Sunday, January 10, 2010

Savory Chicken Biscuits

Welcome to my first repurposed chicken recipe! My plan is to create a recipe using a store-bought roasted or rotisserie chicken in its entirety, not just the leftovers. But because I ended up with two chickens in two days, I had a lot of leftovers. So this dish was prepared with leftovers consisting of three legs, three thighs and a large portion of one breast.

The other part of my plan is to prepare a tasty meal for my family, but tonight I needed to prepare a movie watching snack for a movie night with girlfriends. We *finally* watched The Hangover and, OMG, hilarious. Plus? Bradley Cooper? Come to momma.

But I digress...

I present to you: The Savory Chicken Biscuit. A finger food that would work as an entree for a light supper with a salad, or a heavy appetizer. This recipe produced eight biscuits. If you are preparing this as a family meal for four or more, I'd say double it.

The ingredients: leftover chicken, celery, cream cheese, lemon juice, sunflower kernels, thyme, basil, salt, sun dried tomatoes, one roll of crescent rolls.


Debone and dice your chicken. I combined white and dark meat. This is a one-cup measuring cup, filled past the one-cup line. So maybe a cup and a half of chicken? I'm trying to be good about measuring as I go along, but bear with me. I don't usually measure in the kitchen.

Four ounces of cream cheese = 1/2 the eight ounce container. In case you were wondering.

In a bowl, combine cream cheese with two teaspoons of lemon juice, two teaspoons of sunflower kernels, two teaspoons of finely chopped sun dried tomatoes, one teaspoon of thyme and one teaspoon of basil. Add salt -- which I didn't measure, but using my salt grinder it was about 10 twists. Blend with a spatula until smooth.

When it is smooth and thoroughly blended, add in your chicken and one cup of diced celery. The filling, with celery and chicken added, should be about the consistency of chicken salad.

Unroll your crescent dough into the eight precut triangles that it comes in.

This is what happens to the crescent roll dough if you leave it out on the counter while you dice chicken and celery (and possibly leave the kitchen for 10-15 minutes to rotate laundry and check in on Facebook). NOT A GOOD IDEA. It was too soft and smushy. Good thing I wasn't going for crescent shapes.



Place one scoop of filling on each triangle of dough. I used an ice cream scoop and it was the perfect size.


Fold up the three corners of the dough over the top of the filling, and then pinch the seams closed with your fingers to form a ball.


At this point, I realized I had spilled a little bit of thyme on my cutting board, and it was sticking to the dough, which made it look like I had dropped my chicken balls on the floor. So to give it that "I meant to do that" look, I sprinkled the completed balls with a little bit of Dean & Deluca Fine Herbs mix. If you don't have an herb mix, make your own; a little bit of thyme, basil, tarragon and chervil should do the trick.


The formed balls, sprinkled with herbs, ready to go into the oven. Bake @ 375 degrees for 12 minutes, or until browned and firm, not doughy.

And, voila, the finished product. They were actually quite lovely.

I served these to two girlfriends, with a bottle of Prosecco, an assortment of cheeses, warm brie with marmalade, grapes and baguette. It was thoroughly delightful. I'll definitely be making these again, though I may add a little more seasoning to the filling in the future, to make it more savory and less chicken salady.

THE VERDICT:
Lisa - The combination of the chicken, the breadiness in the biscuit and the crunchy celery reminds me of chicken with stuffing.
Sue - These are really good.
Shana - A little nosh, a little wine, good friends and Bradley Cooper... who could ask for anything more?

BONUS RECIPE: warm brie with marmalade. Plug in your Little Dipper Crock Pot. If you don't have a Little Dipper Crock Pot? Go get one. Right now. You won't regret it. Put in a wheel of brie. Dump on top of the brie about a quarter of a jar of pepper jelly and about a quarter of a jar of your favorite marmalade. Heat until gooey, then spread on sliced baguettes. TRY THIS. Seriously. You'll thank me.

PS: If you try any of my recipes, please send me a picture or email and let me know how it turned out! ShanaOB at msn dot com.

6 comments:

  1. Shana.... not only are you my running hero, you have now become a goddess in the kitchen to me!!

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  2. What a great idea! I <3 rotisserie chickens, and for some reason, I never end up using all of it! Thanks :-)

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  3. Awesome! Looks like a must-try!

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  4. shana, do you leave the white rind on the brie wheel?

    on the lookout for a little dipper.

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  5. I do leave the rind on. And if you serve the brie on a cheese board for people to spread, it is considered RUDE to dig out the gooey part and leave the rind. Every bite should have some rind. But be warned, with cheaper cheeses the rind will not be tasty. With a good, aged brie, the rind should taste good.

    Aren't you glad you asked? I sound like a cheese-ologist over here.

    xox - Shana

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  6. Wow, wow & wow. I will have to try both of these - I have only used my little dipper for the infamous creme chesse, rotel sausage dip which is to die for.

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