Posts Tagged ‘buffalo chicken calzones’

Why Buffalo Chicken Rules

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Alright, this is just a quick shoutout to remember that Buffalo Chicken Calzones are the greateast food on earth and you need to be eating them more and more.

If you try and encrust this in macadamia nuts, I will kick you in the nuts.

If you try and encrust this in macadamia nuts, I will kick you in the nuts.

Here is an excerpt from some jabroni that doesn’t know anything about food. They are reviewing the top 10 places in the USA to get either steak or seafood.  One of those places happens to be right here in Boston. lets check it out.

“We like to start by pairing traditional raw bar selections, such as ceviche three ways, with the sniffle-inducing spiciness of Thai-style lettuce wraps with hot chili sauce. Entrées are generous, and textures, colors and tastes are creatively intermingled on each plate. Dishes may include macadamia-encrusted swordfish, served with slightly chilled soba noodles and crispy spinach that dissolves in your mouth, or dry-aged New York strip sirloin with sweet soy, cilantro, ginger and red chilies, with matchstick potatoes.”

Wow, Really? You would honestly rather have that then a buffalo chicken calzone? Your settling into your couch on a nice crisp autumm sunday to watch some football and you would want to eat chilled soba noodles and crispy spinach? STOP IT.

Looks, maybe I take that new york stip sirloin and throw it in the calzone drenched in franks red hot, but if you put any sweet soy or thai lettuce wraps within a mile of me , I’ll probably throw up.  Plus, can you eat all that with your hands? Wheres the side cup of dipping sauce? Exactly, Now George may not technically be a 5 star chef, but in my book he can make me a calzone whenever he pleases.

Seriously, step up, what the hell is “ceviche”?

Tune in next week when we break down why a buffalo chicken calzone is the world’s greatest hangover food.

“crispy spinach that dissolves in your mouth” – Cotton Candy dissolves in my mouth too, but I stopped eating that years ago. Leave a comment if your with me, gimme a little A-Men!

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Posted in Buffalo Chicken Calzone Restaurant Reviews | 5 Comments »

How Many Calories In A Buffalo Calzone?

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Buffalo Chicken Calzone is back and will be attempting to make more regular posts. Don’t worry we are still eating more calzones than is healthy, we just need to post more! Thanks.

The Worlds Greatest Question?

The Worlds Greatest Question?

Scholars have debated for centuries about just how many calories are in a buffalo chicken calzone. Now, when you think about just how big and delicious some of these items are, it makes you really wonder. Clearly buffalo calzones are more of a religious food and you shouldn’t be eating them if your worried about calories. Plus depending on just how big, or what type of chicken and cheese are used in the recipe can make all the difference.

Lets break down a large calzone from Georges Pizza in Natick.

Bread: The Shell that forms around all of the other calories, contains perhaps the most calories of the zone. The bread is that deliciously bad for you full of carbs kind and when lightly toasted creates the worlds most beautiful resting place for buffalo. Now, I would say on a small it is around 500-700 calories, But for a diesel large its gotta be 1500 just to be safe. Oh yeah, its COVERED IN CHEESE.

Bread – 1500 Cals , great start here

Chicken: Some restaurants have chosen to use white meat chicken in their calzones which is an absolute joke. If im gonna be eating 4 times my recommended daily caloric intake, it better be some chicken fingers in that bad boy.

Chicken: White – 1,000, Fingers 1,500 (Both are smothered in sodium anyway)

Cheese: Some on the outside, LOTS on the inside. I mean the whole things a cheese. I’ve even asked for extra cheese just to be a total asshole. Clearly, its dominant because the number one pick in our calzone draft always seems to be the one with a beautiful layer of cheese resting on top. This can’t be good.

Cheese – 500 (I hope)

Buffalo Sauce- Now franks red hot uses to its advantage a law that says less than 5ml serving size can contain no calories. So if you look at Franks and it has less than 5 calories per TINY serving, its listed as 0. DANGEROUS. Seeing as how I drank nearly a gallon in 2 months and I know that stuff has enough sodium to make the Dead Sea jealous. (But I guess no calories!)

