leftover pockets | Hicks House

I’ve had a couple special requests for this recipe, as it’s one of the go-to staples in our house and I rave about it all the time. You may remember the variation I posted utilizing Thanksgiving leftovers. Way back then I alluded to the fact that we generally make ours with chicken and broccoli, so after much ado here it is.

Ingredients

1 Large Breast of Cooked Chicken (either cubed or shredded)
4 ounces low fat cream cheese – softened
1 cup shredded reduced fat Mexican cheese
1/4 cup diced onion
One medium head of broccoli – diced (I only use the tops and toss the stems)
Ground Black Pepper – to your liking
One package of seamless crescent dough

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of your ingredients with the exception of the dough and about 1/4 cup of shredded cheese in a bowl until well combined, ensuring a good coating of cream cheese over all of the ingredients.

Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray or a light coating of olive oil. Prepare your dough. Lay in the center of your cookie sheet and gently press out towards the edges with your fingers to elongate and thin the dough. Make sure you do not make any holes, if you accidentally rip the dough squish back together.

Once you have achieved a decent size, cut into two pieces down the middle. Portion your filling into each of your two halves and top with remaining cheese.

Now fold it up like a Won-Ton – Ya know pinch all the edges together so the filling can’t squeak out. Ken and I each fold our own pockets, its always a competition as to whose is prettier and whose doesn’t crack open. Up to you whether you turn this into a cook-off or not – it may or may not make dinner prep more fun.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Then enjoy all the ooey gooey deliciousness that is the Pocket.

One of the best things about this recipe is the versatility. You can literally put any kind of meat or veggie in here and its a great way to use up leftovers. Some varieties we’ve tried include:

Steak, Pepper and Onion
Buffalo Chicken with Blue Cheese
Chicken, Olive and Feta

Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Our first Thanksgiving at the Hicks House was a success! Ken’s sister, her husband and daughter flew all the way in from Oregon to be with us on Thanksgiving and surprise their parents.

Everyone was super excited to see them and the surprise couldn’t have gone better! The food was delicious and while we were left with some leftovers – it wasn’t nearly as much as we had expected. We actually had to make more stuffing in order to make these pockets as we didn’t have any left!

We make pockets all the time, its a staple in our house so twisting the ingredients to incorporate Thanksgiving leftovers was a no brainer.

Yummm!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup leftover turkey cut up or shredded
1/2 a bar of low fat cream cheese – softened
1/4 cup leftover stuffing
1/4 cup leftover cranberry sauce
1 tube crescent dough (the flat sheet kind)
1/2 cup leftover gravy

Pre-set the oven to 375.

Line a cookie sheet with tin-foil and spray with non-stick spray or olive oil.

Lay out your crescent dough and stretch it out a bit making sure to close up any holes you make. Cut in half.

In a large bowl combine turkey and cream cheese and 1/4 cup of the gravy.

turkey and cream cheese mixture

Spoon the mixture into the center of each of your dough squares.

spoon mixture evenly onto center of dough

Top with desired amount of stuffing and cranberry sauce. Add remaining gravy.

add everything else

fold up like a wonton pinching the edges together to make sure they are good and sealed.

close it up

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown on the top. Enjoy!

delicious!

You can experiment with any fillings you want. Ken said it would have also been very good to add some butternut squash instead of cranberry sauce. Maybe we’ll try that next time! 🙂