Pizza Review - Co-op Thin & Crispy Tex Mex Chicken

I have a Co-op near me but since I get most of my groceries delivered I don't buy much in there. They have just added a new range of gorgeous fresh rolls and bread so I've been going more frequently recently so it's about time I tried out their range of pizzas. They have 2 whole fridges dedicated to pizza so first up is is their "Loved by Us" thin and crispy Mexican chicken pizza.

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As you can see from the box, they have them on offer at the moment so you can get any 2 chilled pizza from their refrigerated range for £5.50. Not a bad price if they're good. The box boasts a stonebaked base (good sign!) with a tomato and pepper salsa sauce, mozzarella cheese 'ribbons' (lol), spiced British chicken breast, peppers and onions and sour cream! (wtf?)

I've noticed this before with ready meals from the Co-op - they're a little verbose for my liking and the descriptions don't always make real sense. Tomato salsa sauce? I think we could drop at least one of those words if not two!

Anyway, opening up the pizza it look alright - the chicken does look like real slices of breast and not those awful cubes you get from some places and it's generously topped.

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The base feels spongy and not like a typical stonebaked thin and crispy base that you would expect to I lift up the edge of the pizza to have a look...

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...and it looks like crap. The dough is more like a cake or shortbread dough and certainly not like a pizza base. Just a few seconds of lifting it up and it cracks. While you can see the stone marks on the base, it's a bit of a sham really as they've just taken a manky, puffy aerated dough and whipped it over a stone as quickly as possible to get the markings but really give you none of the texture and flavour you'd hoped to get :-(

I tried lifting up the other side of the base and the pizza snapped completely - disaster - lucky I have it in my pizza tray or cooking this would be tricky. I stuck it in the over and 12 minutes later -

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it doesn't LOOK too bad. You can see the crust on the right hand side has become an inedible dried out piece of plasterboard and resembles something like a baby rusk in texture - if you've bought a bad pizza before you'll know what I mean.

As for the pizza itself it wasn't too bad. It has a chilli symbol on the front of the box and there was nice mild tang to it. The chicken was good, infinitely superior to any dodgy cubed chicken you see and the roasted peppers and chunks of onions, although few, helped combine the taste together. As a Mexican, almost slightly curry like treat it's not bad; As a pizza it's not so good.

So the scores are -

Price - 6/10
Toppings - 8/10
Base - 1/10
Overall - 5/10

I think this score reflects this pizza exactly. If it had a better base (which after all is the secret to a home baked pizza) then it would have earned a 7 or 8 out of 10 but as it is with its ridiculous base, it drags down the score of a nice set of toppings that work well and taste great.

I'm not really interested in calories and ingredients but if you're big on that I've put some additional box pics below that you can click on to read in more detail if you like.

Freeze your takeaway pizza for perfect frozen pizza!

That's right - simple and effective! Usually when I order pizza to be delivered I buy too much on purpose. This means I can get stuffed on pizza that evening then enjoy some pizza for breakfast and have a tasty pizza lunch.

A few months ago Mrs Za was out of time and I bought 3 Domino's Italian style pizzas. I was munching through the first one when I got realised I was supposed to be at a friends so I had to run out. It was a heavy night and I didn't get back until the next day at which point my folks turned up with food for dinner. I knew I had two and a half pizzas in the kitchen but they we're going to compare with the fresh hot food my mum had made so we tucked into that instead.

I was at work the next day and when I got back late that evening my wide had a hankering for Chinese food. She's not the pizza maniac so I ordered the Chinese and I started to worry about my piza nearing a vintage 3 days old. Tomorrow would be the 4th day if I didn't eat it all tonight but after an Emperors Banquet for two I couldn't eat a thing.

Could I really throw the best part of 3 Dominos pizzas in the bin? Of course not but I also couldn't eat it today and by tomorrow it would have to be binned. It was actually Mrs Za who came up with the idea of freezing it and what an idea it was. I grabbed some sandwich bags, sealed each one individually and chucked them in the freezer. The next day I was curious and took one out to see how it looked.

It looked fine and the bag seemed to have protected it from getting frostbite. I popped a couple of slices in the oven in my pizza tray at about 160C and watched. About 5 minutes later I saw the first bubble on the cheese and took them out. I had my first bit and chewed - and it tasted great! It was a little dryer than a fresh Dominos but apart from that I think it could have identified it blindfolded.

Now when I order pizza, I usually order about triple what I need. One for that night, one for the next day and one for freezing. I wait until the pizza destined for the freezer has cooled almost completely (usually within about 30 minutes) bag each slice individually in those cheap foodbags that you get 1000 in a roll, and try and freeze them flat and level in the freezer.

I don't know how long the pizza takes to freeze but when you re-heat it the next day all you need to do it put them in the oven on around 140-160C (and never in the microwave!) and you'll have fresh takeaway pizza, as if it was just delivered!

Give it a try or let me know if you have any suggestions or tips for freezing your pizza!

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