Buffalo Sauce – 0! joking probably 100

Blue Cheese- The final monstrosity of the calzone is the blue cheese. A small comes with one dipping cup and a large with 2. Now blue cheese is insanely creamy and delicious however, its not exactly health food. While the mold helps me fight of disease and taste great its probably running at 500 calories per dipping cup. Eat a large and try not to use both, oh you did? Liar

Blue cheese – Somewhere between 500 and 1,000 depending on how hard your self medicating and hate yourself.

So lets take a tally at the numbers we have for a large calzone!

Bread – 1500

Cheese – 1,000

Chicken - 1,500

Sauce- 100 probably more like 250

Blue Chese 500 – 1,000

Total – 5,000 Depending on just how stuffed and delicious your calzone is, it probably packs in 5,000 calories. If your a chronic dipper, this can really add to your intake. One good thing is Georges in not open late which means you can avoid eating this meal while hammered and adding on to your 1,500 calories from drinking.

However this raises another question that scholars have debated for years and even got an egyptian pharoh killed back in the day.

Are Buffalo Chicken Calzones the worlds best hangover food/cure?

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Posted in Buffalo Chicken Calzone Articles, Buffalo Chicken Calzone Restaurant Reviews, Buffalo Wings, buffalo chicken wrap | 2 Comments »

Buffalo Product Power Rankings

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

After eating nearly every type of buffalo chicken product that I could get my mouth on for the last 10 years, I have decided to rank the ways to eat Buffalo Chicken Products. Below are the power rankings for all the buffalo products that I have encountered on my journey thus far, enjoy.

1. The Calzone

It was a monster

It was a monster

When done well,this item allows for maximum flavor and welcomes at least two types of cheese. The fill you receive from the deliciously toasted crust enables it to fill you up and is a great value. Despite the debate over styles and recipes, I think we can all agree Buffalo Calzones are the best buffalo variation ever.

2. Wings- The food that started my addiction to hot sauce remains dear to my heart. I feel that wings deliver the best true flavor although they don’t always fill me up. One area that I enjoy is being able to self medicate with blue cheese. This allows you to control the heat of the wings in question. So many flavors and spices but buffalo is the best of all.

3. Wrap- This item is responsible for allowing beginners into the field, however they can often be the most mediocre product and made by unqualified folk. Girls often enjoy these and I am all for them having buffalo, but if its not fresh and delicious than that is bull. Everyone is trying to capitalize on the market but not everyone has figured out the deliciousness yet.

4. Pizza- There is no universal recipe for this item yet, while most restaurants consider it gourmet, I hardly do. Where it doesn’t score points is in bringing true buffalo flavor out. It has solid chicken usually and allows for plenty of cheese which is where it gets its rank.

5. Tenders- More of a beginner item than the wing, tenders also suffer from many sucky incarnations. I admit that I enjoy the hell out of good tenders, but people try and pretend that the frozen ones don’t suck and that does a diservice to buffalo products everywhere.

6. Sub- When used with tender, this sub can deliver dynamic flavor and heat. Slather it up with enough blue cheese and this baby always seems to deliver. I fear mediocre variations, but my go to places always know how to serve it up just right. (Georges pizza, Natick and Linden store on fridays.)

7. Burrito-

Boloco Buffalo Chicken Burrito

Boloco Buffalo Chicken Burrito

While similar to a wrap, this white meat chicken item can deliver juicy flavoring and the fill that a wrap can’t. The rice is a make or break feature, but I feel that once you know what to expect than you can really start to enjoy a well made burrito.

8. Dip- This also has many variations which we will explore in future posts, It is a strong item and should always be present if men are sitting around drinking and speaking of heroic deeds.

9.Salad- I always order because I am in the mood for tenders, yeah it comes with some lettuce but I feel the layer of blue cheese does enough to cancel out the potential health benefits.

