Buffalo Chicken Calzone

Name: Buffalo Chicken Calzone
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 12 ounces shredded chicken (about 1 pound raw, see Notes); 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese; 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese; 1 pound pizza dough; ¾ cup Frank's Red Hot; 4 tablespoons butter (melted); 1½ tablespoons ranch dressing

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Make this savory buffalo chicken calzone for a comforting high protein dinner! One calzone serves 2 people perfectly – make the full recipe and you’ll have dinner two nights in a row with just 35 minutes of cooking.

A crispy, freshly baked buffalo chicken calzone cut into triangles on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

If there’s one thing you should know about us, it’s that we’re buffalo chicken fanatics. And after making recipes like buffalo chicken cheesesteaks, buffalo chicken pizza, and even buffalo gnocchi, it finally felt like time to venture into calzones.

We make pizza at home all the time, so making a calzone was a fun new project for us! It’s really not as hard as you might think, and it’s such a delicious change-up to pizza night. Especially when you stuff it with cheesy buffalo chicken and munch on it while watching a football game.

What To Expect

Great for: An easy comfort food dinner or game day party food.
Ready in: About 35 minutes.
Serves: 2 calzones.
Flavor profile: Spicy, savory buffalo flavor.
How to make it: Mix the chicken, cheese, and sauce together to make the filling. Split the dough in half, stretch into rounds, then add the filling to one half of each to make a semicircle. Fold the dough over and seal the edges, vent the tops, then bake until golden brown and crispy.

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Why We Love This Recipe

Buffalo chicken and pizza are two of my favorite things. And this recipe combines them into a beautiful, hand-held pizza pocket, so I can take two of my favorite things everywhere I go. 😍😋
– Alex

Key Ingredients

Ingredients for making a buffalo chicken calzone: pizza dough, shredded chicken, shredded mozzarella, shredded cheddar, butter, Frank's Red hot, and ranch dressing.

Shredded chicken – We find that plain shredded chicken works best in a calzone because you get the most even distribution of chicken in every bite! Boil or poach the chicken and shred it ahead of time so it’s not piping hot when it goes into the calzone.
Two cheese blend – Buffalo chicken and cheddar are the perfect pair to us. But this is still a calzone, so we like to use both cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese for the best flavor. We recommend shredding the cheese yourself from a block to get the best melt!
Buffalo sauce – We recommend a thick, creamy buffalo sauce that won’t get watery inside the calzone. We make our own with Frank’s Red Hot, butter, and ranch dressing, but of course you can always use store-bought.
Pizza dough – Homemade dough or store-bought works for this recipe. If you’re using store-bought, make sure to buy it fresh (day of is best) and let it proof on the counter for about 30 minutes to an hour before working with it.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

How To Make Buffalo Chicken Calzones

A blue bowl filled with a mixture of shredded chicken, buffalo sauce, shredded cheddar, and shredded mozzarella.

Step 1: Add the shredded chicken, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, and most of the sauce to a large bowl. Stir well to combine.

A ball of pizza dough being split in half with a bench knife on a floured work surface.

Step 2: Flour a clean work surface and your hands, and split the pizza dough into two equal pieces using a bench knife or sharp chef’s knife.

Unbaked pizza dough stretched into a circle on a floured counter.

Step 3: Reshape each piece of dough into a ball, then stretch each one into a roughly 8 to 10 inch circle.

Unbaked pizza dough with a layer of buffalo sauce spread on it.

Step 4: Spread 1 to 2 tablespoons of buffalo sauce onto each dough circle, leaving about an inch of space around the edges so you have room to seal the calzones.

Unbaked pizza dough with buffalo sauce, shredded chicken, and cheese on it.

Step 5: Spoon the filling onto one half of each dough circle, dividing it evenly amongst the two calzones.

Pizza dough filled with buffalo sauce, buffalo chicken, and cheese being folded over into a calzone half moon shape.

Step 6: To seal each calzone, start by folding the dough over the filling to create a half moon shape. Align the dough so that the top edge is just shy of the bottom edge, then press along the seam to seal the top and bottom together.

Folding pizza dough into a half moon shape for making a calzone.

Step 7: Now, fold the exposed bottom edge of the dough over the top dough. Again, press along the seam to seal well.

An unbaked calzone being vented with a bread lame on a parchment lined baking sheet before going into the oven.

Step 8: Cut a small slit in the top of each calzone to vent them.

