Grilled Chicken Salad Calzone

July 12, 2013

A Calzone is basically a folded pizza or turnover pastry shaped like a half moon. The typical calzone contains tomatoes, cheese and marinara or similar sauce.  Many variations of calzone exist and several restaurants stuff the pastry with meats and other ingredients usually used for pizza toppings.  Calzones remind me of empanadas, those Spanish pastries stuffed with meat and other ingredients, except that they’re smaller in size.  In fact, in the Philippines, they make even smaller-sized  empanadas , which are called – no surprise here – empanaditas.

For this Calzone recipe, I chose to use my version of the grilled chicken salad as filling which makes marinara or other sauce unnecessary. I used whole wheat pizza dough . I used cheese as topping rather than filling.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb boneless and skinless chicken breast

1 cup frozen green peas, cooked

1/2 cup celery, chopped

1/2 cup onions, chopped

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tbsp lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

1 can (13.8 oz) pizza dough, whole wheat

1/2 cup  shredded mozzarella cheese for topping

DIRECTIONS

Heat up a lightly greased  grill pan on medium-high heat. Grill the chicken breasts until brown and cooked.  Remove from heat and let cool. Open the can of pizza dough and divide into four equal parts.  Usng a rolling pin,flattten each portion of the dough to make a  a round crust, about 6 inches in diameter. Cut the chicken breast into small cubes and place into a medium bowl.  Add the green peas, celery and onions.  Mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle the lemon juice over the mixture.  Add the mayonnaise and toss the mixture well. Take one crust at a time and place about 1 cup of the mixture in the middle of the dough.  Fold the dough in half and seal ends by pressing with your fingers. Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Place the calzones on an aluminum-lined baking pan.  Bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Remove from heat and serve warm and top with cheese.