The 3-Ingredient Stuffed BBQ Buns Your Whole Family Will Love

Everyone is always looking for new and creative ways to break away from the humdrum and make meals that amaze. When those dishes are also easy to put together, you know you're onto a winner. There are plenty of ways to repurpose leftover pulled pork, but you're generally not in store for something that's outside the norm. Yet, armed with some cheese and convenient Pillsbury dough, you can transform that mouthwatering pork into a BBQ dish that will make your palate do a happy dance.

The beauty of this concept lies partly in its simplicity. All that's required is to mix your pulled pork with BBQ sauce — place that and cheese inside some Pillsbury dough, and let the oven do the rest. Even when the dough is stuffed, the cook time shouldn't vary much from the package instructions, meaning you're just minutes away from serving a unique, tasty meal folks can get excited about.

Call it a mock empanada, calzone, or stromboli -– it tastes just as good by any name. If you are a fan of Pillsbury's biscuits, use those. If you prefer the flakiness of crescent rolls, those function just as well. Pizza dough, pie crust, or really any premade dough works with this idea. And with a little extra effort, you can stuff even more flavor into these appealing BBQ pork buns.

While cheese, melt-in-your-mouth pulled pork, and flaky Pillsbury dough baked to perfection are typically enough to please any crowd, that doesn't mean this simple recipe can't be improved if you're so inclined. Tossing in some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce gives these tasty concoctions a fiery kick, and you can boost the spicy factor by using pepper jack as your cheese. Mixing the pork with canned or fresh green chiles would have a similar effect. If you're interested in including veggies in the mix, potatoes, peas, carrots, and onions would all make welcome additions, as would some fresh bell peppers for added crunch (just be cautious about overstuffing the dough).

There's also nothing stopping you from using another meat in the filling. Have some leftover rotisserie chicken from Costco that needs a home? Shred it up and mix it with your favorite BBQ sauce, and proceed to build your faux empanadas just as you would with pork. You could also go for a Middle Eastern twist by pairing ground beef and tomato sauce mixed with cumin, smoked paprika, and cilantro. As long as all the flavors are balanced, there is really no wrong way to stuff these scrumptious little pockets of delight by incorporating things from the fridge that need to get used up.