According to my advanced scientific polls, I’m assuming that about 28% of you know exactly what I’m talking about when I say “Chicken Pillows, baby!” and the other 72% have no earthly idea what a chicken pillow is. Am I right or am I right?
Regardless of the stats, I’m encouraging whatever percentage of you that have not come into contact with chicken pillows to do so immediately. In short, tender, cooked chicken is mixed together with cream cheese and simple seasonings and dolloped in the center of buttery crescent dough, coated in crunchy, buttery deliciousness and baked. Then, THEN!, they are smothered in a delicious, creamy sauce.
Recipes for these pillows abound and nearly 99% (see? I’m all about stats) of the recipes already out there are comprised of tubed crescent roll dough and cream of chicken soup sauce. I’ve nothing against those two ingredients (cream of chicken soup lovers, please do not send me hate mail!) except for the fact that a) I don’t keep them on hand and b) I had a gut feeling these little beauties would taste 100% better with homemade components (just like my Hawaiian Haystack experiment among other things).
I have to say that although making my own buttery crescent roll dough made the process approximately 33% longer than using tubed crescent dough, they were one-million-percent tastier – so much so that we were even snatching them cold, out of the refrigerator, for the next couple of days as little snacks here and there. Honestly, delicious. And talk about kid-friendly! My kids loved these so much they slathered me with about 76% more hugs and kisses than normal because I made them. I’ll take that.
(Please note that the percentages contained in this post may or may not be 100% accurate.)
Note: read through the recipe completely before making these as there are a couple of advance steps (cooking the chicken, making the rolls).
Ingredients
- 4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 1/2 – 3 pounds)
- 2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, light or regular, softened to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 batch buttery crescent rolls
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 chicken bouillon cube or 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup sour cream, light or regular
Directions
- To begin, cook the chicken (or use already cooked, shredded chicken). My preferred method is to put the chicken breasts in 2 cups chicken broth seasoned with salt and pepper in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours. When the chicken is cooked and cooled slightly, shred or cut into small pieces. In a medium bowl combine the chicken, cream cheese, garlic powder and salt and mix until well combined. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use.
- Make the buttery crescent rolls according to the recipe but after the first rise, deflate the dough and separate into two pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a 13X20-inch rectangle and cut each rectangle into 12 pieces (cutting lengthwise in half and then each half into six pieces). One by one, flatten each dough piece slightly and spoon about 1/4 cup of the chicken/cream cheese mixture into the center. Fold up all the sides and pinch them together to seal well.
- When all the chicken pillows have been formed, combine the panko crumbs and Parmesan cheese in a bowl or flat dish (like a pie plate). One by one, dip each chicken pillow in the melted butter and roll in the panko/Parmesan mixture. Place seam side down about 2 inches apart on baking trays lined with parchment paper, a silpat liner or lightly greased.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F for 18-20 minutes, until the chicken pillows are lightly golden brown and the dough is baked through.
- While the rolls are baking, prepare the sauce. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour, cooking over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture is golden and bubbly. Slowly whisk in the milk, stirring in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper once the milk has been completely added. Stir constantly over medium heat until the sauce thickens and bubbles, about 5-10 minutes, taking care to adjust the heat accordingly so the sauce doesn’t burn on the bottom. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and cook, stirring, until the cheese is melted. Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the sour cream. Thin the sauce with a little milk if needed.
- Serve the rolls warm from the oven with Parmesan cream sauce drizzled over the top.
Recipe Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
I am 99% sure I am going to make these!! They look impressive:-)
20-24 pillows seems like a lot for just my husband and myself. Do you think you could turn these into a freezer meal? Where would you stop? Prepare them without baking then freeze? Or bake then freeze?
I know Jody didn’t ask me, but I grew up on chicken pillows (mmm!) and I’d freeze the dough and filling separate or at the very furthest freeze them pre-bake. Nothing is worse than a soggy chicken pillow. Also, I’ve seen very thinly sliced green onion and celery in the filling and liked it (while I hated the mushrooms and cashews Mom tried once).
Too complicated for me. I’d like someone else to make these delightful sounding treasures for me.
You’re confusing me with math! Quick! Someone gimme a chicken pillow!
I have never had a chicken pillow (please don’t judge me!), but they look delicious, Mel! I agree with Becki…I am 99 percent sure that I am making these a.s.a.p.!