10. Cake? Would I? YUP

If there is something I missed or haven’t discovered yet or if you have a recommendation, let me know here. Thanks

*Also, I hope to cover all these items individually because I eat them in my rotation of foods. I need to take photos of them before I devour them.

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The Draft

Friday, June 12th, 2009
The Buffalo Chicken Draft…
Envy

Envy

The legend goes that every Sunday, especially after longs weekends of debauchery, savages get together and order food while laughing at the silly things they did.

This one particular Sunday, we had played an astounding 15 minutes of badminton so we were extra hungry. The conversation always starts out with, what do you want to get? Then you dance around all the local food spots and pretend like you might order something different. Hours later you arrive back at the original choice now salivating because you just spend 3 hours talking about food.

Since we weren’t going any other place than George’s because they have the best Buffalo Products, we started to settle in on what exactly we would be getting.

The order on this specific day was for three very hungry badminton players. We talked about getting 2 large calzones and a sub? No. I kept personally adding a side of onion rings after every scenario but that was getting shot down. Wings? Nah. Boneless order? No. hmm

The difference in a large and small is a pretty good size. It might take a whole post to explain but basically if you eat a whole large by yourself you want to die. A small leaves you jonesing for more though. A large split by two people is always an option. I just can’t say if it’s better than a small or not. This needs to be reviewed on a specific case by case basis. Overall, I would rather have the small and forget about all the politics that come with cutting a large for two people or having its own whole side draft by slice.

Now we were very hungry and decided on getting 3 small calzones and a large buffalo chicken pizza. This is a solid menu item, which uses white meat chicken rather than the strips of its calzone brethren.

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Draft Rules:

1st pick gets first choice of calzone and only 2 of the 8 slices but gets to select 2 slices first.
2nd. Pick gets the rights to the second calzone and gets the 5, 6, 8th slice.
3rd pick gets final calzone and the 3, 4, 7th slice of pizza.

It could have been possible to pool together all of the slices and select individually, but you would have to set guidelines involving middle and end slices. Also the small zone is self contained in its own box/tray which is optimal for couch and gameday viewing. We didn’t want to mess up this dynamic and be forced to get out plates and all that jazz.

First pick is an ominous position. You miss out on the final slice but you might be able to snag two monster slices to even up your slice debt.

Calzones are like butterflies, snowflakes and fingerprints. They all have there own intricacies and designs that make them totally unique. You may think that the one with the cheesy layer on the outside is beautiful, but what if it lacks chicken on the inside. You may like the calzone that is 6’6 and can run a 4.3 but what if its hollow on the inside?

Everyone has their own preference when it comes to calzones. Some may like it under cooked, others crispier. That’s what makes it the greatest food on earth. We had two very solid calzones and one good one.

First Pick

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Dangerously Cheesy

Ziggy selected first overall and drafted what turned out to be the second best calzone of the bunch. He got two big but not uneven slices as the pizza turned out to be cut evenly. This was a big risk.

Analysis: I feel like he fell in love with the beautiful cheese layer of the first box that he opened. I knew he wasn’t going any other way besides this one. He had two solid slices and being the “smallest” appetite in the group he was going for quality of hunger. He had a solid day in the office.

Second Pick

The first picture in the article and arguably the best zone in the draft due to meaty insides and “intangibles” This calzone had “it”

We hadn’t chosen who would choose second and once the boxes were open we saw the large gap between number two and number three calzone. We knew we both wanted second so we decided to play rock’s paper, scissors. I demolished ledoux best 2/3 for the rights and was on my way.
Analysis: This was the Tom Brady of the draft, a solid calzone with all the right makings to be one of the best ever. It may not have been the flashiest or cheesiest of the three but it was delicious.
I still managed to pick up 2 solid slices although the last was pretty weak. If you didn’t care about the pizza this would be a good place to draft. Overall I was pleased with my picks.

