Chicken Surprise

Learn about this recipe from our Historic Foodways staff, then try it at home.

This is a wonderful use of leftover chicken, turkey, pork or even shellfish. It might really be handy around Thanksgiving when there are plenty of the necessary ingredients just waiting for some new combination.

Learn how we make this recipe in our kitchens based on the 18th-century description below, then use our 21st-century translation to try the recipe at home!

18th Century

21st Century

Ingredients

• 1 cup of cooked and shredded chicken breast
• 5 cups of your favorite stuffing mix
• 6-7 Tbsp. of cream
• 1 teaspoon butter rolled in flour
• 2-4 thin slices of Virginia ham, or Canadian bacon, or regular ham cut into 2-inch rounds
• fine bread crumbs
• 1 egg

Optional: gravy with the juice of ½ a lemon and butter added

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and lightly coat a cookie sheet with vegetable spray.
2. Cut ham slices into 2-inch rounds using a cookie or biscuit cutter and place on cookie sheet.
3. Prepare your favorite bread stuffing mixture. Make sure that if you use raisins, nuts, celery, etc., in your stuffing that these items are minced very finely. This will make the molding of your stuffing into a container much easier.
4. Shred the cooked chicken breast into thin pieces using a knife or your fingers. Place meat into a saucepan and add the 6-7 tablespoons of cream and the 1 teaspoon of butter rolled in flour. Cook over low heat until butter has melted and mixture starts to thicken. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
5. Use a flat cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for easy cleanup. Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter as a mold, put a 2-inch slice of ham at the bottom, and build up the sides with your prepared stuffing to a height of 2 inches.
6. Once all containers are made, make a depression in each patty and fill it with cooled chicken mixture to the top of each container.
7. To create lids, take some of the remaining stuffing and flatten in a round form large enough to cover over the top and place carefully on the top of your filled stuffing container.
8. Beat the yolk of 1 egg with ½ teaspoon of water. Using a pastry brush, very gently brush the sides and the lid of the container. Sprinkle fine bread crumbs lightly on top.
9. Bake in a 325 oven for 45 minutes or until container is lightly golden in color. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing from cookie sheet with a broad flat spatula.

Optional: pour warmed gravy (either homemade or bottled), to which you have added the juice of ½ a lemon and a teaspoon of butter, over top of the stuffing containers when serving.