before spreading it out.

Step 4 - After you hopefully wrestle a circular shape out of the dough, spread the vodka sauce and a generous helping of ketchup on the dough. Sprinkle a little sugar on top.

Step 5 - Spread a layer of mozzarella cheese

Part 3: Pizza, meet Sisig

Step 1 - The fun part - Spoon the sisig gingerly over the pizza.  Make sure there's no gaps! Chunkier the better

Step 2 - We're not done! Spread another layer of mozzarella on top of the sisig

Step 3 - Put the pizza into your preheated oven for 10 minutes.  Check every 5 minutes though in case your oven has mood swings.

Step 4 - When the edges of the pizza are golden brown, turn of the oven and take it out.  Serve immediately after sitting in the turned-off oven for 2 minutes.

Step 5 - Get a beer (san mig?) or a cabernet sauvignon (*cough* or shiraz *cough*)

Conclusion

I really, really don't proclaim to be a chef or anything, so this definitely was an experiment not only in fusion cooking, but well in cooking in general.  The sisig itself was very interesting to make, and a bit easier since I used chicken and didn't have to triple-cook like the traditional sisig.  The pizza itself was a huge challenge to pound/press/beg it into a round sheet.

Later on I want to try it with traditional sisig (pork face) and possibly another kind of cheese and/or sauce.  There are a ton of possibilities though, so please go out there and try it yourself.  And if you do, please mail me a slice!

And btw, don't put whole peppercorns if your dinner guests are wusses. The crunch is awesome.