February 27, 2012

Grilled Gluten Free BBQ Chicken Calzone

BBQ Chicken Calzone with Pineapple Salsa

A few weeks ago when we were making pizza, Lo froze half of the Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Dough that he had mixed up. He was having gluten-full pizza, so we didn’t need one big enough for both of us – and we were curious if it could be frozen.

We popped the dough in the fridge to thaw last week and I told Lo he could come up with something to make with it. Since we’ve had a lot of pizza lately, I suggested calzones or something of the sort. And since we usually grill our pizza, I thought he should try to grill these too. One of our favorite pizzas is BBQ Chicken and Pineapple pizza, so he decided to base it off of that. If you don’t want to make these on the grill, you can probably cook them in the oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes – until the crust is browned.

This was one of the best things that he’s made – and he’s made some pretty delicious meals! The calzone itself would have been pretty tasty, but the pineapple salsa that he topped it with paired so well with the filling!

Grilled GF BBQ Chicken Calzone with Pineapple Salsa

ball of pizza dough, divided in two
4 strips of bacon, cooked
1 sweet onion, chopped and divided
3 cups cooked chicken, chopped or shredded (he grilled 3 breasts and used about 1.5)
BBQ sauce, about 1 cup
cilantro, chopped, to taste
shredded cheese on filling
more shredded cheese on top of crust after grilled with a little salt and pepper

Cook chicken with your preferred method and chop or shred. Cook bacon in a skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet to a plate lined with a paper towel. Cook 1/2 of the onion in the bacon grease until softened and slightly browned (reserve other half of onion for salsa). Stir together chicken, onion, BBQ sauce, and cilantro. Set aside. Prepare salsa and set aside. Oil grill grates and preheat (or preheat oven if not grilling).

Using gf flour or corn meal on a pizza peel or baking sheet, press dough with your hands as thin as you can without it tearing, to form 2 circles (or as close as you can to circles). Some dough instructions suggest that you wet your hands to make it easier to handle – other dough may require a little extra flour or corn meal. Spoon half of the filling onto one side of each circle, leaving enough dough to fold over filling (you may not use all of the filling). Fold other half of dough over the filling and pinch the edges of the dough together to prevent the filling from leaking out. Carefully transfer calzones to the grill (Lo used a big spatula). Grill for approximately 5-8 minutes, until the bottom is browned. Carefully flip the calzone to grill the other side. Grill for 4-5 minutes until both sides are grilled. Immediately sprinkle extra shredded cheese, salt and pepper on top of the crust of the calzones. Allow to cool for a few minutes, top with pineapple salsa, and serve. Serves 2-4, depending on amount of dough and appetite. We got 4 servings using 1/2 of the dough from a package of Bob’s Red Mill GF Pizza Crust.

Pineapple Salsa
1/2 onion, chopped (from above)
pineapple tidbits
cilantro
lime juice
chipotle pepper flakes

Mix ingredients together, until salsa is of your preferred consistency by adding more or less lime juice.