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Tired of eating pizza at the house? Try making your own calzones, a.k.a. pizza in a pocket! A simple and easy dish that works with any wild game meat you have in the freezer. This recipe is tailored towards venison, in this case, whitetail top sirloin. Still, it could be great with upland birds and even waterfowl if the right combination of ingredients is included. For this recipe, we go with your good ole steak house feel—steak, mushrooms, onions, garlic, cheese, and some horseradish. You could easily go with more traditional Italian flavors like marinara, mushrooms, and venison sausage. For pheasant, go with something like alfredo sauce, garlic, sautéed spinach, provolone cheese, and a garlic butter dipping sauce! The combinations are endless; include any ingredients you think would pair well together. Any extra sautéed goodness from the ingredients below will pair well with an omelet or scrambled eggs in the morning!
Serves: 4-5
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 1-2 lbs. venison steak
- Two 16 oz. “ready to bake” pizza dough (premade from Aldi or sometimes in the bakery section of your local grocery store)
- 1 yellow onion (Chopped)
- 1 tomato (diced & drained)
- 2 cloves chopped garlic
- One 8 oz. baby portobello mushroom pkg (chopped)
- mozzarella cheese
- 4 tbsp. ranch dressing
- 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- steak seasoning
- kosher salt
- black pepper
- 1 tbsp. fresh Italian parsley (optional)
- 2 tbsp. butter
- olive oil for cooking
Dipping Sauce*:
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp. of prepared horseradish (to taste)
- ½ tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ tsp. kosher salt
- ½ tsp. fresh cracked back pepper
*marinara dipping sauce would also work if you didn’t care for the creamy horseradish sauce.
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Choose your venison steak of choice. Loins, top round, eye of round, and sirloin tip would be suitable options. I chose the top sirloin because it was the first thing I saw in the freezer. Chunk up your steak in bite-size pieces, about 1” x 1” or a little smaller should do the trick. Season them up on all sides with your favorite steak seasoning. We used ours, RELOAD Magnum blend. After the meat is seasoned, set to the side.
Put a medium chop on your onion. If your mushrooms didn’t come pre-sliced, chop them up as well, roughly the same size as the onions. Dice up your tomato and place the dicings on a paper towel(s) to drain/absorb as much fluid as possible. This will minimize drainage within the calzone, which can make it soggy.
Preheat a 10” skillet to medium-high heat, and then add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil (not extra virgin, just regular olive oil) and one tablespoon of butter (optional). Now begin browning your chunks of steak. Make sure to get a good sear on all sides without overcooking the pieces. Ideally, we want medium to medium-rare at this point.
Once your steak is done, remove it from the heat and set it aside. Then, add your mushrooms and a small pinch of salt and pepper. Add one tablespoon of butter to help with browning. Make sure to scrape off all of the brown bits left behind from the steak. When your mushrooms get some good color to them, add in the garlic and sauté them for another minute or two, making sure it doesn’t burn. Once the garlic is done, remove the mushrooms and garlic and set aside. Then, add in your onions with a small pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté the onions until they become translucent and get just a little bit of color to them. Before removing them, add one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and sauté for another minute. Then remove the onions and let them cool off on the counter. This will help minimize steaming inside the calzone.
Remove your pizza dough from the bag and place it on a greased cookie sheet. Slice it into two pieces for large calzones or three pieces for small/medium calzones.
Lightly stretch your pizza dough portion to ensure all ingredients will fit inside while leaving about an inch of dough around the edge to create a good seal. When placing the ingredients, ensure you get just a little of everything. Add your steak, mushrooms, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cheese, and about 1-2 tablespoons of Ranch dressing for some creaminess (you could opt for some garlic Aioli (mayo with a little minced garlic) instead of Ranch; I would avoid using the creamy horseradish dipping sauce due to sour cream possibly curdling. Chop up some parsley and include that as well.
If you wanted, you could combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix them together before placing them on the dough. Once all of the ingredients are in there, carefully pull the dough over itself and give a good pinch to the edges to create a good seal. Place in the oven and bake until it gets golden brown on the outside for about 12-15 minutes, depending on the oven. For us, it took 15-17 minutes until the dough was set on the bottom.
Once they are done, bring them out and let them rest for about 8-10 minutes, as the cheese inside will be molten lava! After resting, slice it open, dip it in your sauce, and enjoy!
--Wild Game Cook
