“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.”
Dave Barry
I like pizza, especially the ones that you can cook at home. Hot from the oven and cold the next day are my favorite times to enjoy them. Beside that, in most cases they are cheaper than already cooked pizza and you don’t have to wait for a delivery person.
I am especially fond of the “deLITE” pizzas that Papa Murphy’s makes because of the thin crust, lighter topping and lower fat and calories, and I recently had the opportunity to try their latest creation, the Thai Chicken deLITE. Beginning with a cracker-thin crust, the pizza is topped with sweet chili sauce, 100 percent real mozzarella cheese, zucchini, grilled chicken, a mix of white, red and green onions, and finished with a dusting of crushed red pepper flakes. More about that later.
The concept of “Take ‘N’ Bake” pizza started with Papa Murphy’s in 1981. Since then, Papa Murphy’s has established itself as the largest “Take ‘N’ Bake” pizza company in the world – and is now the fifth-largest pizza company in the United States with over 1,200 stores in 37 states (59 in the greater Sacramento area). Papa Murphy’s corporate headquarters are located in Vancouver, Washington.
The core values at Papa Murphy’s are :“Great quality; Great value and Great customer service.” Because of this, Papa Murphy’s was voted “#1 Rated Pizza Chain” by participants in Zagat Survey’s 2010 Fast Food Survey and is a four-time recipient of “Pizza Today’s” Chain of the Year award.
Locally we have three Papa Murphy’s stores: 65 Fair Lane in Placerville – (530) 626-8997; 3440 Palmer Dr # 8F, Cameron Park – (530) 676-4557 and 2209 Francisco Dr # 180, El Dorado Hills – (916) 933-7276.
Patrick Stewart owns the Placerville store and was kind enough to provide two of the new
Thai Chicken deLITE pizzas for our test taste. The store in Cameron Park is owned by Raman Dhillon and Greg Wellington owns the El Dorado Hills store, along with others. Wellington is also the regional manager for the area and made sure we knew about the new pizza by sending us a news release.
Papa Murphy’s has a large list of different kinds of pizzas and often has discount coupons inserted in issues of this paper. But, even without a coupon, they point out “our whole menu is a value menu.”
In the category of deLITE pizzas, which make up one-third of their sales, is found the Chicken Bacon Artichoke deLITE, Herb Chicken Mediterranean deLITE, Veggie deLITE, Meat deLITE and the Pepperoni deLITE, in addition to the new Thai Chicken deLITE.
Their Signature pizzas includes Papa’s Favorite, Murphy’s Combination, The Cowboy, Gourmet Chicken Garlic, Papa’s All Meat and Gourmet Vegetarian.
They also have four “Stuffed” pizzas, including a 5-Meat Stuffed, Chicago-Style Stuffed, Chicken Bacon Stuffed and Big Murphy’s Stuffed.
Side items include chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Cheesy Bread, Cinnamon Wheel, salads, S’Mores Pizza and soda.
Each pizza comes with full baking instructions and a baking tray. And, if you want crispier crust, slide it off the tray after ten minutes directly onto the oven rack. To get it out of the oven, slide it back onto the baking tray.
So, how was the Thai Chicken DeLITE? Very good. It was not too spicy, but did have a slight bite, and it had a somewhat sweet taste, due to the sweet chili sauce. It was also not too filing and I had to put it away so that I didn’t eat it all at one sitting.
For more information, visit www.papamurphys.com or go to Facebook at www.facebook.com/papamurphyspizza.