Mr. Food

It’s beginning to cool off here in North Texas and that always spurs me on to don the apron and start cooking.

Creamy Chicken Pockets are deconstructed, reconstructed chicken pot pie of sorts and have a delicious creamy chicken filling – what I consider a comfort food. It’s great as-is or add peas and carrots – maybe a little sautéed onion.

Serve these with a side of fruit or light green salad. Just tremendous! The whole family will love these little pockets of goodness.

I originally found this recipe from the Mr. Food series of recipes – remember those recipes through the mail?  They’d send you 5-10 recipe cards a month to fill in the “free” binder you got with the initial order? 

Yes, I fell for that a couple of times and ended up in an endless loop of paying for tons of recipes!

However, I did luckily collect a few really good recipes – this Creamy Chicken Pockets being one of them.

Chicken Pockets

Yield: 4

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Delicious flaky crust filled with comforting, rich filling.

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Ingredients

• 3 oz pkg cream cheese, , softened
• 3 Tbsp butter, , melted and divided
• 2 C chopped cooked chicken
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 8 oz can refrigerated crescent rolls
• 1/4  C grated Parmesan cheese
• Garlic salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2. Combine cream cheese and 2 Tbsp. butter; stir in chicken, milk, salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. Unroll crescent dough, separating into 4 big rectangles; press perforations to seal.
4. Spoon 1/4 of chicken mixture into center of each rectangle; bring corners of each rectangle together over chicken mixture, and twist gently to seal.
5. Brush tops of the packets with remaining 1 Tbsp. of butter, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and lightly with Garlic Salt (optional) and place on an ungreased baking sheet.
6. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 22-25 minutes or until golden. Let cool for 2-3 minutes, then serve.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

I use Neufchatel cream cheese (1/3 less fat), 2% milk and lite butter (Brummel and Brown - a great yogurt-based butter substitute) and these come out terrific and lower in calories and fat.

Keep the crescent rolls refrigerated until right before you stuff them.  If not, they get limp and are difficult to work with when creating the "pocket."

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1 bundle
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 352Total Fat: 28gSaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 117mgSodium: 562mgCarbohydrates: 5gFiber: 0gSugar: 2gProtein: 20g

Nutritional Values are Approximate.