TIme: 1 hour
Feeds: 2-4 people
Ingredients:
- 3-4 chicken thighs
- Salt, to taste
- Pepper, to taste
- Garlic powder, to taste
- Onion powder, to taste
- Paprika, to taste
- 1/3 cup Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo sauce
- 1/2 cup ranch dressing, some for inside and some for dipping, see notes
- 6 oz mozzarella cheese, grated
- 2 oz cheddar cheese, grated
- 1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 can Pillsbury traditional pizza dough
Directions: Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. On a small sheet tray lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray, place your chicken thighs and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika. Roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes until they’re cooked through to at least 165 degrees. If you want to pull the thighs, I would cook them to about 180 degrees to make that easier. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the oven and either pull or slice it and add to a bowl. Toss with the buffalo sauce and set aside for assembly. You want the chicken to be nicely coated so add a little more buffalo sauce if needed.
Next you’ll want to prep your pizza dough to make the Stromboli. Crack open the can of dough and unroll it, placing it on a piece of parchment paper that fits a half sheet tray. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin until it’s closer to the size of the parchment and as even as possible. At this point, you should make two light indentations going lengthwise on the dough to show the area where you’re going to place your filling. The dough should be approximately sectioned into thirds. Then, going off of these indentations, cut small strips (about 1” wide) at an angle on both sides. They will be what you pull across the top of the dough to close everything up before baking. Move your parchment and dough to your sheet tray if it wasn’t there already so you’re all set to fill. At this point, you should turn your oven up to 400 degrees to bake the Stromboli.
Keeping everything towards the middle of the dough between the indentations and leaving about an inch of room at the top and bottom, it’s time to start filling. Start with a thin layer of ranch dressing and about 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese and then follow with however much of the chicken you’d like in there. You’ll need to be careful to not overfill the Stromboli so the strips will reach to the other side when closing so you might have some chicken leftover depending on how big the chicken thighs were. Once you’ve added the chicken, top that with more ranch dressing, the rest of the mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, and red onion.
When the fillings have been added, you can close up the Stromboli. Alternating from either side, start pulling the strips up and over the top of the filling, taking time to stretch the top and bottom so you can pull that up as well and you have a good closure there as well. When the Stromboli is all closed up, bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until it’s golden brown and the filling is starting to get bubbly. Some may leak out during the baking process and that’s totally fine. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Cut into four pieces and serve with the leftover ranch on the side for dipping if desired.
Notes: You’re more than welcome to use a rotisserie chicken for this recipe if you’d rather not cook your own chicken. I prefer dark meat for this recipe which is why I like to cook thighs myself.
I like to make my own ranch dressing instead of buying premade. I just use the hidden valley packet that you mix with mayo and milk so nothing too involved or fancy but I think it’s better.