Braided Calzones

Are you overwhelmed with big intricate holiday meals lately! Whip up a finger food friendly dinner while you whip out some more wrapped presents!

So here is a quick and easy impressive appetizer or finger food for you.  Some nights my fiance and I like to chat over some beers and pick at finger foods, so I need to be on my toes with interesting finger food dinners.  A couple weeks ago I made chicken and cheese biscuit pockets.  This week I had some left over pizza dough in the fridge, which is always a good thing to have lying around- it is so versatile. 

I must confess this is not an original idea, I did see it on a tv commercial once- some sort of Mexican twist with a puff pastry instead.  Any dough, cheese or theme will work- it is just the fancy way of presenting it that's a winner.

AND I still have yet to purchase a new camera. I'm sorry I have been using my camera phone but I didn't want that to stop the blog! So we will have to make due until Santa brings me one ;)


Ingredients

• My homemade pizza dough
• 2 cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts, shredded or cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 green pepper, sliced or diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 onion, sliced or diced
• Pecorino cheese (or Parmesan)- about 1/2 cup
• 1 tsp of red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp of salt
• Olive oil or extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp of oregano

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F
2. Make sure you are using cooked chicken.  I just cut them up into bite sized pieces and sauteed until cooked through.
3. Flour your working surface and then roll out your dough into a large rectangle shape.
4. Transfer the dough with your rolling pin to a pizza pan or baking sheet BEFORE you start adding the other ingredients (believe me, I made this mistake and had to take everything off, then put back on)
5. Add all your ingredients (except the oil and oregano) on the dough but leave a good 2 inches or so of dough on the edges.

6. Cut the edges into strips- make sure there are the same amount on each side.  You could use a knife but kitchen shears are SO much easier (and I didn't want to cut through the tinfoil)
7. Take a strip from each side and criss cross them at the top of the filling.  Continue to do this along the whole thing.  Don't worry if the ends are less than perfect- Just tuck them in/under so nothing oozes out.




8. Sprinkle the oregano on top and cover it in some oil so the bread will brown nicely.
9. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes- or until golden brown and firm. I also turned it around half way through to ensure even cooking/browning.









10. I sliced it into inch - inch and a half slices for finger food eating.

*This recipe can be molded to whatever you have- no chicken? Use beef or sausage.  Maybe you have a different kind of cheese or vegetables.  I actually thought broccoli would have been divine in this recipe.  Just make sure you cook the meat before building the calzone.  You don't want to risk uncooked proteins.  Puff pastry, biscuit dough and pizza dough all work here- just check the cooking times might vary a bit though.