Two freshly baked buffalo chicken calzones on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Step 9: Bake until golden-brown and crispy. Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Expert Tips

Use room temp or cold chicken – Avoid putting piping hot shredded chicken into the calzone filling. If it’s too hot, the moisture from any steam coming off of it will get trapped inside the calzone and may make your dough soggy. We recommend making shredded chicken ahead of time (either earlier in the day or the night before) and keeping it in the fridge until you’re ready to make calzones.
Use freshly shredded cheese – Shredding the cheese yourself may be extra work, but it’s so worth it. Freshly shredded cheese melts better than pre-shredded cheese which means a gooey and more structurally sound calzone.
Mix the filling instead of layering – We find that mixing the chicken, cheese, and sauce together creates a nice distribution of ingredients inside the calzone while preventing any puddles of sauce that could make the dough soggy.
Don’t add too much sauce – Too much sauce spread onto the dough might cause a soggy bottom! Only use about 1 to 2 tablespoons of sauce – a thin layer – before adding the filling.
Add a vent – You must add a vent to the top of your calzone to prevent steam from building up inside of it, which could cause the dough to crack or create large air pockets inside the calzone. A small slit with a knife or bread lame is all you need.
Cook until golden brown – Since the chicken has already been cooked, you don’t need to worry about heating the calzone to a specific internal temperature; you’re basically just waiting for the cheese to melt and the crust to brown. So once your calzone is golden brown on all sides (make sure to check the bottom!), you’re good to go.

A crispy buffalo chicken calzone filled with shredded chicken, cheese, and buffalo sauce.

Serving Suggestions

If you make our buffalo sauce recipe, you will have some extra left over. We like to serve this as a dipping sauce for the calzone for extra buffalo flavor! You can also serve buffalo chicken calzones with blue cheese dressing or ranch dressing.

Make these calzones for an easy dinner when you’re craving comfort food, or for a game day appetizer everyone will gobble up. You can easily slice them into smaller pieces so there’s plenty to go around for a crowd.

FAQs

Our buffalo chicken calzone bakes for about 10 to 12 minutes in the oven at 500F. But instead of using time as a guide, look for a golden-brown crust to know when it’s ready.

This is up to you! We find that we can easily split one calzone in half to eat for dinner, where we each end up with a pita pocket-like handheld section. But you can also slice a calzone into long rectangles or triangles, depending on how many pieces you want. Note that slicing it into more sections will be a bit more of a mess since you’re exposing multiple sides of the filling.

Reheat buffalo chicken calzones in the oven at 300F. The time will vary depending on if you’re reheating a whole, unsliced calzone (this will take about 30 minutes) versus smaller, sliced pieces that are open on the sides (these may take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes).

Related Recipes

Love this recipe? You may enjoy these recipes, too:

Buffalo Chicken Dip Sliders

Buffalo Chicken Nachos

Shredded Buffalo Chicken Tacos

Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Taquitos

Tell us what you think!

We hope you enjoy this recipe! When you try it out, please leave a review and a star rating in the comments below. Happy cooking! – Nicole and Alex

Nicole & Alex Langdon

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 20

Cook Time 15

Total Time 35

Course Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine American, Fusion, Italian

Servings calzones

Calories 1399 kcal

Ingredients

▢ 12 ounces shredded chicken about 1 pound raw, see Notes
▢ 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
▢ 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
▢ 1 pound pizza dough

Buffalo Sauce

▢ ¾ cup Frank's Red Hot
▢ 4 tablespoons butter melted
▢ 1½ tablespoons ranch dressing

Instructions

Add the shredded chicken, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, and most of the sauce to a large bowl. Stir well to combine.
Flour a clean work surface and your hands, and split the pizza dough into two equal pieces using a bench knife or sharp chef’s knife.
Reshape each piece of dough into a ball, then stretch each one into a roughly 8 to 10 inch circle.
Spread 1 to 2 tablespoons of buffalo sauce onto each dough circle, leaving about an inch of space around the edges so you have room to seal the calzones.
Spoon the filling onto one half of each dough circle, dividing it evenly amongst the two calzones.
To seal each calzone, start by folding the dough over the filling to create a half moon shape. Align the dough so that the top edge is just shy of the bottom edge, then press along the seam to seal the top and bottom together.
Now, fold the exposed bottom edge of the dough over the top dough. Again, press along the seam to seal well.
Cut a small slit in the top of each calzone to vent them.
Bake until golden-brown and crispy, about 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

One last step:Please consider to let us know how it was!

Notes

Shredded chicken – Boil or poach the chicken and shred it ahead of time so that it can cool to room temperature before you mix the filling. We prefer to make it earlier in the day or the night before, then put it in the fridge until dinnertime.

Shredded cheese – For the best melt, buy blocks of cheese at the store and shred it yourself. Bagged shredded cheese has a coating on it that keeps it from melting properly.

Buffalo sauce – We recommend a thick, creamy buffalo sauce that won’t get watery inside the calzone. We like to make our own so we’ve included the recipe for it, but you can also use store-bought if you prefer.

Pizza dough – Homemade dough or store-bought works for this recipe. If you’re using store-bought, make sure to buy it fresh (day of is best) and let it proof on the counter for about 30 minutes to an hour before working with it.

Nutrition

Serving: 1calzoneCalories: 1399kcalCarbohydrates: 111gProtein: 80gFat: 71gSaturated Fat: 36gPolyunsaturated Fat: 7gMonounsaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 273mgSodium: 5598mgPotassium: 729mgFiber: 3gSugar: 15gVitamin A: 1700IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 701mgIron: 7mg

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