Roasted Chicken Purses

It was time to use up the meat we had stored in the freezer. While it’s great to have some saved in there for weeks when your budget is low and you can’t afford to buy meat (always one of the most expensive ingredients unless you want to pay for less meat and more fat), it isn’t wise to have too much in your freezer at once. You never know when some freak snow storm might hit and put you out of power for a week. Your freezer turns into a warm refrigerator by the next day and not long after that it’s room temp. Even though room temp under those conditions is pretty cold, it’s not cold enough to keep meat from spoiling.

We had about six bone-in chicken breasts that I decided to roast to get some good white meat pulled chicken for various uses. Pot pie, chicken noodle soup, chicken salad, and this particular recipe: Roasted Chicken Purses from Giada De Laurentiis.

You can use any pulled chicken of your choice. Don’t worry! You don’t have to roast the chicken yourself! Go to the grocery store and get a cooked rotisserie chicken and you’ll be fine. If you get the rotisserie chicken, get a plain old fashioned one. Nothing with any fancy seasoning since it will clash with this recipe.

It’s about time you got fancy with wonton wrappers! You’re probably familiar with them as the crunchy shell of a Crab Rangoon but did you know you can use them as a fast (faster) way to make homemade raviolis? Craziness! My favorite part is that you can prepare these when you have time then pop them in the freezer on a tray until they’re solid then bag them. Store them in the freezer until you have a night where you need a fast but homemade and scrumptious dinner! 

You’ll need:

1 ¼ c. shredded chicken  (chop up into finer pieces)

¾ c. ricotta (Giada calls for whole milk but I used skim to save on calories)

Zest from half a lemon

½ tsp chopped thyme leaves

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Mix all of those together to create the filling. Then get your wonton wrappers out. Make sure you use the freshest available. I find that the older they are, the more likely they are to crack when you fold.
*You can also change the filling and put anything you would like in it!*

1 egg, beaten

32-38 wonton wrappers

A small, clean paint brush just for cooking purposes

Parchment paper/Aluminum foil lined tray if you intend to freeze them

Lay out 8 or 10 wonton wrappers on a clean, dry surface.

Use a teaspoon to scoop mixture and drop into the center of each square. I’m not overly generous with my teaspoons. The more filling you use, the harder it is to fold and the more likely they are to break open when cooking.

Dip your paintbrush into the egg wash and brush the sides of a wonton wrapper. I’ve seen this done with plain old water and your fingers too.

Now you’re going to fold by taking two corners opposite from each other. Bring the corners to the center and match them up. Pinch.

Take one of the leftover corners and bring to the center. Pinch with the other two.

Take the last corner and bring to the center. Pinch.

Pinch the open edges together to seal the pyramid.

Giada called these “purses” and in the episode she twisted the corners to make them look like purses. The picture on foodnetwork.com shows how they looked when she made them. However, the first time I made them, I didn’t have that picture and I didn’t remember the episode. Giada refers to the raviolis as “pyramids” in the recipe so that’s what I made the first time I did this. And from then on, I’ve made them into pyramids. Feel free to do the twist instead!

You’ll repeat the whole process, with some music playing hopefully, dozens and dozens of times until you run out of filling or wrappers. Wipe down your table or cutting board each time so you'll have a dry surface for the wrappers.

When I was done, I put them in the freezer until they were frozen solid then bagged them to be used later on in the week.

Ready to cook?

Get a large pot of water boiling, salt the water, and IN BATCHES cook your ravs for 3 minutes then put in a colander. Repeat until all your ravs are cooked.

Giada melts some butter in a separate pan then adds her purses into the pan and gives them a little toss and sprinkles with parmesan and salt and pepper. Be careful. These are very delicate.

I wanted to be a little fancier. Quite separately, I had saved a Cooking Light recipe for homemade gnocchi in a lemon-thyme sauce. I chose to make that in a separate pan and toss them in a slightly more complex sauce instead. Then I shaved some romano over the top. Yum!

These are time consuming but they’re totally worth it and you’ll feel so fancy eating them after putting all that work in! :)