Homemade Hot Pockets

This Homemade Hot Pocket recipe is so much better than a store-bought, microwavable meal. It’s made in minutes without preservatives or mystery meats. Stuff your sandwiches with pepperoni, pizza sauce, mozzarella, or any of your favorite fillings, and brush them with melted butter after they bake golden brown. It’s the best portable, personal hand pie!

Easy Homemade Pizza Pockets Recipe

Our easy Homemade Hot Pocket recipe is a healthier option than the kind that cooks in a crisping sleeve, especially because these mini pizzas contain less sugar, sodium, and fat found in their frozen counterparts.

Using a tube of pre-made crust is the easiest hot pocket hack; it bakes with the perfect ratio of sauce, pepperoni, and melted mozzarella. It’s so simple to unroll, stuff, and seal with your favorite flavors and fillings.

Make your pizza pocket recipe with any meat, veggie, or cheese combinations. Picky eaters will have fun creating their own homemade pockets or custom mini calzones by piling their preferred pizza toppings inside.

Ingredients Notes

• Pre-made pizza crust: Use any brand of store bought pizza dough or a homemade pizza dough recipe you love. You can even try using a crescent roll dough for your crust.
• All-purpose flour (optional): If the dough is too sticky, you can dust it with flour before flattening it.
• Pizza sauce: Use any brand of pizza sauce, tomato sauce, or marinara sauce that you love. If you have a homemade recipe, feel free to use it. 
• Shredded mozzarella cheese: Mozzarella melts beautifully, creating a gooey, stretchy texture that I love in pizza.
• Mini pepperoni slices: This pepperoni pizza pockets recipe was prepared with my kids’ favorite meat in mind. Feel free to fill your homemade pizza pockets with any of your favorite pizza toppings. Some ideas include mushrooms, onions, sausage, bacon, extra cheese, black olives, green peppers, pineapple, and spinach.
• Olive oil: Brushing the top of the hot pockets with olive oil helps create a golden, crispy crust. You can also use an egg wash instead of oil to help the seasoning stick to the surface.
• Italian seasoning: Instead of Italian seasoning, you can sprinkle a blend of herbs and spices like oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, or even garlic powder.

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

How to Make Hot Pockets

1. Prepare The Pizza Dough: Unroll the pizza crust and flatten the dough. Slice down the center of the pizza dough, lengthwise. Then slice each half into 3 pieces so you have 6 pieces of pizza dough.
2. Spread, Sprinkle, and Stuff: Spread pizza sauce onto the dough, sprinkle with mozzarella and top with pepperoni slices.
3. Close and Crimp: Fold the tops of the pockets and press the edges closed with a fork.
4. Season: Brush olive oil over the tops of the pizzas and sprinkle Italian seasoning on top.
5. Bake: Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-13 minutes until golden brown. 

Serving Suggestions

You can decide what goes inside when you make your own pizza pockets! Why not set up a DIY hot pockets station with different sauces, cheeses, meats, and veggies. Let everyone can load their crust with their favorites.

• Make With White Sauce: Why not make a white sauce variation and swap the red sauce with Alfredo, ranch, or garlic butter? You could even make a chicken Alfredo pizza pocket with chicken, broccoli, and cheese inside. 
• Bake BBQ Pockets: You can prepare BBQ Chicken Pizza Pockets too! Mix some BBQ sauce in with the pizza sauce, add cheese, diced chicken, onion and bacon bits. Delicious!
• Bake For Breakfast: You can turn this easy hot pocket recipe into a breakfast bake. Simply swap the listed hot pocket ingredients with egg, cheddar cheese, sausage or Canadian bacon.
• Prepare Homemade Ham and Cheese Pockets: Prepare your handheld snack as a ham and cheese mini meal!

Tips & Variations

• Flatten On Floured Surface: When you first unroll the package of pizza dough, it helps to place it on top of parchment paper with a dusting of flour. This way, if the dough becomes too sticky, it will be easier to manage.
• Stuff Your Snacks: When spreading the sauce and adding toppings to the pizza dough, I’ve found that it helps to picture the dough as 2 back-to-back triangles. Imagine placing the sauce over 1 of the triangles. The other triangle will be folded over to make the top.
• Spread The Sauce: Make sure to not spread the pizza sauce too close to the edges or it will leak out and cause a problem when sealing the edges.
• Don’t Overstuff: No matter what type of fillings you use in your hot pockets, be sure not to overfill them! This can cause a mess and make them hard to close!
• Vegetarian Version: Make a meatless meal or snack by omitting the pepperoni and adding an assortment of sautéed veggies. Or keep it simple and just stuff it with plenty of cheese.

How To Air Fry Homemade Hot Pockets

It’s easy to cook these hot pockets in the air fryer. Assemble according to instructions and then place the hot pockets in the air fryer basket. Cook in batches at 350 for 8-10 minutes. After 4 minutes flip your hot pockets and continue cooking until golden brown.

Proper Storage

• To Store: Store these hot pockets in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
• To Freeze: Wrap each baked and cooled hot pocket individually in plastic and store in a freezer-safe container in the freezer for up to three months.
• To Reheat: To reheat, simply bake them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 14 minutes, or until heated all the way through.

More EAsy Snack REcipes

• Caramel Apple Grapes
• Bacon Wrapped Pickles
• Pizza in a Mug

If you tried this Homemade Hot Pockets Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!!!