Two Tasty Turnover Recipes!
We’re eating two types of puff pastry turnovers. One is filled with roasted carrots, eggplant, sage, and chevre and the other is filled with tangy shredded barbecue chicken.
With the holidays directly around the bend AND the college football bowl games upon us, these savory turnovers make great finger food for any social event. Or, as in our case, anti-social event where you can hoard them all to yourself and make a meal out of them like T and I did. Not that I suggest eating 8 huge-ass turnovers all in one sitting! That would just be wrong.
I decided to be nice to our herbivore friends and make one of the fillings vegetarian while using up some leftover cooked chicken we had in the fridge for the other set. If you don’t have any leftover chicken in the fridge and you don’t feel like cooking the chicken yourself you can always go buy a rotisserie chicken and shred that puppy up. Rotisserie chickens are god’s gift to the lazy man. Also, a Facebook friend mentioned to me recently that he couldn’t stand puff pastry…the eating equivalent to nails on a chalkboard. 🙂 If you fall into that category but still want to makes some turnovers, I would suggest using the cream cheese pastry crust I used for these sweet fig turnovers. We’d love to hear how they turn out for you down in the comments section if you end up making them!
For the Chicken Filling:
2 packed cups cooked chicken, shredded
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
3 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp hot sauce (or less if you don't like spicy)
kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
For the Veggie Filling:
25 baby carrots
1 egg plant, stem removed and cut in 1/2 lengthwise
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp fresh sage, minced
3 oz chevre, crumbled
kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
2 sheets puff pastry, thawed according to package
1 egg
1 tbsp water
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Drizzle the carrots and eggplant with olive oil, toss and place on a sheet pan. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Toss to coat. Arrange the eggplant to be flesh-side down. Place sheet pan into a the preheated 375 degree oven. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, tossing ever 15 minutes until caramelized on all sides. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
While the veggies are roasting, prepare the chicken filling. Place all of the ingredients except the salt and pepper for the chicken filling into a sauce pan. Place over medium low heat. Stir. Simmer over medium low until all of the liquid has cooked away, about 20-30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Remove from heat and let cool until ready to use.
Once the roasted veggies have cooled, using your hands, peel away the skin of the eggplant and discard. The insides of the eggplant should be mushy. Roughly chop and place into a mixing bowl. Roughly chop the roasted carrots and add to the bowl with the eggplant. Add the chevre and sage to the bowl then mix thoroughly. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
In a small bowl whisk together the egg and water to create the egg wash. Set aside. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out one puff pastry sheet into an approximately 12" square. Cut into 4 even squares. Transfer the squares to the parchment lined sheet pan. Place a 1/4 of the chicken mixture into the middle of each of the squares.
Using a pastry brush, brush the outer 1/4" of each square with the egg wash. Carefully fold one square in half diagonally, matching up the two points evenly to create a perfect triangle. Using the prongs of a fork, gently mash the edges together to form a sealed triangle. Repeat this process with the remaining chicken turnovers.
Working with the second sheet of puff pastry, repeat the rolling out and cutting process mentioned above. Fill each square with 1/4 of the roasted veggie mixture then seal using the above method.
Once all turnovers have been assembled and are placed, evenly spaced out on a sheet pan ready to bake, brush the top of each turnover with the egg wash to help promote a golden sheen. Place sheet pan into preheated 375 degree oven. Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until golden brown. If your sheet pan is not large enough to hold all 8 turnovers then place 1/2 of them in the fridge and bake in batches. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
*To create smaller appetizer sized turnovers try cutting out 16 small squares from each sheet and putting 1 tbsp of the filling in each. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Hey girl, forget that fool who doesn’t like puff pastry. He don’t know what he’s talkin about. You need a real man, who likes eating chalk…
heheheheh why, puff pastry daddy, don’t hate! different strokes for different folks, you know. 😉 i mean, those of us who like eating chalk at least get our recommended dose of calcium, right?
Even though I’m not vegetarian anymore, the veggie one sounds really good. But shredding puppies? C’mon, Amanda, that’s just wrong!
Puff pastry makes everything infinitely better…
HOT POCKETS!!!! Now all you need is a food truck to sell your fancy hot pockets, and you can call it IHOHP, international house of hot pockets. I have a business plan for a similiar concept all ready to go!!!
That looks so amazing i wish i can get it right now from that picture.
Great recipes, looks amazing!! I’m looking for readers for my new blog, if anyone is interested….it’s a fun take on food and eating competitions!! Please come check it out and help me get things rolling 🙂
http://www.berggvsfood.blogspot.com
MMM, shredded puppies are so awesome paired with puff pastries.