Trying something different today... I'm going to write about my restaurant experience and my recreation in the same blog post.
If you know me, you know that I keep myself pretty busy. I am a nursing student, so busy should really be my middle name. I also really enjoy photography. I decided to combine the two and became class historian. It's fun, and it gives me an excuse to carry my camera to school.
A few weeks back, the class officers got together to talk about fundraising ideas to help offset the cost of graduation for the class. We met at a restaurant called Ledo's Pizza. They had a nice little meeting room we could use. They have a pretty impressive menu... but the thing that stuck out to me was the Buffalo Chicken Wing Calzone. When I first moved down to Fredericksburg, I was on the hunt for the closest thing to a true Buffalo Wing. I went many places and found that Buffalo Wild Wings was really the only place (at least so far... but I'm willing to take suggestions.) Quaker Steak and Lube is a close second. But, this calzone perked my interest... I just had to try it.
It was huge! Barely fit on the plate. It was cheesy and had a really tangy buffalo sauce and perfectly cooked chicken. Even better, you could get blue cheese crumbles on the side! Yep, none of that ranch stuff. Real Buffalo Chicken Wings are NOT served with ranch.
I really enjoyed the calzone. I was only able to eat half of it, but I did take the other half home and had it for lunch the next day, with my left over blue cheese crumbles.
Finally, I decided to try to make it for dinner the other night. I waited until I had a day where I could make my own crust. While the crust was rising (basic pizza dough recipe I found in my Joy of Cooking cookbook), I cooked the chicken. I pounded a skinless boneless chicken breast out, seasoned it with salt, pepper and a splash of Frank's Red Hot sauce. I put that in the oven at 350 until it was cooked. (I should really look at the time when I put things into the oven, but I watch them like a hawk to see when they are done cooking.)
To put the calzone together, I took 1/4 of the dough and hand stretched it into a round, pizza looking crust. I put mozzarella cheese, some asiago cheese and the chicken (cut into small pieces) on half of the crust. I topped that with more Frank's sauce and then folded the uncovered side of the dough over like making pierogies. I put that on a foil lined baking sheet and into the oven at 400 for about 25 minutes. I actually made two, one for me, and one for Darryl. These calzones were smaller than the one I had at Ledo's, but I still had left overs. Darryl really enjoyed it, so they became his lunch for the week. He also requested that it be added to our regular meal rotation.
I served my calzones with blue cheese crumbles on the side. The blue cheese is nice because it cools the heat of the hot sauce, but adds its own flavorful punch.
This meal is pretty easy to make. It can be a quick meal on a busy night if you buy all of the ingredients at the grocery store. I know that Wegmans has pre-made pizza dough, sauce, cheese and flavorful toppings all in one quick grab area (by the bakery in my store). You could also get the pre-cooked shredded chicken in the grocery isle by the canned tuna to make the wing-meets-calzone recipe.
By making everything on my own, this was a pretty affordable meal. I always have flour on hand. I've been buying yeast to make my own french bread. Add a bit of salt and some water (perhaps a little bit of sugar to the water and yeast combo to help the yeast along) and, in about an hour you have a great pizza dough. For the chicken... I am a bargain shopper. I love getting to Wegmans really early on a weekday morning to look for my favorite bright orange stickers that say "special today." These signal that the meat is nearing the last day the store can sell it (not the last day it is fresh) and usually the meat is marked half off. I have a freezer full of meat that I bought this way. If chicken is not marked down, I can get the chicken breasts for pretty cheap if I buy them in the "big pack" which is like bulk or club pricing (think BJ's massive tub of mayo pricing). I use one and freeze the other 9 or so.
I will be making another calzone today. I'll take pictures as I go. Tonight I have something to do for school, and Darryl will be on his own, so he'll be able to reheat this when he gets home from work, and then take what's left for lunch tomorrow. I didn't use all of the dough when I made the other two, and I left some chicken out. Today, I think I will add the blue cheese right into the calzone and see if he likes it that way.
Hope I've inspired you. Let me know what you think.
