Chicken Puffs

Many years ago when I was in high school my mom decided to try once a month cooking. She did a lot of planning, came up with a list of recipes, did some major grocery shopping and started the day long process of prepping and cooking. Out of all the meals she made that day there was one that stayed in my mind: Chicken Puffs. I now make it on a regular basis in bulk batches which I can then take to work for an easy lunch. Over the years I have modified it to work for my particular preferences and needs. I have seen variations of this recipe all over Pinterest which shows how great a recipe it is. The original version we made years ago had many more ingredients and included dairy. Now that I am lactose intolerant I have changed some ingredients to accommodate this.

Last night I decided to try my own hand at freezer cooking and made several of my favorite meals that could easily be frozen ahead of time and then later cooked. This chicken puff recipe is made completely from scratch and is 100% dairy free!

Ingredients:
Crescent Rolls - modified from Home Cooking Adventure

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 Tbls sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 packet instant yeast
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 2 eggs
• 4 Tbls Earth Balance butter, softened

Filling

• 2 cups shredded chicken
• 8 oz dairy-free cream cheese, softened
• 4 Tbls butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• Almond milk, optional

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to dry mixture. 
2. Add milk and eggs. Mix everything together well.
3. Add butter and knead dough until it is smooth. Cover with dish towel and let it rise in a warm area for one hour. Dough should double in size.
4. In medium bowl mix together chicken, cream cheese, butter, and garlic salt. May add almond milk if mixture is too dry. 
5. Roll out crescent roll dough and cut into rectangles. 
6. Add medium size scoop of chicken mixture to the middle of each crescent roll rectangle.
7. Pinch ends of crescent rolls together. Dough should form around the chicken mixture like a hot pocket.
8. Place on baking pan and cook for 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or until they are a nice golden brown.

This recipe makes around 8-10 chicken puffs depending on how big you make them. I cooked half right away and the rest I froze for a rainy day. If you do not want to make your own crescent rolls you can just use the canned ones at the store. That is how I used to make them but unfortunately they contain some dairy. While dairy that has been cooked does not affect me as much as uncooked dairy I have still been trying to avoid it. 

For the chicken, I made a large batch using Gimme Some Oven's crock-pot recipe. All of the extra chicken I froze in individual servings for later use. Hope you enjoy!