Thanks! I was in search of one more dinner for my meal plan this week! I think I’ve had something similar, but all together in a big giant ring-shape instead of individual pillows. I’ve made your crescent rolls a few times – we LOVE them! Thanks!
when you cook the chicken in the crockpot, do you start out with thawed or frozen chicken??
Approximately how many cups of shredded chicken did you use? I buy chicken on sale and cook it in the crockpot and then shred and freeze by cups to make it easy for recipes like this.
I almost skipped over this post because I HAVE had chicken pillows, and I don’t keep cream of chicken soup or crescent rolls around, either. You are a woman after my own heart for re-inventing these from scratch. They look wonderful and I’ll have to give them a try in this form.
My recipe is really really similar, except there are sauteed onions in the chicken mixture. I used to make the individual pillows until I went to a pampered chef party where they used crescent rolls to make a braid for one of the dishes. Now I make a braid and serve slices. Saves my sanity to enjoy the deliciousness.
I have no words for how much I want to just roll around in a big vat of these, like Scrooge McDuck would do with his money. Seriously.
I have never had these with a sauce. . . I may have to try it your way!
I made a version once with artichokes, chicken, and spinach (like the dip) it was wonderful!
-Krystal @ recipesofacheapskate.blogspot.com
Didn’t you know that 63% of all statistics are made up on the spot?!?
I’m excited to try these babies out, they do look alot more tasty than regular old chicken pockets!
Cream cheese, butter, parmesan, butter, sour cream and more paremsan. Where the heck is the heavy cream? Seriously! I going to make these immediately
I already love your recipe for crecent rolls and am so glad to know that it can be used in recipes that traditionally use the tube stuff. I really like Mellissa’s idea above about doing a braid. How do you think that would work for this dough?
This looks delicious!
Amy – I like Melissa’s idea, too. I think the filling would work great in a braid because it is very hearty and probably wouldn’t melt out of the braid. The only disadvantage to a braid, in my opinion, is less buttery bread around the filling, but overall, I think the idea is great.
Amy – good question, for this full batch, I would say I probably used maybe 3-4 cups.
Claire – I throw it in frozen since that’s usually what I have on hand (and haven’t taken the time to thaw it).
Jody – I agree with Kim who chimed in on this issue…yes, I definitely think you can freeze these, but if it were me, I’d fill the rolls, coat them in crumbs and freeze them. You could probably even pop them right out of the freezer and into the oven and add maybe 5-7 minutes (just a guess) onto the baking time.
Yummy, those chicken pillows look amazing. I love your food blog, and I did subscribe
Yummmmm! I made these today the second I saw the blog post! They were so good. I don’t work with yeast often so it always makes me a bit nervous but the buns were fantastic. The filling was great. Really really yum. Going for a long drive Saturday so I’ll be packing the leftovers for the journey.
The only thing I would do different next time: I rolled the buns completely in the butter and the crumbs. Not sure if we were supposed to do the whole thing or JUST the tops. Next time I’ll just do the tops as they were so crumbly and yummy to eat–but great nonetheless.
Thank you!
ps, I too, had NEVER heard of these, but I do make a similar one with beef filled buns.
pps: I got 24 buns out of this. The amount of chicken was perfect for the 24, as was the crumb mix–it exactly covered the 24 with about a tsp leftover! Also LOVED the parmesan/sour cream sauce. I feared the sour cream (at 1 cup) would over-power, but it was absolutely delish. The recipe did take time though. I worked nearly straight for 3 hours to bring these to life!
Had no idea that a Chicken Pillow even existed! These look amazing!
Oh yes, these babies are seen often at my house! I usually add some frozen chopped spinach (thawed, drained, & squeezed) to the filling. I guess it makes me feel like the health benefits of the spinach counteract all of the cream cheese!
I look forward to trying your recipe! However, I’ll have to be more diligent and add the bread crumbs. I’m usually too lazy to worry about it, so we just have them plain…with the sauce.
You have me convinced. I will try the homemade version. I LOVE the cheater kind, but I will definitely tackle homemade. We haven’t had these in a while either!
Yay! I’ve been wanting to make these for years, but I’m anti-tube-bread and anti-cream-of-whatever-in-a-can! Thanks!!
These sound delicious! I already have a crescent roll recipe I love, but, I’m totally intrigued by yours with the corn meal.. Gotta try this one! Thanks for sharing.
