Chicken Pillows with Creamy Parmesan Sauce
If you have never tried chicken pillows please try them. Your family will love you! These chicken pillows with creamy Parmesan sauce are simply awesome.
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.)
What to Serve With This
- Green Salad
- Steamed vegetable or this Fresh Green Bean Salad
- Fresh fruit
Chicken Pillows with Creamy Parmesan Sauce
Ingredients
Filling:
- 4 large large boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2 1/2 – 3 pounds)
- 2 packages (8-ounces each) light or regular cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Rolls and Coating:
- 1 batch buttery crescent rolls
- ½ cup butter, melted
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Parmesan Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 cube chicken bouillon, or 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ cups milk
- ¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup sour cream, light or regular
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
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 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 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.
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…
These turned out perfect! I let my kids help me stuff and roll…perfect lunch for a lazy summer day!
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! 🙂
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!
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!
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!
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!
Pillow chicken
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!!
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
I’m definitely in the lucky 28% who knows what a Chicken Pillow is..and these look SPECTACULAR!!!
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. 🙂
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 🙂
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!
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!!!
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!
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
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).
Your pictures are stunning! What beautiful colors! (and the food looks delicious too!)
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.
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!!!!
that looks uber yummy…
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!
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.
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!!
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!
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.
Had no idea that a Chicken Pillow even existed! These look amazing!
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!
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.
Yummy, those chicken pillows look amazing. I love your food blog, and I did subscribe 🙂
This looks delicious! 🙂
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?
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.
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!
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
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.
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 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.
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.
Amy – good question, for this full batch, I would say I probably used maybe 3-4 cups.
when you cook the chicken in the crockpot, do you start out with thawed or frozen chicken??
Claire – I throw it in frozen since that’s usually what I have on hand (and haven’t taken the time to thaw it).
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!
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.! 🙂
You’re confusing me with math! Quick! Someone gimme a chicken pillow! 🙂
Too complicated for me. I’d like someone else to make these delightful sounding treasures for me.
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).
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?
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.
I am 99% sure I am going to make these!! They look impressive:-)