Kid Friendly Chicken Pockets

As my son has been getting ready to go back to college (~sigh~) I wanted to send some food back with him. He doesn't have a cafeteria on campus so if he cooks it's in the dorm kitchen and that's not ideal. So he and I got to work making this easy to grab snack/meal of chicken pockets.

I first found this recipe many years ago in the book Once-A-Month-Cooking, but as usual I adapted it to fit our family.

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked, chopped chicken
1 3-ounce pkg cream cheese, softened
2 tbs milk
Salt to taste
1/2 cup crushed, seasoned crouton crumbs
2 pkg. refrigerated crescent rolls
1/4 cup melted margarine


Directions:

Here's the first variation: I did not use prepared crescent rolls. I made up a batch of bread dough in the bread machine (I use the same recipe to make pizza dough and stromboli), dumped it out on a cutting board, split it in half, rolled it out until fairly thin and then used a drinking class to cut out circles of dough. (If you want the chicken pockets larger use a larger glass).

***Thrifty and fast way to make these: use canned biscuits (the cheaper 4-packs).

Mix chicken, cream cheese, milk and salt in a medium bowl. Place about 1/4 cup of chicken mixture into the center of the dough.

Fold dough over the filling and pinch the edges to seal tightly.

Dip in melted butter 

and coat with crouton crumbs. (Here's another variance: I used Italian bread crumbs or you could also use stuffing).

Place pockets on greased baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

PRINTABLE RECIPE:

Okay, so that's the recipe. Let me tell you how I really do it. I use whatever cooked chicken or turkey I have and mix it with the cream cheese and a bit of milk. My son and I made a batch of about 50 chicken pockets and I used an 8 ounce bar of cream cheese. If you like it thick add extra. I don't salt anything because my family salts everything way too much.  Using the bread dough was a first and the bread was thicker than using biscuits or crescent dough.

Serve these warm or cold, as an entree or a snack. I also freeze mine, and I'm sending a bunch for my son to pull out of the freezer and warm for a quick snack. The way I first made the recipe was to freeze the filling then thaw and do the remaining steps. I have found that these freeze well. They would be great to have on hand for picky eaters, for lunch or snack time as well.

Want to see some other great recipes? Try out my Crock Pot Lasagna, Omelette in a Bag, Easy Enchiladas and Love Chicken,