One of my favorite pizzas has got to be the BBQ Chicken pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. I know I know it is totally not traditional pizza. I guess I just like how light it is and that it is completely different. They have this perfectly thin crust, light on the cheese, and then you get a flavor packed punch from all the BBQ sauce and then the unexpected cilantro. Somehow it just works!
I decided to try and duplicate this recipe but opted for calzones just for something different. They were awesome! And best of all the recipe made more than enough for the three of us so I was able to freeze them and had another nights worth of dinner for later that month.
This recipe was incredibly easy to make and I even brought my little guy in the kitchen to assist. He had a blast helping to assemble them! I don’t think this recipe took us more than 40 minutes. I spent about 20 minutes prepping and putting them together and another 20 to bake them. While they are baking throw together a quick salad and dinner is done!
Note: If you plan on freezing some, be sure to freeze them uncooked. I place the uncooked calzones on a wax paper lined baking sheet and put them in the freezer. Once they are frozen solid I place them in an airtight Ziploc bag. This keeps them from sticking together. When you are ready to enjoy them just place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake at 375º for about 20–25 minutes.
INGREDIENTS
1 can refrigerated pizza dough (I like Pillsbury)
1 c bbq sauce
1 rotisserie chicken shredded
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 c mozzarella, shredded
1/4 c cilantro, chopped
STEPS
- Preheat oven to 375º.
- Cut your pizza dough into 6–8 pieces.
- Lightly flour a cutting board and roll a piece of the dough out into a nice even circle. You want to get it pretty thin.
- Add a spoonful of the BBQ sauce to the rolled out dough and evenly spread it around using the back of a spoon. (Avoid the edges so that the dough will stick to itself when you go to close them up.)
- Add a nice little pile of the chicken to the center of the rolled out dough and top with a few slices of the red onion, a sprinkling of the cheese, and a couple pinches of the cilantro. (Make sure none of the filling is near the edges.)
- Carefully fold the calzone in half and go around the outside edge rolling it up tightly so none of the toppings come out when baking.
- Place the assembled calzone on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Continue assembling the rest of the calzones and placing them on the baking sheets. (Note that you will probably need two sheets to hold all of them.)
- Once they are all assembled and loaded up on the baking sheet, bake them for 15–20 minutes or until the crust is a nice golden brown.
- Remove the sheet from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before serving.
- Optional: Serve with an extra side of BBQ sauce or ranch if you’d like.
- Enjoy!
If you like this unique pizza recipe then you should give this one a try too!
divadicucina.com 