Happy New Year everyone! My holiday season was a feast of extravaganza. With Christmas pudding, festive trifles, the mandatory chocolate concoction topped with mounds of novella flavoured ice-creams, it would be remiss to say I didn’t indulge. Therefore after imbibing in the vast array of sweet delectables, I thought this month I would dedicate all my recipes to be on the savoury side. Chicken being the most consumed, this month’s recipes shall be all based on chicken. Therefore these delightful “Chicken Pillows” as the name intones are a delightful recipe. They can be consumed as part of a main meal or a smaller version can even be made into snacks. Either they are something that you should definitely sink your teeth into this year.

Ingredients

· 1 packet of puff pastry
· 8 oz cream cheese, softened
· ¼ cup butter, softened
· 2-3 cups cooked and shredded chicken
· 1 egg
· 1 packet saltine crackers, crushed

Sauce Topping

· 1 packet of cream of chicken soup
· ¼ cup milk
· 2 spoons full cream
· ½ cup shredded cheese

Instructions

1 .Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Soften ¼ cup butter and 8oz. block of cream cheese. Then stir to a smooth consistency. Add cooked shredded chicken to the bowl.

3. Roll out the puff pastry and place a couple spoonfulls of the creamy chicken mixture into the center to fill it. Then fold the pastry around the mixture so that none of it is showing. And it looks like a pillow.

4. In a separate smaller bowl, put the egg and a little bit of water, maybe a couple tablespoons worth and beat together.

5. Dip the "pillow" into the blended egg. After dipping into the blended egg, proceed to dip it into the crushed saltine crackers and place on cookie sheet.

6. Cook the pillows at 400 F for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them your oven might cook them quicker.

For the sauce topping

Put the packet of chicken soup and milk into a sauce pan. Add as much milk as you want to get it to the consistency you want i.e. thicker or runnier. When hot enough add 2 spoon fulls of cream and cheese to your liking.

By Mayuri Jayasinghe