Flu Season | Cooking With Michele®

September 15, 2009 | One Dish Meals

I apologize for being away from the blog for the past few days, but flu season has hit our house. It started with a 12 hour stint at the emergency room with my CU daughter last weekend (they thought she might have appendicitis but it was “just” a stomach flu). She came home to recover for a couple of days and by mid-week my husband and oldest son (who spent Sunday watching football with her) both had it. Despite Purell, hand washing, and sleeping in the other room, it caught up with me on Friday night (including 3 days of fever) and I’m just now feeling better. I’ve been unable to look at food, which has meant no cooking, so I’ll give you my friend Florine’s easy calzone recipe.
This is a great recipe to make with kids or for a football party in the fall. It makes use of frozen bread dough, and you can vary the filling ingredients to include other meats or vegetables as you like.

Let the dough thaw in the refrigerator, then let it rise, covered, in a slightly warm place before you get started so that the gluten in it doesn’t fight with you when you try to roll it out. You want to roll it into a nice large rectangle so that you can lay the filling down the center lengthwise, then cut strips into each side flap and braid the dough over the top. I hope to be back in the kitchen soon – as soon as I can stomach looking at food again!

Chicken Calzone

Serves 8

Printable Recipe

1 loaf French bread, frozen, thawed per package directions
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 cups marinara sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. After thawing bread and letting it rise once according to the package directions, roll dough out into a large rectangle and place on the baking sheet. Score the dough along the long sides leaving about 4 inches in the center to place the ingredients. Layer half of the cheese on the bottom, then the chicken, then the remaining cheese. Starting at one end, fold the flaps of dough over the ingredients, alternating from left to right. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the crust is fully cooked and the cheese is melted. To serve, cut into slices and serve with marinara sauce.