Dinner tomorrow will be Calzones!

[alfa147x]

So tomorrow I am making me a calzone
Im going to buy a pizza crust in a tube thing at kroger to save me some effort and time

my question is how can I go from raw chicken breast to pizza topping chicken ?
Also i have never bought mushrooms, what type of mushrooms do they put on pizzas? also how should prepare them?

so far:
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Mushrooms
Onions
Chicken
Jalapeño peppers ? (should i get something else ?)
tomatoes

and marinara sauce

Thanks for all the help
Alfa

 

[Vehemence]

More cheese, no onions, some bacon. Always bacon.

 

[SirStev0]

I used to make a sweet calzone with turkey, onions, jalps, and bbq sauce.

 

[alfa147x]

bacon sounds good, eww bbq sauce

 

[SirStev0]

Regular mushrooms are put on pizza. Nothing fancy.

The place I worked at made our chicken with lemon juice, some olive oil and a bunch of spices (pepper, salt, sugar, basal, oregano, parsley, and a bit of crushed red pepper). Put it in a big tray and throw it in the pizza oven for a while. Then chop it with a HUGE knife.

 

[IronWing]

Roast chicken first, then stuff in tube.

 

[sjwaste]

Avoid that crap in the tube at the supermarket. Buy pizza dough. If you have a local pizza shop (ie, not dominos) or a bakery, they will sell it to you. Just walk in and ask.

Any toppings you want to put in it should be pre-cooked, at least partially, since you're basically baking it in the oven to cook the dough/melt the cheese. Therefore, make the filling in a separate skillet, let it cool, and use it in the calzone as you assemble. With ingredients, more is less. Pick a sauce, pick a cheese or two, and maybe a couple other things. I like a calzone w/ mozzarella, ricotta, and tomato. That would work really well with chicken, even add spinach if you'd like.

 

[SirStev0]

Originally posted by: alfa147x
bacon sounds good, eww bbq sauce

I thought so too at first but then... wow.

I only used bacon when I made it. Only way I trusted it.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Avoid that crap in the tube at the supermarket. Buy pizza dough. If you have a local pizza shop (ie, not dominos) or a bakery, they will sell it to you. Just walk in and ask.

Any toppings you want to put in it should be pre-cooked, at least partially, since you're basically baking it in the oven to cook the dough/melt the cheese. Therefore, make the filling in a separate skillet, let it cool, and use it in the calzone as you assemble. With ingredients, more is less. Pick a sauce, pick a cheese or two, and maybe a couple other things. I like a calzone w/ mozzarella, ricotta, and tomato. That would work really well with chicken, even add spinach if you'd like.

Seconded. Cook your toppings mostly done - veggies, meat, etc and let cool. Otherwise stuff will be raw, release a whole bunch of water and you've got soggy calzone full of raw chicken.

-edit-
Re-read your ingredients. That's a TON of water, cook everything done then assemble/bake calzone.

 

[SirStev0]

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Avoid that crap in the tube at the supermarket. Buy pizza dough. If you have a local pizza shop (ie, not dominos) or a bakery, they will sell it to you. Just walk in and ask.

Any toppings you want to put in it should be pre-cooked, at least partially, since you're basically baking it in the oven to cook the dough/melt the cheese. Therefore, make the filling in a separate skillet, let it cool, and use it in the calzone as you assemble. With ingredients, more is less. Pick a sauce, pick a cheese or two, and maybe a couple other things. I like a calzone w/ mozzarella, ricotta, and tomato. That would work really well with chicken, even add spinach if you'd like.

This is true. We used to do it all the time. Usually just charged the price of a bread sticks (we used a whole ball for 6 sticks). Was like 2-3 bucks.

Our dough was a bitch to work with though.

 

[LilPima]

It would prob taste pretty good to roll the outside of the calzone in garlic powder/italian seasoning/parm cheese before you bake it for some extra flavor

 

[alfa147x]

Originally posted by: SirStev0

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Avoid that crap in the tube at the supermarket. Buy pizza dough. If you have a local pizza shop (ie, not dominos) or a bakery, they will sell it to you. Just walk in and ask.

Any toppings you want to put in it should be pre-cooked, at least partially, since you're basically baking it in the oven to cook the dough/melt the cheese. Therefore, make the filling in a separate skillet, let it cool, and use it in the calzone as you assemble. With ingredients, more is less. Pick a sauce, pick a cheese or two, and maybe a couple other things. I like a calzone w/ mozzarella, ricotta, and tomato. That would work really well with chicken, even add spinach if you'd like.

