Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Calzone

I shared the original “HeyHey’s Calzone” recipe before, but it’s always good to remix an old favorite. And Lani said she’s been craving something Buffalo, so here you go! Bam! Making dreams come true!

This is also in the same vein of using what you’ve got. Have leftover chicken? Throw it in? Some celery or cherry tomatoes? Bam!

If you’re starting from scratch (without any leftovers to use up), you’ll need to do a little prep:
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 onion, sliced
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle some Frank’s on the chicken & onion to let the sauce seep into the chicken. I always drizzle some EVOO on the chicken and toss it in with the onions, as well as some salt and pepper, for flavor. Maybe even a little garlic powder, too. Put it in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes or so, and then shred or cube it.

- celery, chopped
- cherry tomatoes, halved
- blue cheese crumbles
- mozzarella cheese, shredded
- blue cheese dressing
- Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

You’ll need to make your dough ahead of time. I usually make a double batch so I can have extra dough in the freezer. When I decide “Hey, let’s have pizza, or a calzone for dinner” I take it out & set it on the counter that morning. By the time I need to roll it out to make dinner, it’s defrosted and ready to go.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out your dough, and fill one half with the filling. I use a little blue cheese dressing as the base, then pile on the chicken, onions, cheese, dressing, hot sauce, celery, tomatoes. The best part is kind of making each one “to order”. Hubby isn’t a fan of celery (which is the oddest thing to me, but whatever…), so I make one without celery. Will doesn’t need the spicy Frank’s, so I’ll leave that out of his and maybe use some marinara instead. It will still have a little buffalo flavor from the roasted chicken, but it shouldn’t be “too spicy” for the kiddos.

Once you fold the dough over to create your pocket, brush on some melted butter so the outside will be nice and golden. You also want to cut a few slits in the top. Pop it in the oven for 15-25 minutes, depending on the size. I tend to make mine big, so 20 minutes is usually right on the money. You want to make sure the top is golden brown.

Calzones are my catch all. It’s easy to grab the dough and use whatever random leftovers I’ve got from the week’s worth of meals to remix it into something new. Leftovers definitely get tired and boring, so this is a great way to spice them up at the end of the week. And… it also helps the budget since pizza dough is very inexpensive to make, and you’re using stuff you already have on hand. Easy Peasy!