I’ve made something similar to this, but I’ve not used the cube of butter and I’ve always just used cream of chicken soup as the sauce. Very tasty!
that looks uber yummy…
Oh, my mouth is salivating right now!!!! I actually had heard of chicken pillows before, but I’ve never tried them. I am super excited to have something else to do with chicken! This looks like a fabulous Sunday dinner to me!
Thanks!!!!
I have a friend who makes these in a braid and loves it. I have made them and added frozen peas and corn to the chicken mixture and I loved it. Kind of a chicken pot pie flavor. And to whoever said they don’t make these because they don’t keep cream of mushroom soup on hand, I don’t serve these with a sauce. We all like them without the sauce.
Your pictures are stunning! What beautiful colors! (and the food looks delicious too!)
I made these on Monday night and they were a huge hit. We were all sitting around the table making “mmmm” sounds like Bob does on “What About Bob?” I put the leftovers in individual bags and stuck them in the fridge and we ate them again on Tuesday night with a fresh batch of sauce. Nuked in the micro for 60 seconds with a damp paper towel over the top they were as good as the first night. Thanks for a fun recipe that will be made time and time again (followed by a lot of running to make up for the calories).
Oh, Mel. Your recipes always keep me coming back for more. Your pillows are adorable. Another one going on my must-try list.
I wanted to let you know about my cookbook giveaway that is going on right now until July 16th. Stop on by to enter! Hope you are having a great week
http://steaknpotatoeskindagurl.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-first-giveaway.html
My kids love Chicken pillows, I have been looking for a good crescent roll recipe that would work for these. I am excited to try it. When I make mine I add the same ingredients in the filling but I also add steamed broccoli. So yummy!
I had never heard of these but made them tonight. Mine turned out kind of bland but I’m blaming the low fat cream cheese and the fact that I did not have any garlic powder.
I’m going to make these again and fill them with chicken, ham slices and shredded cheese for chicken cordon bleu chicken pillows!!!
I made these last night and they were great! I added a small jar of drained marinated artichokes that I minced to the filling and used left over turkey. I will make again…. Thanks for all the great recipes!
Made this yesterday for Sunday dinner. Yum!! Thank you so much for sharing. I, too, have been trying to make most of what we eat from scratch. I love it
This just made me hungry AND sleepy. What am I supposed to do now? You need to do a post on how to stop being so lazy about cooking and just do it. Really, I’m at a loss here. Summer has sucked nearly all the cooking life out of me and my family is doing good to get 1-2 meals a week that aren’t bean burritos. I’m 85% less effective in the kitchen during the summer.
I’m definitely in the lucky 28% who knows what a Chicken Pillow is..and these look SPECTACULAR!!!
I am one of the 72% who have never heard of chicken pillows before now, but like Becki and Kim, and several others I am 99% sure I will make these. I try to cook Sunday dinner for my family (including my grown kids, their families, my dad and 2 of my sisters and their families). Chicken pillows will, I am sure, become a very popular Sunday dinner request!!!
I may have to wait until the midafternoon temperature quits hitting 103 degrees. Baking right now is not one of the wisest choices, but oh when the temp is hitting at high of 30 degrees, YUM!
Thanks
We love chicken pillows but I can’t wait to try this homemade style recipe! We always add chopped mushrooms and celery to our chicken mixture. I like the added texture and flavor. Will be giving this a try!!
Pillow chicken
i didn’t get the reference, but man, these look great! i’ve certainly never seen chicken in pillow-form, and it’s a mighty fine idea!
I tried this last week and it turned out great. I did the bread recipe and made it with over half whole wheat flour and it turned out well. The sauce is amazing! I will never again use my cream of mushroom soup
and it was so simple! I will definitely make these again!
Mel, I made these tonight! I don’t think the recipe calls for enough butter though (wink, wink)…. tasty little things, aren’t they? So I was wondering….can I freeze the leftovers? It made so many of them…I hate to waste all of that effort!
Mel, I hate to say this…but only YOU would make your own crescent rolls. Seriously? How do you find time to do that? You continuously amaze me!
Just made these for dinner and they were delicious! I like this dough much better than what I used to use for the chicken pillows. It’s a complete MIRACLE that this dough turned out for me!…while the dough was kneading, I realized that I had forgotten to add the sugar (AHHH!!!)! I added it then, and they still actually turned out. Sweet!
