Secret Recipe Club: Chicken and Broccoli Calzones

Are you drooling just a little yet?? This July edition of the Secret Recipe Club is courtesy of the fantastic blog, Flying on Jess Fuel. I had such a great time browsing through the extensive recipe collection available on Jess' blog. SO many fantastic options. My husband was helping me pick out what to make, and we selected THREE before we even got three pages through the chicken group! The baked chicken salsa and Crock Pot Roasted Whole Chicken are both coming up soon... mmm... I could easily find something my family would enjoy every night of the week on this blog. Check out Jess' "About Me" page to learn more about her and her husband, Nick, who is a Navy pilot (if for no other reason, go visit the about me page to see the super cute picture of the two of them). Jess says when she first met her future husband she impressed him with her jalapeno eating skills!! Ok, this spice wimp right here is going to go eat bread, drink milk, and be happy for Jess that she has such tough taste buds. :)

So, back to the food, the delicious, versatile, man-pleasing food. These calzones totally hit the spot, and were whipped together in no time flat. I used one of my pizza dough recipes which doesn't require a rise which sped up the process. I also added a couple different sauces to the calzones to see how they would come out - and just because it's what we do, we added BACON to ours! This recipe makes four very good sized calzones - I ate about 2/3 of one and my husband and son each ate a full one plus 1/3 of another.

You can change the filling ingredients up however you want - we also distributed a can of mushrooms amongst three of the calzones which was a good addition. On two of our calzones I used about 3 TBS of Sweet Baby Ray's original BBQ sauce, for one of them I used Ranch dressing, and for the other one I used a tangy yellow Carolina style BBQ sauce. All three were really good! My husband and son were surprised that they liked the Ranch one - they didn't think they would, but it worked well with the chicken and broccoli. Serve more sauce on the side to dip in if desired.

Chicken Broccoli Calzones adapted from Flying on Jess Fuel
makes 4 large calzones

Ingredients
1 batch homemade pizza dough (see recipe below)
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and diced into bite sized pieces
4 large slices of thick cut bacon, cooked to desired crispiness, drained and rough chopped
6 - 8-oz frozen broccoli, steamed and rough chopped
1 - 2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 - 2 cups cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 - 3 TBS of BBQ sauce, ranch dressing, or marinara per calzone, more for dipping if desired

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Roll each of the 4 pieces of dough out into a large oval shape. Place 1/4 of the ingredients (sauce, chicken, bacon, broccoli and desired amount of cheese) on half of each pieces of dough.
3. Fold the top half of the dough over the filled half and gently press / roll the edges together to seal.
4. Place calzones on baking sheets or a pizza stone (I put two calzones on 1 rectangular baking sheet, and put both baking sheets in the oven at the same time).
5. Using a pastry brush, brush tops of calzones with the beaten egg. Add a couple slits to the tops of each calzone for venting.
6. Optional: Sprinkle top of calzones with some garlic powder and / or Italian seasoning if desired
7. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until dough is golden and cooked through.

Homemade Pizza Dough

Ingredients
1 pkg dry yeast
1 cup warm water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water; add sugar, salt, and oil. 
2. Add 1/2 of the flour and beat until there are no lumps, gradually add remaining flour (add more if needed to reach desired consistency). 
3. Knead dough for 5 minutes. 
4. Divide into 4 pieces and follow instructions above. 

Our sweet Lindsey Rose is 10 months old!! That first birthday is just around the corner...

An InLinkz Link-up