Third Pick – Ledoux-

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Last pick but still a solid pro

He was “stuck” with the last calzone who would be a solid pro, but never a perennial all star. He got the same quality in slices with 2/3 being very good. Being the only one who hadn’t tried the pizza yet, he didn’t really enjoy it and ended up trading me two slices of pizza for a calzone slice to be named later. He was upset by the overall experience so I had to trade him my last slice of zone for his two pizza slices despite my last slice have a “hunchback” of buffalo chicken inside. This was a piece with tremendous upside and value. He made up for his poor day with this trade.

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He was upset when he lost in rocks paper scissors and picked last

Overall- This was a successful way to split up some food and be able to try out some different things. We were hungrier for more than just a small calzone and a sub would be too hard to split into 3’s. The cost was pretty low and George’s as always delivered its quality products. Next time I would select who is going second before the boxes are open to avoid the wrestling match that nearly took place over calzone number two. Red Dragons.

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Buffalo Chicken Calzone : The Worlds Greatest Food?

Monday, June 8th, 2009
The Most Beatiful Thing I've Ever Seen

The Most Beatiful Thing I've Ever Seen

When you order or create a buffalo chicken calzone, you are getting the worlds best ingredients all mixed into one easy and fun to eat taste full explosion. There are many factors that go into creating the ultimate calzone which we will explain later, however, I feel this blend of ingredients creates flavors like no other.

First you have the crust which is the shell for the other ingredients to lay so beautifully inside of. This can make or break a calzone but fortunately its pretty hard to mess up. Now one way to make sure the bread is a dynamic element is to cover it with cheese and buffalo chicken. You rarely want a bite that is not covered in cheese or creating a cocoon around chicken. The crust is the first thing you see when you open the box or pull it out of the oven. It always delivers a satisfying fill and holds things together.

I would say the next key element to the calzone is the chicken of course. Now there is no debate in my heart, however you will sometimes see people use white meat chicken or the breaded chicken fingers. I would absolutely recommend getting the fingers although there are rare exceptions where places can do it well enough with white meat. The problem with fingers is that they can dry out while baking if a place hasn’t perfected its recipe yet. White meat chicken rarely soaks in the juice and leads to you having to dip your bites into more hot sauce which I don’t hate but I’d rather not. When done properly, a chicken finger buffalo zone holds far more esteem in my heart than a white meat.

Buffalo sauce is the next ingredient that needs to be on the money. Some places just don’t understand what it should be. I have had recipes and sauces that are too sweet or not orange enough for my liking. I enjoy a runny nose from the heat, but Im not an ultimate hot eater. I think it should leave your mouth with just enough of a reminder that you ate a calzone. That’s why you get the next ingredient anyway.

Blue Cheese- This is a make or break element for a calzone. I have seen it be served warm which gives it a far to liquid consistency and can actually detract from the overall experience. I have seen ranched served on the side which is flat out wrong unless you order it specifically. This allows you to control the temperature and spiciness of your calzone and adds to the overall heart attack factor. Some places put the blue cheese inside and cook it which heats it up and adds to the messy factor. I am okay with this practice but wouldn’t include it on the calzone I will eat on my deathbed.

Mozzarella Cheese- This is most likely the easiest factor to get right. If in doubt always put more rather than less cheese. If you put some on the inside, don’t be afraid to get loose on the outside. Depending on your location you may see other kinds of cheese being used like ricotta so make sure you only getting the good stuff in your calzone. This is buffalo not Italian. When you get that beautiful cheesy top crust, you know your in for a beautiful calzone.

I feel that a properly prepared and fairly priced buffalo calzone is the top food on the planet. Nothing cures you from a hangover, fills you up, and is such a specialty item as a buff zone. I feel that anyone who is interested in buffalo flavor as a whole will love this food and website. Good luck in your quest to find the ultimate calzone and if you have any questions, hit me up at zfarls (at) hotmail (dot) com. (spam)

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