The Chicken Bacon Artichoke deLITE and the Temple of Doom

There are three stages in the pre-consumption life of a pizza: fresh, leftovers, and science fair experiment. Prior to my eating the Chicken Bacon Artichoke deLITE pizza, the only time I would have found anything large and green on a pizza I'd ordered would have been well after it was into the last stage (pickles notwithstanding).

Chicken Bacon Artichoke deLITE, fresh from the oven

I'm vaguely familiar with artichokes. I once had a sandwich containing some. Not on purpose, mind you. I was trying to play it cool at a very fancy sandwich shop to which I had accompanied a cute girl, and, overwhelmed by the complexity of the menu and certain that she would judge my overall intellect by my sandwich's contents, my order was simply, "Make that two." It was ... okay. We're just good friends these days. 

Let's not even get started on the fact that it's actually the artichoke hearts that you are eating, either. In my head, this is all I see ...

"Kalim .... wait, what the?"

All the artichoke talk notwithstanding, this actually ended up being one of my favorite Papa Murphy's pizzas so far. I picked a few artichokes off the pizza to try on their own, and while I wouldn't crave a bowl full of artichokes and nothing else, I found I liked them quite a lot when paired with the other flavors on the pizza. This pizza uses a white creamy garlic sauce instead of your typical tomato-based affair, and it works very well with the other toppings (namely, chicken, bacon, spinach, parmesean, "zesty" herbs, and of course, artichoke hearts). Somewhat surprisingly to myself, I also loved having the spinach on this pizza. Who would have thought a double-dose of greens on a pizza would be so appealing.

Freshly unwrapped

Uncooked close-up

I once tried a BLT pizza (again, at the behest of a girl ... my food choices followed my heart more than my taste buds in college), which was nothing more than a bacon pizza that we took home and then topped with mayonnaise and iceberg lettuce. It was horrid, and I spent most of the night crop-dusting her foyer after consuming that abomination. Leafy greens have never been high on my pizza topping list since that night. I'm happy to say that following my foray into spinach on this pizza, I'm open to trying more leafy greens on future pies.

Hot and ready!

Post cooking close-up. YUM!

Thin crust depth. It's pretty crazy comparing this to one of the stuffed crusts.

My favorite thing about this pizza is how much flavor it manages to pack in while still feeling like a very light-on-the-stomach meal. We haven't had any deLITE pizzas in a while, and I've definitely missed them. Of all the deLITE's we've had, this is currently my favorite. I'm also happy to report that it reheats quite nicely. Being that it's a rather atypical grouping of flavors on a pizza and that it is so light on the stomach, I actually had a slice for breakfast a couple of days later. It beat the socks off starting my weekend with a bowl of fiber cereal!

The family sized pizza cut into eight large slices

First-person view

That's one pretty slice of pizza

The household discussed our opinions (well, at least the ones who are old enough to talk coherently), and we all wholeheartedly agreed: this pizza is a must-try!

Toppings close-up on the slice