My friend, Kristin, was talking at lunch one day at work about these chicken puffs she made. She makes them regularly for her family, and they devour them. Kristin is a great cook, and the puffs sounded delicious to me, so I wanted to try them. I am always looking for a way to get vegetables into Wes, so I decided to add some spinach into my puffs. Then I ended up throwing in a couple of other extra things, just because that’s what I do.
Kristin’s basic recipe is shredded chicken, cream cheese, and onion mixed together and stuffed into crescent rolls. Yum! I thought sour cream would go well in the mixture, and I had some on hand, so I included that. And some parmesan cheese, because…well, more cheese needs no explanation. Finally, I added some parsley to the filling for freshness. I love cooking with herbs! They just make food taste so bright and fresh. I also had some prosciutto on hand that I needed to use up, so I put thin slices on top of my crescent rolls before I added the chicken mixture.
The result was nothing short of amazing! My family and I loved them and I will be making them again and again for sure! The buttery, flaky crescent rolls are the perfect carrier for the creamy, cheesy chicken filling. And the prosciutto adds just a little hint of saltiness.
My batch, using one whole rotisserie chicken, made 7 puffs. How many you get will depend on the size of your chicken and how much filling you put in the puffs. I would recommend that if you have any leftover, they are best if you reheat them in the oven. I’ve microwaved them and they are fine, but the crescent roll definitely loses its texture. The texture is much better and gets all crispy again if you heat them in the oven at 350 for a few minutes until warmed through.
These would also be fun and super impressive little appetizers to take to a party. You could just use, say, half of a crescent roll for each and make mini versions. And of course, you can add or delete ingredients to mix them up so many different ways. Oh, bacon, cheddar cheese, and some ranch dressing would be delicious! Or sun-dried tomato, asparagus, and fontina cheese. I might have to try that next time!
Cheesy Chicken Puffs
Ingredients:
- 1 rotisserie chicken, deboned and shredded
- 8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
- 2/3 cup of sour cream
- 1/4 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese
- 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
- 2 Tablespoons of flat leaf parsley, chopped
- a handful of fresh spinach, chopped (about a cup)
- salt and pepper to taste (easy on the salt if you are using prosciutto)
- 7-8 slices of very thinly sliced prosciutto
- 14-16 crescent rolls (2 tubes)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine all of the ingredients except prosciutto and crescent rolls into a large bowl. Mix well.
Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray (I used my Misto with Extra Virgin Olive Oil). Remove crescent rolls from the tubes. Using your fingers, press the seams of two crescent rolls together side by side to make one large rectangle. On top of the crescent rolls, place slice of prosciutto, folding it over, if necessary, to leave about 1/2 inch edge all the way around the crescent rolls. On top of the prosciutto, put a scoop of the chicken mixture (approximately 3 Tablespoons). Fold the crescent rolls up around the chicken mixture in any pretty way (or nonpretty but totally edible way) you like. You may not use all of the crescent rolls depending on the size of your chicken and how much filling you put into each puff.
Bake until the puffs are golden brown on top. To guild the lily, you can brush them with butter when they are hot out of the oven, but they are totally delicious without it.
Enjoy!