Roasted Chicken Calzones

I actually picked this recipe up from my friend Nikki. So to start it off, I’m going to give you her words…

These are easy to make (even in bulk) and freeze well. To freeze, I typically bake them 3/4 of the way and then freeze them on the tray Once froze, I transfer them to a ziploc bag. To reheat, I thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

For the filling, we make all kinds of variations of these. I use portobella, zucchini, and spinach for my vegetarian sister; pepperoni, olive, and mushroom pizza calzones for us; and sometimes I even follow the recipe 😉 I almost always add fresh basil and extra veggies to make it a meal — just sauté them ahead of time to cook out the water or else the calzones become soggy when they cook. Taryn loves them too! To make them even faster, I often swap out fresh spinach for frozen, chopped, heat it in the microwave, and squeeze the water out. Also, Kirkland canned chicken breast or roaster chickens work well for the filling instead of having to cook the chicken ahead of time.

I throw whatever I have on hand in the calzones: button or portobello mushrooms (sautéed first), onions(sautéed first), basil, chicken sausage, broccoli (precooked), zucchini, etc. For pizza-style calzones or Stromboli (one log w/ the pizza dough), I put the sauce inside and cut a little vent in the top.

When I use spinach in this recipe or add it to something like lasagna, I get the small box of frozen, chopped spinach from the freezer section and thaw it in my microwave for a few minutes. Once it comes out, I let it cool and then squeeze all of the water out by dumping the spinach into 4-6 paper towels and squeezing it out. I usually double the calzone recipe since they freeze well & I use one box of spinach. That way it doesn’t overpower the recipe and I have room for other veggies that we like.

I definitely do not recommend getting the generic store brand of refrigerated pizza dough.  It may be cheaper than the Pillsbury stuff, but it tends to be a lot saltier and it takes away from the dish.

As for the ingredients, we’ve tried a few various and they’ve all came out pretty good in my opinion.  Jesse isn’t crazy about the spinach (neither of us are fans of it), but I didn’t think it was that bad.  I did do one minor adjustment.  Instead of using shredded cheese, I got some sliced cheese instead.  I found it was a little easier to use and it was spread more evenly among the inner ingredients.  Plus I like cheese and it added more cheese without allowing me to go nuts with it.

Overall, I really like this recipe and it’s easy to improvise with ingredients I already have in the house.  Although, I do want to find a good pizza dough recipe so I don’t have to rely on the refrigerated kind, but that’s going to take some work.

Ingredients:
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 minced garlic clove
2 cups thinly sliced spinach leaves
1-1/4 cup (5oz) shredded sharp provolone cheese
1 cup (5oz) cooked and shredded chicken
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp cornmeal
1 (13.8oz) can refrigerated pizza dough
1 jar marinara sauce (for dipping)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Combine salt, pepper, and garlic in a large bowl. Add spinach, cheese, and chicken. Toss gently to combine.
  3. Brush oil over baking sheet.  Unroll the dough onto prepared baking sheet; cut into 6 equal portions. Cover with a towel and let rest 5 minutes.
  4. Pat each dough section into a 6″x5″ rectangle. Spoon 2/3 cup of the mixture into the center of each dough portion. Fold one corner of each dough portion over to form a triangle. Press edges together with fingers to seal.
  5. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes until golden.* If planning to freeze, cook 8-10 minutes and then reheat for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.
  6. Let cool for 10-15 minutes and serve with a small bowl of marinara for dipping.

Nutritional Info:
345 calories
11.7g of fat
40.1g of carbohydrates
4.8g of fiber

October 21, 2008 · jackie · No Comments
Posted in: Chicken

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