Appetizers for the Kitchen Novice - easy Chicken Puffs for Starters

I started making appetizers this year for all the Packer games. I have done it off and on over the years, but this year I am actually getting creative in the kitchen for the games and making my own appetizers instead of just throwing in a frozen pizza. The crescent roll has become my favorite appetizer "package", a way of delivering all sorts of goodies to my family. My first crescent roll appetizer was this simple chicken garlic puff. I used two cans of crescent rolls for this and it is made with two cooked and shredded chicken breasts, 4 ounces of cream cheese and 2 tsp of garlic powder. Soften the cream cheese and mix the chicken and garlic into it. I flattened out all the crescent rolls and cut them in half before placing a small amount of the mixture into the center of each crescent roll. This makes 32 chicken puffs. They are then baked for about 14 minutes at 350° and are pure perfection! You can use almost any kind of condiment as a dipping sauce but ranch dressing and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce are my family's favorites.

I have tried many varieties of these crescent chicken puffs since making the original. I have added hot sauce to make buffalo chicken puffs that were to die for. Be careful as you only need about a 1/2 teaspoon of hot sauce or just a couple of shakes of the bottle. I have added various amounts of ranch dressing, sour cream and mayonnaise to get slightly different textures and flavors. I would not suggest using only ranch mixed with the chicken, but a touch of it added to mayo or cream cheese is great. I have also added chopped jalapenos to the chicken mixture one time and chopped bacon another time. A favorite we just made again yesterday was the pepperoni/string cheese rollups. We used spaghetti sauce as our dipping sauce. I have not been disappointed with any of the many varieties I have tried. My children have especially loved the ranch chicken puffs and pepperoni roll ups.

One thing I like to play around with is the way that I wrap the crescent roll. Some need to be pinched shut if the insides are runny, others can be left more open. Another idea is to put mini marshmallows and chocolate chips in the crescent rolls. Wrap them up and you have an easy, excellent dessert. Top it with chocolate syrup to dress it up, delish! Experiment and try some of these ideas! They are really fun recipes to do with kids. Let me know what you think of these and let me hear some of your own filling ideas!