How To Use Puff Pastry For Toddlers: Chicken Tikka Calzone
Somewhere between capital-C Cooking and giving up (i.e., whatever-is-in-the-freezer-is-dinner) is what you might call remixing: taking a bit of premade food, leftovers, whatever you got in your fridge, et al. and making something new out of it. Maybe it’s some ground meat left over from taco or burger night; maybe those canned crescent rolls are gonna go to waste if you don’t do anything with them. Doesn’t matter. The idea is that you do something.
Here’s that thing: remix puff pastry into calzone dough. Stick a chicken breast in it. Zhush it as you see fit. We go the tikka masala route in the recipe that follows, with an especially and deliberately lazy effort on the sauce: just a microwave and a few flicks of your wrist. (You’re welcome.) The flavors of Chicken Parmesan or Enchiladas or just every condiment your child likes would do just as well in here. Make it your remix.
Ingredients
Instructions
Prep
- If using frozen puff pastry, allow a puff pastry sheet to thaw, roughly 20 minutes.
- Flatten cutlets with a mallet or meat pounder. Season both sides of each piece with salt and pepper.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, add the tomato sauce and heat for 20 seconds. Add in and mix yogurt; a shake of turmeric and onion powder; and a few shakes each of ginger, garlic, garam masala, and cilantro. Taste to make sure the sauce is balanced and creamy–if not, add a little more of any of the powders you prefer and a tiny bit of honey to balance.
- Preheat your oven to 400. Cut squares of puff pastry large enough to hold your chicken pieces–about 7x7” if using longer cutlets, or 5x5” if using shorter ones–and place dough squares onto a parchment-lined oven pan.
- Spoon tikka masala sauce all over both sides of chicken pieces, making sure to remove any excess drip. Lay chicken diagonally across each puff pastry sheet.
- Wrap edges of puff pastry around the chicken piece until the cutlet is covered by dough; flip the dough-wrapped chicken piece over and cut two large slits in the center of the dough.
- Mix the egg. Brush egg mixture all over the surface of the dough.
Cook and Assemble
Cook for 18-20 minutes. (I like to flip over halfway to ensure even browning, but you do you.)
Let stand for 2-3 minutes before plating. We recommend halving it to ensure steam inside escapes quickly.
Serve
Slice vertically to create strips or fingers of chicken/bread that your child can grab and dip at his/her leisure. When first serving this to a child, you may want to start with the end slices: they’re crunchy and bread-heavy; they mostly obscure what’s inside and are easier to eat.
Adapt
So far as you keep the saucing modest, almost any marinade will work here: satay, Parmesan, Francaise, etc. For the child who favors plain food, make your marinade by mixing a spoonful of yogurt with a squirt or two each of mustard and ketchup. Alternatively, this one--and our lamb keema sloppy joes--also works great in empanada form.
