Mexican Pizza that will feed the masses

My wife loves Taco Bell.

I do not.

Why? Because I like spending the time between 8:00PM and Midnight somewhere else than a bathroom suffering the consequences of the taco "Meat".

I know it doesn't effect everyone that way.  I'm not even knocking all fast food Mexican.  Nothing's better than a bag of cheap Del Taco, Taco Time or Carl's Jr. tacos when I'm watching the first set of Sunday NFL games.  But my body chemistry has a volatile and explosive reaction to the whatever Taco Bell puts in their food.

But one item on the Taco Bell menu ingruiges me... the Mexican Pizza.  Yes, it's still a tortilla with meat, cheese and vegetables, but the configuration is unique.  I like the beans in-between the two tortillas with a little bit of cheese.  And the enchilada style sauce as the base is pretty good.

So once again, I've made my own version, sans the "Taco Bell Experience"  It's really easy to make and it's a great activity to do with the kids.   Let me top their own with whatever they'd like.  Just make sure to help them handle the jalapenos if they choose to add them.  Nothing's worse than a kid rubbing his eyes after handling peppers. Capsaicin everywhere, it'll all end in tears...  You can use my enchilada sauce recipe, but if you're pressed for time, then your favorite canned sauce would work just fine.

Mexican Pizza

Makes 6 pizzas - Feeds 8-12


Enchilada Sauce
1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons flour
1/8 cup chili powder
1 14.5 oz cans chicken broth
1 6 oz cans tomato paste
1 teaspoons oregano (Mexican oregano if you have it)
1 tablespoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Other ingredients
1 1/2 pound chicken breasts or ground beef
12 tortillas
1 14 ounce can refried beans
2 cups Spanish rice (either my recipe or out of the box, whichever you prefer)
1 can olives, sliced
1 small onion, diced fine
1 small can diced jalapeno (optional)
4 cups shredded Mexican cheese (your choice)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Salsa, guacamole and sour cream for garnish

To make the sauce, heat the oil over medium heat in a small saucepan.  Add the flour and chili powder and stir until it clumps together.  Pour in the chicken broth (watch out for steam!) and then stir in the tomato paste until well mixed.  Add all of the spices and stir to combine.  Once you start seeing your first boiling bubbles, drop the heat to low and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.

Assembling the pizza starts with two tortills.  Coat one side of one tortilla with the refried beans.  Then spread about 1/3 of a cup of Spanish rice over the beans and sprinkle a little bit of cheese on top (more as as adherence medium for the next step).  Coat one side of the other tortilla with enchilada sauce and lay it sauce side down on top of the beany side of the other tortilla.  Coat the top of the tortilla sandwich with enchilada sauce.  Spread as much of the other vegetable ingredients on top of the sauce.  Cover the pizza with the cheese and as much cilantro as you like.  Assemble the rest of the pizzas.  Place them on cookie sheets and bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Slice up with a pizza cutter for easy eating.

So make some of these Mexican Pizzas at home and avoid the unfortunate and painful consequences of Taco Hell food.