Creamy Chicken Soup…
[...] ese, garlic powder and salt and mix until well combined. Set aside or refrigerat [...]…
These turned out perfect! I let my kids help me stuff and roll…perfect lunch for a lazy summer day!
Oooo! I know what chicken pillows are, pick me, pick me!
I’m totally making this for my family next time I go home for a visit…
I made these last night for dinner and they were a hit! The only differences were I used the new Philly cooking creme instead of regular cream cheese (I had two tubs I had gotten for free with a coupon), I also added a little shredded carrot to the mixture. This will go on my regular rotation for sure, I was very impressed. Thank you again for another great recipe.
I made these last night and my husband can’t stop raving. They are delicious and the dough is wonderful. Thanks.
I made these last night and they are A-MAZE-ING!!! Waaaay better than my old recipe– I especially love the SAUCE! I will double that next time. Thank You!
I’m having out-of-towners this week that this will be perfect for! I am ALL ABOUT buying rotisserie chickens when a recipe calls for pre-cooked chicken–I think this will work great with rotisserie!
Have you ever made them ahead of time (say, in the morning), refrigerated them, and popped them in the oven at dinner time? Wondering if they would hold up….
Angela – I’ve made these the morning of, covered them and refrigerated them until about 20 minutes before I want to bake them. Then I pull them out while the oven is preheating and they bake up beautifully.
I’ve made these a few times and am impressed every time at how such a simple list of ingredients produces such a lovely flavor. I also love that this makes enough for a small army. Knowing I had these on my menu (for my family of 7), I signed up to bring dinner to a family of 3 from church, and ended up offering to bring dinner to yet another family of 4. And I still had leftovers! They all raved about it and everyone wants the recipe. Thanks for another hit!
Made this for yesterday’s lunch. LOVE IT!!!
My husband picks 3 recipes from your site for me to make every week, this is one of the ones he chose this week and they turned out AMAZING!! It made a lot, so I froze some of them after coating them in butter and rolling in the panko/Parmesan mixture. My question is, has anyone frozen these at this step? And, if so, about how much thawing time is needed (if any) and how much baking time/what temp? Thanks so much for another awesome recipe Mel!!!
Hi Kris – I’ve frozen these a time or two and I bake them from frozen (because usually I’m not on top of things to remember to thaw them first). I bake them at the same temperature but add on an additional 15-20 minutes for baking. You’ll want to check them often and potentially decrease or increase that time based on your oven since all ovens vary a bit. Good luck!
Thanks Mel!! We actually had some of the frozen leftovers for lunch today! After I read your comment, I doubled the baking time since they were frozen (my oven’s temp runs a little low), and they turned out perfect!! Thanks so much!
I need you in my life. If I supply you with all the ingredients your heart desires (or all the money you need to buy them if you enjoy shopping for ingredients) will you come and be my cook? Your family can eat every meal you make for us so you wouldn’t even have any extra work to do besides feeding more mouths at one sitting… It would be a win win situation.
I’ve been wanting to make these for a long time but I’ve always decided it’s a lot of work at the last minute. Being pregnant (with my fourth) I have my eyes set on these chicken pillows and I’m determined to make these asap along with the double chocolate muffins!!
AMAZING!!! I actually halved the recipe because I am only cooking for two but was impressed at how tasty they were. I even made the cresent rolls and it was a very simple meal to make. I’m glad to know that they will freeze and I can make them ahead. Can’t wait to eat the leftovers. Thanks so much for a great meal!!!
[...] which had tons of recipes to choose from. After a few minutes’ perusal, I settled on the Chicken Pillows, mostly because I had only heard tell of such things but hadn’t actually tasted them. [...]
These were delicious and the whole family liked them, but I made them on a weeknight and I think they were a bit too time consuming for weeknight fare. These are definitely worth the effort, just do them on a day you have some time. Oh and making your own crescent dough – YUM!
Hi Mel! I made these last night and they were a big hit. I froze about half of them since there are only 3 of us, so I have a lot of leftover sauce. Any ideas about using that up in a different dish? Maybe just on pasta?
Hillary – I’m not sure how the sauce would fare on pasta. It’s worth a try. I think it would also be delicious for chicken enchiladas or something like that.
Ok….I have got to say…. THESE WERE DELICIOUS!! We made these with turkey and store bought crescent rolls, but they were incredible.
I love your website! I come here everyday for ideas!! Thank you so much!!
I just found your site, and am so happy that I did! I can make these gluten free, Wahoo! I hope to try these soon.
