Your definitive guide to a Doritos taco pizza
By Natalie Serafini, Editor-in-Chief
One tipsy night, I got into a conversation with some friends about Pizza Hut’s latest craze, the Doritos Crunchy Crust Pizza. As we sipped wine and munched on our family-pack of Doritos, I came up with the mad scientist idea to DIY this junk-food-paradise creation. Unfortunately, scouring the Internet turned up no Martha Stewart recipes for a Pizza Hut hack, but I did find a rough guide to a taco pizza, which I bastardized for my snack specifications. Read on to impress your friends with a Doritos taco pizza!
You will need:
1pizza dough—frozen, or use the recipe I do from MarthaStewart.com
1 can refried beans
1 packet of taco seasoning—you’ll only be using a few teaspoons, so this is optional
Salsa
1 avocado, sliced
Doritos—I used a combo of Doritos Nacho Cheese and Doritos Cool Ranch
Enough mozzarella for sprinkling on the pizza, grated
Enough cheddar cheese for sprinkling on the pizza, grated
Preheat your oven to 450 F. Next, dump the refried beans in a pot and warm on stove, at medium-high. Stir as it heats up, and sprinkle in some of the taco seasoning. The taco seasoning isn’t really necessary, so it can easily be cut if you’re worried about sodium; either way, you should only be using a couple of teaspoons. Keep stirring the refried beans until they’re warm and the taco seasoning is mixed in. Turn off the stove.
Take your rolled-out pizza dough, which should be on a baking sheet, and spread the refried beans on. This will be acting as your tomato sauce substitute, so you can use a relatively thick layer. Next, spread your salsa over the beans, using roughly three large spoonfuls—again though, you can be as liberal as you’d like.
Grab a resealable sandwich bag and fill it with about one to two small handfuls of Doritos from one bag (or about three to four handfuls, if you’re only using one flavour of chips). Reseal the bag, making sure to let the air out first, and press your weight into it on a table with the palms of your hands. Do this again with your other flavour of Doritos (optional). Your crushed-up chips can now be sprinkled over the salsa on your pizza.
Take your grated mozzarella and cheddar cheese and sprinkle this on the pizza as well. This is another instance where you can use the amount that suits you—if you like a super-cheesy pizza though, remember that you’ll also be getting that flavour from the Doritos.
When your oven is ready, slide that pizza in and set your timer for about 12 minutes—or less, if your frozen dough has different instructions. While your pizza is cooking, you can ready some additional toppings for your ‘za. I like to have a little bit of extra salsa, some sliced avocado, and a very small sprinkling of extra Doritos on top, but you can get creative with any sort of taco toppings you generally enjoy—sliced iceberg lettuce or black olives would both be fantastic additions.
Serve the pizza hot out of the oven with your toppings of choice. Feel free to adapt this recipe with ground beef, jalapeños, or any other alterations that suit your fancy. Enjoy!