This is true. We used to do it all the time. Usually just charged the price of a bread sticks (we used a whole ball for 6 sticks). Was like 2-3 bucks.

Our dough was a bitch to work with though.

wow sounds like a plan
What temperature should i have the oven set at for this ?

 

[spidey07]

425-450

 

[mundane]

The one big mistake I made on my first time was not pressing the dough thin enough, although it might have something to do with the type of dough you use (from scratch). I ended up with a too-high bread:filling volume ratio after it was done baking.

 

[dbk]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Avoid that crap in the tube at the supermarket. Buy pizza dough. If you have a local pizza shop (ie, not dominos) or a bakery, they will sell it to you. Just walk in and ask.

Any toppings you want to put in it should be pre-cooked, at least partially, since you're basically baking it in the oven to cook the dough/melt the cheese. Therefore, make the filling in a separate skillet, let it cool, and use it in the calzone as you assemble. With ingredients, more is less. Pick a sauce, pick a cheese or two, and maybe a couple other things. I like a calzone w/ mozzarella, ricotta, and tomato. That would work really well with chicken, even add spinach if you'd like.

Seconded. Cook your toppings mostly done - veggies, meat, etc and let cool. Otherwise stuff will be raw, release a whole bunch of water and you've got soggy calzone full of raw chicken.

-edit-
Re-read your ingredients. That's a TON of water, cook everything done then assemble/bake calzone.

This is true. I made this exact mistake before. I ended up just eating the innards separtely -after cooking it.

 

[alfa147x]

im thinking about leaving the chicken out

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: alfa147x
im thinking about leaving the chicken out

As long as you replace it with browned sausage with seasonings of your choice you can be forgiven. Heck you can use breakfast sausage with no seasoning, then you've got some fat to cook your onions, remove onions and add mushrooms, raise heat so you're not steaming/stewing the mushrooms. They are like little sponges of flavor, give it to them.

Put in dough, light touch of sauce, bake, done. Big thing is you don't want a sloppy, watery mess in your calzone...moist, yes.

 

[nakedfrog]

Not a calzone without ricotta.

 

[alfa147x]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: alfa147x
im thinking about leaving the chicken out

As long as you replace it with browned sausage with seasonings of your choice you can be forgiven. Heck you can use breakfast sausage with no seasoning, then you've got some fat to cook your onions, remove onions and add mushrooms, raise heat so you're not steaming/stewing the mushrooms. They are like little sponges of flavor, give it to them.

Put in dough, light touch of sauce, bake, done. Big thing is you don't want a sloppy, watery mess in your calzone...moist, yes.

ok back to the chicken, i really hate sausage with a passion so thats a no go
but i can do a simple chicken bake and then cut it up

 

[nakedfrog]

Or you could cut the chicken up, throw a little seasoning on it, and then cook it in a frying pan with a little butter or oil.

 

[Howard]

http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

There's a tip here to keep the top of the calzone from burning as it expands, but I don't know if you'll run into that problem with your oven.

EDIT: That's a lot of ingredients. You may want to make two calzones with different toppings so that each one can showcase its stuff as opposed to mashing everything together.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: alfa147x
ok back to the chicken, i really hate sausage with a passion so thats a no go
but i can do a simple chicken bake and then cut it up

What nakedfrog said. Just cut it up into cubes/strips and cook over medium-high heat with seasoning of your choice. By cooking it will release a ton of moisture, heck you could grill it if you like. Just cook it just below done, if you're paranoid cook it fully done.

 

[ponyo]

poke a small hole at top before you place it in the oven.

 

[alfa147x]

ok seasoning? this consists of what?

Sorry im indian so all the chicken we make is knee deep in gravy

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: alfa147x
ok back to the chicken, i really hate sausage with a passion so thats a no go
but i can do a simple chicken bake and then cut it up

What nakedfrog said. Just cut it up into cubes/strips and cook over medium-high heat with seasoning of your choice. By cooking it will release a ton of moisture, heck you could grill it if you like. Just cook it just below done, if you're paranoid cook it fully done.

I might be drifting off topic, but I completely agree with anthony bourdain in his book where he says if the chicken's still a little pink by the bone, it doesn't mean you can't eat it.