[...] on the bread experiments (too yeasty, not fluffy, etc), I found that the recipe from this site: Mel’s Kitchen Café, the recipes never failed me and they are easy to follow. Some of my experiments including dinner [...]
Made these this weekend and I almost chickens out and had my husband bring home a couple cans of crescent rolls. I am so glad I didn’t! These were so delicious. I no longer fear yeast like I used to.
I made these for a dinner party over the weekend, and they were a bit hit! The leftovers are great too.
[...] below is the recipe (I copy from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe with some small modification at my [...]
For some reason, your writing makes me cackle with childlike glee. And these look delicious.
This recipe has been sitting on my “recipes to try” list since you posted it a year ago. Having never had a chicken pillow before, I had no idea what I was missing out on! These were phenomenal. I mean, by far one of the best meals we’ve had in a while (and I cook A LOT, so that’s really saying something)! And to top it off, when my husband got home from work he asked what was for dinner, and I explained them to him, he said that his mom used to make something similar to these but with crescent rolls and cream of mushroom soup when he was growing up. She called them chicken squares. So for him it was a childhood flashback, if his mom was a gourmet cook! His words, not mine. Needless to say, these went straight to my “go-to recipes” list. Thanks for another great one, and also for your from-scratch mentality!
I’d only had these with canned chicken, tube rolls, and cream of chicken made by a roommate in college, and I was not a fan. I must admit I used tube rolls (prego w/ #4 and frankly impressed I’m even cooking again after a summer of “morning” sickness and lots of eating out). They were delicious and I can only imagine how good they’d be if I ever got up the courage to make the dough.
For anyone feeling overwhelmed by an already somewhat labor intensive process even without making the dough, I used one tube of the “bigger” crescent rolls. Then I made those into 8 rectanlges and halved the rest of your recipe. It was the perfect amount of filling and sauce. They were big enough for one to be a serving and there are leftovers (can’t wait till lunch tomorrow!).
Mel, I’m in a recipe group with a monthly theme and I’ll have you know that “Mel’s Kitchen Cafe” is one of our themes for next year! I’ve already taken several of your recipes for other themes (and won with Chicken Tikka Masala for Foreign Night and Asian Lettuce Wraps for Summer Favorites). With that upcoming theme I’m going to be trying more of your recipes, searching for another winner. The problem is they will all be your recipes that night, so it will be stiff competition!! I’ll keep you posted!
I make Chicken Yummies- similar but not the same. I use the pillsbury cresnt rolls, shredded chicken, cream cheese, canned mushrooms (for this recipe, they really are better than fresh, trust me) and lemon pepper. Mix all together changing amounts to taste. Roll a glob in a cresent roll, roll cresent roll in butter and breadcrumbs and bake. I sometimes make a bunch a head of time, roll ‘em up but don’t bake, put them on a tray in the freezer and then once frozen, transfer to plastic freezer bags. Let them thaw a little before baking. So good-great for potlucks and every guy I’ve ever known that has had the pleasure of Chicken Yummies love them!
I’ve never heard of Chicken Pillows, but when I saw the recipe I was reminded of a recipe our family love 20+ years ago. I’d completely forgotten about it. And . . . since I never buy refrigerator rolls, I was thrilled to see that you make your own.
This will definitely be tried out this week.
Thanks for keeping my family HAPPY with new recipes nearly every day.
Laurel
mama of 12
Mel, these look like a great way to use up all the turkey I have in my house. Would it work to use any roll dough (I am thinking of the one with instant potato flakes here, which don’t use butter)? I am thinking of this for a big crowd, and would rather do it with a recipe I have done lots before. Thanks!
Beth – I think any roll dough could work well here, as long as you press it fairly thin to enclose the filling.
Have you ever tried subbing plain greek yogurt for some of the cream cheese? Just wondering if it would work…but I would hate to go to all of the effort & then have them come out tasting funny. I don’t have a lot of experience with subbing yogurt for cream cheese or sour cream – so just thought I would ask someone who isn’t a cooking novice like myself.
Hi Trish – I haven’t tried that. I think it would make the consistency of the filling a bit too runny. The thick cream cheese helps give it some stability.
So…I can’t freeze the sauce, I take it? And then thaw it?
Susie – you could definitely try it although my experience has been that creamy sauces like this turn a little grainy and sometimes separate after being frozen and reheated.