Chicken Ring

While some people might associate baked ham or roast turkey with Christmas, I think of this crescent roll chicken ring recipe. This particular dish has been a part of my family’s festivities every year since I can remember, but I didn’t realize that it was a Taste Recipes recipe until recently. Now that I work here, the recipe has become even more sentimental.

Even though I may be biased, I’d still like to vouch for this chicken crescent ring as an elegant and delicious Christmas appetizer for holiday gatherings. It’s surprisingly easy to prepare, and the combination of its wreath shape and the speckles of red and green that peek out from the filling give it the perfect amount of festive cheer for any holiday spread.

Ingredients for a Chicken Ring

• Crescent roll dough: You’ll use exactly two cans of dough for this crescent roll recipe. Crescent rolls are the perfect pastry choice because they’re buttery and a little bit flaky, but are still strong enough to serve as a base for the chicken and veggie mixture.
• Cooked chicken: You can use canned chicken, rotisserie chicken or leftover meat from your preferred way to cook chicken.
• Cream of chicken soup: Condensed soup holds the filling together, making it creamy and comforting. Since you’ll only use 2/3 cup for this recipe, save the rest of the can for one of these other cream of chicken soup recipes.
• Water chestnuts: While water chestnuts might seem out of place here, they add some necessary crunch to the otherwise soft filling. If you have extra, use them in one of our other favorite water chestnut recipes.
• Chopped veggies: Red bell peppers will add a touch of sweetness to an otherwise savory filling. And when combined with the broccoli, they create the classic red-and-green Christmas color combination. Frozen broccoli works if that’s what you have on hand; just be sure to thaw it first.
• Cheese: Although we call for Colby-Monterey Jack cheese in the recipe, shredded cheddar will do the trick too. That’s what my family uses!

Directions

Step 1: Lay out the crescent rolls into a wreath shape

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Arrange the crescent rolls on a 12-inch pizza pan, forming a ring with the pointed ends of the rolls facing the outer edge of the pan. Make sure the wide ends of each crescent roll overlap.

Step 2: Make the filling

Combine the shredded cheese, condensed cream of chicken soup, broccoli, red pepper, water chestnuts, chicken and onion in a bowl.

Step 3: Assemble the wreath

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Spoon the chicken and veggie mixture over the wide ends of the rolls.

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Fold the points of each crescent roll over the filling, and tuck the points underneath the wide ends on the inside of the circle. The filling will be visible in between rolls.

Editor’s Tip: I like to use a cookie scoop instead of a spoon to transfer the filling from the bowl to the wreath. This common baking tool helps to portion the filling evenly around the wreath.

Step 4: Bake the chicken ring

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Bake the chicken ring at 375°F for 20 to 25 minutes or until it’s golden brown.

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Chicken Ring Variations

• Try another kind of cheese: Cheddar is a natural substitution for the Colby-Monterey Jack cheese, but mozzarella could work as well. You can also play with adding a little cream cheese to the filling for some extra richness.
• Switch up the soup: Try condensed cream of onion or cream of mushroom soup; they’ll both add a little more flavor to the filling.
• Add more veggies: Mushrooms and spinach would pair nicely with the bell pepper and broccoli in the filling.
• Spice it up: Experiment with your favorite dried herbs and seasonings. Salt and pepper, oregano and garlic powder would all be good ones to start with.
• Mix in some more meat: Cubed ham, bacon bits or chopped, cooked bacon can all add some saltiness to complement the buttery crescent rolls.
• Pull inspiration from other ring recipes: Check out other crescent roll wreaths and create your own concoction. Some of our other favorites are include the broccoli ham ring, pizza ring, cheeseburger crescent ring, chicken cordon bleu ring and the tuna crescent ring.

How to Store a Chicken Ring

Keep leftover pieces of the chicken crescent ring in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will last up to three days. Any longer than that, the baked crescent rolls will get soggy.

Can you freeze this chicken ring?

Yes, you can freeze this chicken ring. Simply wrap the cooled wreath in foil and freeze it. Before eating it, remove the ring from the freezer, wait about a half an hour, then reheat it. Remove the foil and place the chicken ring on a greased baking sheet. Then, bake it in a preheated 325° oven until it’s heated through.

Can you make this chicken ring ahead of time?

We wouldn’t recommend assembling the wreath until just before you plan to bake it, but you can make the chicken and veggie mixture ahead of time. Just store the filling, covered, in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble the wreath. My family typically prepares the mixture a few hours ahead, but you could make it up to a day in advance.

How do you reheat leftovers from the chicken ring?

The microwave is the easiest way to reheat slices of the chicken ring, but the oven will yield the best results. Heat it up to 325° and bake the leftover until they’re heated through.

Chicken Ring Tips

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Should the crescent rolls hang off the edge of the pizza pan?

It’s very likely that the points of the crescent rolls will hang off the edges of the pan. This is OK because you will eventually fold the points back over the filling, tucking any excess underneath the wide ends of the rolls. Using a pizza pan will help you create a perfectly round wreath shape since you can follow the shape of the pan, leaving an equal amount of space between the wide edge of the roll and the edge of the pan as you go.

How can you make sure the chicken wreath doesn’t stick to the pizza pan?

Lining the pizza pan with parchment paper should do the trick, but if you don’t have parchment paper on hand, spray the pan with nonstick spray before you begin arranging the crescent rolls on it.

What do you serve with a chicken ring?

My family serves this chicken ring recipe as an unconventional main dish with strawberry Jell-O. We simply make two wreaths in order to fill us up enough to serve it as the main entree. However, it’d also make a great Christmas appetizer alongside cranberry meatballs, a bacon cream cheese wreath served with crackers, or pickled pepperoncini deviled eggs that look like Christmas trees.