Marsha's Chicken Pillows

While visiting some friends, I had the chance to try chicken pillows for the first time and I was hooked! I must have made a big enough fuss about it, because the next time we visited those same friends, with a gleam in his eye, the host said, "You are going to love what we are having for dinner tonight." And sure enough, it was more delicious chicken pillows. Only this time, I snagged the recipe before leaving!!! I also, months later, ran across a similar recipe on my Pinterest feed. So now, armed with two versions, I set out to make my own creation. Here are the results!

Marsha's Chicken Pillows 

Makes 8 pillows.
Filling:
4 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup melted butter
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
1/2 cup (or more) shredded cheese, your choice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
garlic salt to taste
milk
1/2 Tbsp dry minced onion 

Crust:
1 (8 oz) can crescent roll dough
1/4 cup melted butter
2 cups crushed seasoned crouton or Panko bread crumbs (above picture used Panko) 

Sauce:
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. lemon juice
milk 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with a non-stick mat, parchment, or spray with non-stick spray. Mix together filling ingredients. (Mix things up if you like, by adding fresh onion instead of dried, or no onion at all. Add cheese to your liking, or no cheese at all. This basic recipe gives you a place to start.  For the garlic salt, I just used a sprinkle over the entire mixing bowl. You could also cook your chicken with fresh garlic instead. I also just used enough milk to help the filling stick together in balls, but not so thin it would be overly wet or run. Depending on the consistency of your ingredients, you may not need any milk at all.)  

If using pre-perforated crescent dough, remove dough from can and separate into (eight) predefined triangles. Divide filling into eight equal lumps and place one lump on each dough triangle. (It might look like too much filling for such a small piece of dough, but trust me, it works! It helps to roll the filling into a tight ball before placing it on the dough.) Wrap each filling ball up in the dough triangle, pinching seams together as you work until the entire ball is covered in dough. Dough does stretch, so be sure to cover all surface area. 

Dip each ball into melted butter and then roll in crushed croutons or bread crumbs. (Use a food processor to crush croutons easily. You can also mix things up here a bit and use croutons, bread crumbs, corn flakes, Ritz crackers, etc. You can add seasoning to the crumbs, Parmesan, or whatever you like!) Place balls on prepared cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until center of each ball is heated through and outside has begun to brown. 

For sauce: mix all sauce ingredients in a saucepan and heat through until warm and bubbly. Stir often. Add enough milk to either make a thicker spoon-able sauce or a thinner pour-able gravy; your preference.

* If you use canned chicken, be sure to remove as much water as you can and note that canned chicken can be more delicate than fresh. I found my filling to be much wetter and the chicken was soft like tuna fish when I used canned. For a firmer filling, use fresh shredded chicken. You could also go "cordon bleu style" and add swiss cheese and diced ham to your filling.