Chicken in Puff Pastry will become your new favorite way to eat chicken. This recipe consists of chicken breast layered on top of garlic herb cheese spread enveloped in flakey puff pastry dough and baked in the oven until golden brown. Served with a mustard cream sauce, this dish is perfect as an elegant dinner or a fun meal with friends. And you can prep it in 15 minutes!
Puff Pastry Pockets Stuffed with Chicken and Cheese
Anything wrapped in puff pastry has to be good, right? That’s why you’ll love this Chicken Puff Pastry recipe. It’s an elegant chicken dinner option but is super simple to make.
You only need a handful of ingredients to make this easy dinner recipe, but the result is tons of great flavor. Serve it as an easy dinner with roasted asparagus or creamy mashed potatoes.
Wait until you see how easy this is to make! Just cut the puff pastry into squares, spread the cheese, and place a chicken breast on top of the cheese. Then, fold the pastry over the chicken and press down to seal everything inside. Brush with an egg for a golden brown sheen and pop into the oven until the chicken is fully cooked. (a meat thermometer comes in handy here)
You’ll have super tender chicken that has absorbed the flavors of the cheese spread with flaky puff pastry in every bite.
While this is delicious all by itself, a simple mustard cream sauce adds a hint of mustard without overpowering the dish. It’s the perfect compliment.
It’s a restaurant quality dish that’s so quick and easy to make. No more boring chicken dinners with this recipe in your back pocket!
I rediscovered this recipe when going through my mother-in-laws recipe box recently. I felt it needed a refresh and the mustard sauce was just what it needed to freshen it up.
This Chicken with Puff Pastry Will Become a Favorite Because…
- It’s easy: A few simple steps and a quick bake in the oven are all it takes.
- It’s elegant: The puff pastry adds a whole new level of elegance to a basic chicken breast.
- It can be made ahead of time: You can assemble the pastries and refrigerate or freeze them for later. Then, bake as directed.
The Main Things You Will Need
This is just a brief list of what you’ll need to make this recipe. Make sure to check the recipe card for the full list of ingredients.
- Puff pastry: For this recipe, I used 1 box of Pepperidge Farm puff pastry, using both sheets. You can usually find it in the frozen section of the store. Just make sure you thaw it properly before use.
- Chicken breasts: Thin chicken breasts work best here. If they are large and thick, pound them and cut them in half.
- Garlic herb cheese spread: This can be found in the specialty cheese section. This adds a creamy, flavorful kick to the chicken, with the garlic and herbs giving it that savory oomph. Other brands that I like are Boursin and Alouette.
- Shallot: A milder, sweeter cousin to onion. It helps round out the flavor of the sauce without overpowering the dish. If you don’t have shallots, a regular onion will work in a pinch, but shallots add a more delicate flavor.
- Dijon mustard: Adds a little tang and depth to the sauce without being too harsh.
Ready in 5 Simple Steps
Step One: Preheat and Prepare Puff Pastry
When working with a puff pastry sheet, it’s important to keep it cold. If it gets too warm, it may become difficult to handle and won’t puff up as well during baking. You can even chill the pastry squares in the fridge for 10 minutes before assembling.
Step Two: Add Cheese and Chicken
Step Three: Brush with Egg and Bake
Step Four: Make the Sauce
Step Five: Serve
Drizzle the sauce over the baked chicken in puff pastry and serve warm. Enjoy the crispy, creamy goodness!
A Simple Way to Make This Recipe Ahead of Time
If you’re making it ahead of time, you can assemble the puff pastry bundles and refrigerate them for up to 24 hours before baking. Just brush with the egg wash and bake when you’re ready to serve. To reheat, place it in the oven at a low temperature (about 300°F) for 10-15 minutes until heated through or until the puff pastry is crispy again.
You can also freeze the unbaked puff pastry bundles for up to 3 months.
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Chicken in Puff Pastry
Ingredients
- 2 sheets puff pastry
- 4 small chicken breasts
- 4 ounces garlic herb cheese spread
- 1 egg
Sauce
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon shallot finely chopped
- 2 cup chicken broth
- ⅔ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoon dijon mustard
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400º. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll out both sheets of puff pastry into a square. Cut each sheet in half so that you have 4 squares. Spread the cheese spread over half of each square, leaving a ½ inch border.
