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Thursday, July 5, 2012

Pesto Chicken Calzones

So.
I love Pinterest.  It is yet another place where I store recipes until I have time to make them.  The thing is, I'm actually making them.  I have found some keepers, and this one is no exception.
In getting ready to move, we are working on emptying out the freezer.  It's not coming along super well, but we're trying, and I've noticed a difference in the amount of meat that we're buying.  It astounds me the amount that hides in both our chest freezer downstairs and the freezer in the kitchen.
When I buy chicken, I buy the Club Packs and split them up into single breasts to freeze.  Sometimes, my ambition takes a hike before I split up the packages.  When that happens, J will take an afternoon and grill the breasts up, put them in a ziploc, and freeze them for later use.  I found one of these bags when going through the upstairs freezer.
Enter the recipe for Pesto Chicken Calzones that uses a couple of cooked chicken breasts, and apparently can be frozen, if you get that far.
I present to you now the recipe for Pesto Chicken Calzones:


Ingredients:
1 recipe of your favourite pizza dough
1 c pesto
3 c cooked shredded chicken
4 oz 4 Cheese Italiano Blend shredded cheese
Extra virgin olive oil (to drizzle on top)
Italian seasoning
Method:
1.  Prepare dough.  Once the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 425°F.  Lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside. Divide the dough into four portions and spread each portion of the dough into an oval on a lightly floured surface.

2.  In a bowl, combine the shredded chicken and the pesto. Spoon 1/4 of the chicken pesto mixture onto half of each piece of dough. Top with the shredded cheese.  Fold the dough over the filling and pinch the edges to seal the calzone.

(At this point, you can wrap with plastic wrap and pop the calzones in the freezer).

3.  Transfer each calzone to the baking sheet, brush the top with some olive oil and sprinkle with Italian seasoning.  Bake for about 18 – 20 minutes until golden on top and cooked through.
Adapted from My Kitchen Addiction

I didn't make the dough suggested by the original recipe.  I made a smaller recipe that comes in the instruction booklet with my bread machine. So, I only made 2 calzones.  I also didn't shred the chicken because it was defrosted and I was lazy.  I chopped the chicken small, tossed it in a bowl, and added some pesto until it looked good.
Then I divided the dough in half and made as big a circle as I could.  I started the dough in the bread machine, and then took a nap.  I had lost all ambition by the time I woke up, so I tossed the dough in a ziploc and shoved it in the fridge.  2 days later, I came back to make this.  I spooned the chicken mixture on half and sprinkled with a 4 cheese Italiano blend.
I folded the other half over, pinched well, put on a baking stone, brushed with oil and sprinkled Italian seasonings on the calzones before baking for about 20 minutes at 425.
These were so good.  And so simple.  J has requested that I make them again, and I totally will.

1 comment:

  1. thanx for sharing this Pesto Chicken Calzones recipe, my family is crazy for CHICKEN , this is so easy n looks delicious
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