super bowl - creamy pesto chicken roll up thingamajigs - the official name for my creation

As far as appetizer ideas for the Super Bowl went, I wasn't being very original. The bacon quiches I made slightly resemble the sausage quiches I made for Thanksgiving; just as the three cheese pinwheels were so similar to the bacon pinwheels I also made for Thanksgiving. I needed something I could call my own- an original creation of some sort. I dug through my fridge looking for inspiration, and landed my eyes on my old jar of pesto sauce which I used for the first meal I ever cooked in my life. I decided I would make a creamy pesto filling and wrap them in the Pillsbury biscuit dough. I also wanted to use a new meat instead of bacon or sausage, so I opted for chicken (which I had tons of stored in the freezer).


I made my own concoction of cooked chicken, pesto, chopped basil, cream cheese, and other little additions. Not trying to toot my own horn or anything- but this creamy sauce was pretty darn tasty.


I spread each biscuit round into a larger circle and dolloped the filling in the center to be wrapped into a little purse. It almost looks like a little Chinese dumpling right?


In between batches of my other appetizers, I readied the baking sheet for my little chicken-biscuit-roll-ups.


The tops slightly spread apart and revealed the creamy center, but the little biscuit balls remained perfectly intact (and quite cute if I do say so myself).


The underside of the rounds were much thinner than the thick and crusty top, probably due to me rolling them out so thin and wrapping them up too much at the top. Regardless, they cooked thoroughly and smelt delectable after taking them out of the oven.


These were definitely my favorite of all the other appetizers I made that day. The pesto mixed with cream cheese gave this a multilayered spectrum of flavor that I couldn't even begin to describe. The chicken breast was also a good choice because it was an empty slate for all the other flavors to adhere to and was not overwhelming at all.


The only qualm I had was that there wasn't enough filling to satisfy my needs. The dough to filling ratio was off balanced, probably due to me using biscuit rounds opposed to crescent rolls which would have let me make a bigger pocket to stuff. Other than that, I can honestly say that I'm proud of myself for "winging it" while cooking, and also by not using a set in stone recipe. Yay for me.

---RECIPE---
Adapted by many recipes online, but made by me.

ingredients:
1/2 cup (about) cooked chicken, chopped or shredded
1/2 of 8-ounce cream cheese, softened
Quite a few leaves of chopped basil
2 tablespoon jarred pesto sauce
2 tablespoon cooked onion
1 clove garlic
2 cans Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits

directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine everything except biscuits.
3. Spread each biscuit round almost twice its size.
4. Drop about a tablespoon or so of filling into center of biscuit and wrap up as if it were a purse. Pinch edges to seal.
5. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes.

amount:
Makes about 20.