- Dry the chicken breasts with a paper towel. Salt and pepper both sides and place one on top of the cheese spread on each of the four squares. Use a pastry brush to brush water on the edges of the puff pastry. Fold the pastry over the chicken breast and pinch the edges to seal. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet.
- Whisk the egg with a tablespoon of water and brush over the tops of the puff pastry bundles. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and a meat thermometer registers 165º.
Sauce:
- Melt butter in a saucepan. Add shallots and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes until slightly softened. Add chicken broth and turn up the heat, cooking until it has reduced by half, about 6-8 minutes. Add the cream and continue cooking until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Add mustard and salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.
Barbara’s Tips + Notes
- If the chicken breasts are large, pound them and cut them in half.
Nutrition
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Liz says
These look very elegant and simple and easy. To make it even easier, do you think rotisserie could work?
Barbara Curry says
I’ve never tried that, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Deanne says
If you freeze the pastries after assembly, when it’s time to cook them, do you bake from frozen or let them thaw?
Barbara Curry says
I sould let them thaw before baking them. Otherwise the pastry will cook much quicker than the chicken.
Deanne says
Thank you, Barbara!
Barbara Curry says
Your welcome, I hope you give it a try.
Liz says
Rotisserie chicken does work! Every time I go to Costco, I buy 2 rotisserie chickens for quick dinners. The mustard sauce was delicious. My son chose to eat his with BBQ sauce. It worked for him.
Barbara Curry says
That’s great to know, thanks for sharing. I agree the mustard sauce could be used for so many things!
George West says
Another 5 star recipe Barbara, and pretty quick, and easy to make as well. We put it together just as you describe, and the results were very tasty. I believe the sauce could be used on other recipes to make them better as well. Thanks again, for the good eats.
Barbara Curry says
I love how simple it is, yet still delicious. So glad you liked it!
Deanne says
This dish was so easy to make and was delicious!! Even though I cook for just myself, I still made the full recipe since I had all the ingredients needed. I had one of the chicken pastries last night, left one of them unbaked to make tonight, then froze the other two for meals in the future. Cook once, eat much! 😀 Thank you for a quick and tasty dinner, Barbara!
Barbara Curry says
I love having meals in the freezer and this is a great one. So glad you liked it.
Maureen says
I made this tonight for dinner. My hubby a very picky eater said it was incredible and delicious! I prepped the pastry earlier in the day, put it on the sheet pan and covered it with plastic wrap and kept it in the fridge. Then it was easy to just brush on the egg wash and bake. The sauce was so good, I made double (I also made homemade Garlic Parmesan rolls to go with). I love dipping my bread in this sauce. I also served it with oven blistered green beans.
Thank you so much for this recipe! It looked like I spent hours making it but it was relatively fast. A definite winner!!
Barbara Curry says
Thanks for the nice review Maureen! I also double the sauce, great idea to serve it with green beans.
Michael says
This is a very enjoyable recipe. I was quite surprised by how moist the chicken was. My wife absolutely devoured this, and has requested that it be added to my list of regular dishes.
I do wonder, though, if 2 cups of chicken broth is correct for the sauce. I followed the recipe amounts exactly, and I would have had to reduce this all day to get it to thicken like in the picture. I ended up “jump-starting” a roux, which got it thick enough to use. Next time I’ll probably reduce the amount of broth in the sauce by at least half, or maybe just toss a couple of tablespoons of flour in after the shallots cook to get a nice roux going up front.
At any rate, the chicken was juicy, the pastry was flaky, and the sauce was delicious. Thanks!
Barbara Curry says
I’m so glad you and your wife enjoyed this recipe. The sauce is supposed to be thin, but if you want a thicker sauce adding flour after the shallots is the way to go.
Mary Dowd says
I made this tonight. I lightly sautéed thin chicken breasts first, then dried them with a paper towel so the pastry would get soggy. I added some fig preserves to the cheese (Boursin garlic and herb). Omg. It was so great!!!! The sauce is so good with it, too. Will be making this a lot!
Barbara Curry says
I’m going to try it next time with the fig jam, that sounds even better!
Anthony Gentile says
is 20 minutes enough time for the chicken to be fully cooked ???
Barbara Curry says
It depends on how thick your chicken breast is. I always use a meat thermometer to be safe. A thick chicken breast will take longer.