Chicken/cream cheese crescent roll-ring

 

This is not the same recipe (the herbs on top might be good though)
Picture is to show what finished ring looks like.

Crescent-roll rings are all the rage these days, yet another advance in convenience cooking. You’d think I’d scorn them, since as much as possible I’m a do-it-yourself person. But it’s hard to duplicate crescent rolls at home—even if you’re smart enough to make your own croissants, they aren’t the same. And those tube rolls do taste good.

We’ve had success with taco crescent rings (Christian said it was like being in high school again, but the resident teen-ager loved it—all the ingredients you’d put in a hamburger taco put, instead, into a taco ring) and a pesto ring—if I remember correctly, it had a lot of cream cheese and maybe some chicken. It is pictured above.

So the other night I dragged out the recipe for some chicken roll-ups I’d made long ago and really liked. The directions on my old copy of the recipe say, “Spoon into crescents. Roll them up, making sue they are sealed around the chicken mixture.” Not very specific, and I think I always came out with more filling than space in the rolls (that’s my problem a lot—did it the other night when I made tuna pasties too).

Jordan and I struck a bargain, I think because I had a dinner-hour Zoom meeting to attend. I would get the filling ready if she would make the rolls. To my surprise, she said she didn’t know any other way to do it than to make a ring. So here’s what we did:

Filling:

1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened to room temperature.

2 chicken breasts, cooked and meat shredded (Rotisserie chicken will work fine, but I recently read a warning about excessive salt and sugar injected into these chickens to keep them moist)

1-1/2 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese.

1 c. grated Monterey Jack

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

Combine ingredients, blending thoroughly.

 

Assembly

1 pkg. crescent rolls

Bread crumbs

¼ stick butter, melted.

this is an apple ring, but it shows the
basic layout of arranging the crescent rolls

Separate rolls and lay out on a large cookie sheet with pointed ends extending out from center; at the center, bottoms of the triangles should be touching. Carefully spoon filling onto the ring near the base of the triangles. Don’t let the filling spill over so that it will end up in the hole in the center of the ring.

Gently fold each pointed end over the filling. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs or panko. Bake ring at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until top is nicely browned.

Leftovers will freeze and can be reheated at 325 for 15 minutes after thawing.