Cheesy Chicken and Pesto Monkey Bread

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Pillsbury. The opinions and text are all mine.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? Well, I have many, but one of my favorites is an appetizer Christmas Eve dinner. We have a big family dinner party with a ton of appetizers. Wings, salsa, hummus, veggie trays, egg rolls, spinach dip, little sausages, meatballs, etc. It’s a fun night to make old recipes and try out new dishes as well. This year I will be bringing this pesto monkey bread.

Have you ever made regular monkey bread before? It’s a sweet dessert type of recipe that starts with coating Pillsbury® biscuits (each one is cut into four pieces) with cinnamon and sugar and then ends with pouring brown sugar and butter over the top. After it’s cooked it’s kind of a pull apart type of bread. It truly is so yummy. I took inspiration from regular monkey bread to make a savory version. I had a jar of pesto in my fridge and went to work.

For this recipe I picked up the Pillsbury® Original Crescents from Walmart. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure you could use the Pillsbury® Grands! Original Biscuits instead of the crescents if you’d like.

When you open the can of crescents, remove the dough from the can. Be gentle and unfold the dough into one big rectangle.

Then take a pizza cutter and cut the rectangle into 3 long rows and 8 columns. You’ll end up with 24 squares of dough.

Now that you have 24 pieces of dough, you’ll roll each one into a ball. (This is a good step for the kids to help with). After you have a ball of dough you’ll gently place it in a bowl with some pesto. Cover the balls of dough with pesto and then place in a 9 x 13 inch pan that has been coated with nonstick spray. I decided to use a rotisserie chicken for sake of ease, but you can make my basic shredded chicken in the slow cooker instead. You’ll place the chicken around the dough and then cover it all with cheese and bake.

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Cheesy Chicken and Pesto Monkey Bread

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• Author: Karen
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 30-40 minutes
• Total Time: 39 minute
• Yield: 10 servings 1x

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Ingredients

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• 2 cans Pillsbury® Original Crescents
• 1/2 cup pesto (plus a few tablespoons more)
• 2–3 cups cooked and cubed chicken (use a rotisserie chicken or my slow cooker basic shredded chicken)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

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Instructions

1. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan with nonstick cooking spray. Heat your oven to 350° F.
2. Gently open the cans of crescents. Unroll one can of crescents into one long rectangle. Then open the second can and unroll it next to the first rectangle of dough, forming one long rectangle.
3. Use a pizza cutter to slice the dough into 3 rolls and 8 columns. You’ll now have 24 pieces of dough. Roll each piece of dough into a ball.
4. Place pesto in a medium bowl. Dip each ball of dough into the pesto and use a spoon to coat the ball of dough entirely with pesto.
5. Place the balls of dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. You’ll want to place them evenly in the pan. I did 3 balls in each row and 8 total rows.
6. Next place the cubed chicken in the empty spaces of the pan, all around the pieces of dough. I like my chicken well seasoned so I made sure it had some salt and pepper on it before I put it in the pan. If you have any extra pesto you can dollop it onto the chicken. I like mine extra pesto-y so I added a few more tablespoons.
7. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the dough and the chicken.
8. Cover the pan with foil. Bake for about 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 5 more minutes, or until cheese is melted and dough is cooked through. (Each oven cooks differently and depending on whether you use a glass dish or a metal dish will vary the cooking time).
9. Remove the pan from the oven and spoon onto plates and enjoy.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Pillsbury. The opinions and text are all mine.