Chicken red pepper pizza with kale and quick pickled onions

I always have firm intentions to keep up with the volunteer kale plants. And every year I find myself in fall, scrounging for new ways to use up the wretched excess. So of course I put it on pizza, because I put it on everything.

Favorite pizza-related joke seen recently: Trash Jones tweeted: Chicago-style pizza implies the existence of AP style pizza.

The comments are priceless for the copy editors among us.

Chicken and pepper pizza with kale
Adapted from Better Homes & Garden, January 2020

Ingredients
½ cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup thinly sliced red onion, divided
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
½ cup sliced red bell pepper
8 ounces cooked, shredded chicken
Tajin or other chili-lime seasoning
Fresh pizza dough for 1 crust or prebaked crust such as a Boboli
¼ cup pizza sauce
2 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon pepper
1½ cups thinly sliced kale leaves
1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted

Method
Place a baking stone in the oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a small saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar and garlic. Bring mixture to a boil. Add ½ cup red onions and let simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet. Add remaining ½ cup red onion and red pepper. Cook over medium low heat until onion is softened. Add chicken to heat through and sprinkle with chili-lime seasoning.

Form pizza dough into desired crust shape. If you have a pizza peel, sprinkle it with cornmeal and assemble pizza on that and then slide it onto the hot baking stone. Alternatively, remove baking stone from oven and assemble pizza on that. Spread pizza sauce over crust. Top with chicken mixture. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes until top is golden. (Or if using a Boboli, check it after 10 minutes.)

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine sun-dried tomatoes, lemon juice and remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add salt and pepper and whisk to combine. Add kale leaves and let the mixture set while the pizza bakes. Add drained quick-pickled red onions to kale mixture. Spread across hot pizza. Sprinkle with pine nuts.

Rating: This is one of those recipes that was either going to really work, or really not work. Despite its odd nature (or at least I think adding pickles to pizza sounds a bit odd), it actually works really pretty well. The soak in the dressing softens the kale just enough and the flavors all work well together. I had wondered whether we would regret not adding some goat cheese or feta, since the recipe does not call for any cheese. I'd say it worked fine without it, but speculate that it would also work nicely with that addition. Have to follow up, and use up more of that kale.