Big Weather's Big Recipe: Chicken in a Basket

I don't know about you, but with the COVID-19 quarantine, we've been cooking a lot at home. And in my house, I'm the cook. So, I thought I'd start sharing some of my recipes with you all, and then you can share some with me, and I'll make them at my house.

This recipe is called 'Chicken in a Basket.' Even though I usually cook, my wife actually found this recipe in a cookbook from Drake University years ago. She made it, we loved it, and now it's one of those we always like to come back to. Over the years, I've adjusted it to my tastes. Here's the ingredients list if you want to give it a try:

INGREDIENTS:

4 T Butter (Room Temperature)

4 T Milk

8oz. Cream Cheese (softened)

2 T diced Onion

1/2t salt

1/4t Pepper

2 T diced Pepper (Red or Green)

3 tubes Crescent Rolls

4 Cups Diced or Shredded Chicken

NOW THE STEPS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Cook the chicken (or use canned if you like) I just bought some breasts and thighs and boiled them on the stove until cooked. I let them cool, then shredded them. If you have extra chicken, you can either put it into the recipe or bag it and throw it in the fridge to put on salads later in the week.

2. Dice half an onion (I like Vidalia) and half a green or red pepper. I used red because they were out of green at my grocery with the whole COVID shortage thing.

3. Add the peppers and onions to a mixer. If you don't have one, you can do it by hand; it just takes more work)

4. Add the milk. Add the cream cheese. They were out of the cream cheese blocks, so I bought the spread. It worked just fine.

5. Add the salt and pepper and mix it all up.

6. Stop the mixer and add the chicken. Mix again.

7. Open the crescent rolls. Pinch two of the triangles to make a square. Due to COVID, they were out but had crescent roll sheets, so I cut them into thirds.

8. Add 1/3 cup of mix in the middle of the dough, then pinch it all together.

9. Place on a baking tray after spraying it with non-stick spray. I was out, so I used non-stick aluminum foil.

10. Melt some butter in the microwave then brush the rolls.

11. Put the chicken baskets in the oven for 20-25 minutes and bake until golden brown.

12. Let the cool!!! The insides will be very hot and gooey, and letting it sit for 5 minutes will save your taste buds.

I like to serve with a green veggie, like broccoli or green beans.

A couple of notes about the recipe: first of all, in the video, I accidentally doubled my chicken. It turned out fine, but it was a little dry and not very gooey. I also added half a bag of cheddar cheese. It's not in the ingredient list, I just saw I had some in the refrigerator.

Also, you may end up with an extra amount of chicken-cheese mixture. You can put it in the fridge and spread it between two tortillas later in the week. I then heated it on a pan on the stove, like a chicken in a basket quesadilla. It was really good with a little sour cream on the side. Finally, change it up. Skip the onions or peppers or both, or change the cheddar cheese out. Or use some Lawry's Seasoned Salt instead of table salt to give it a different twang. It's also a good one to have the kids help out. And I've learned if they help make something new, sometimes they will try something new. Whatever you do, enjoy it!