Crescent Roll Carrots (Chicken Salad Crescent Rolls)

What ingredients are in crescent roll carrots?

Before you can bake up these Easter-themed chicken salad crescent rolls, you’ll need to track down the following ingredients:

• Cooked Shredded Chicken: These crescent rolls are filled with a simple (yet tasty) chicken salad, and you can’t have chicken salad without some chicken. You can either bake or boil fresh chicken, use leftover chicken, or toss in some canned chicken.
• Diced Celery: Adds a fresh, crisp texture and a slightly peppery flavor to the chicken salad, complementing the soft chicken with some crunch.
• Diced Red Onion: Offers a sharp, slightly sweet flavor that enhances the overall taste profile of the chicken salad filling.
• Hardboiled Eggs: Contribute a creamy, rich texture to the filling, binding the ingredients together and adding depth to the flavor.
• Mayonnaise: Acts as the quintessential binder for your chicken salad, lending moisture and a smooth texture to unify the chicken, celery, and other mix-ins.
• Garlic Salt & Black Pepper: Season the chicken salad to enhance its flavors, with garlic salt offering a savory note and black pepper adding a mild heat.
• Crescent Rolls: Serve as the edible ‘container’ for the chicken salad, providing a buttery, flaky texture that contrasts with the creamy filling.
• Fresh Sprigs of Parsley: Used for creating the green tops of the carrots. It also offers a fresh pop of color and herbal flavor, too.

Can you use a different filling?

Sure! These crescent roll carrots would work with any cold and creamy salad fillings, such as:

• Waldorf Salad: A classic Waldorf salad, typically made with apples, grapes, celery, walnuts, and mayonnaise, can offer a sweet and crunchy alternative. Its combination of textures and flavors would complement the flaky crescent rolls.
• Tuna Salad: A well-seasoned tuna salad with mayonnaise, celery, onions, and a hint of lemon could be a delightful seafood alternative to the chicken salad.
• Egg Salad: A simple egg salad with chopped hardboiled eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, and seasonings could be a classic and vegetarian-friendly option.
• Vegan Chickpea Salad: For a plant-based alternative, a chickpea salad with mashed chickpeas, vegan mayo, onions, celery, and spices could mimic the texture and creaminess of traditional chicken salad.

Can you make these in advance?

Yes, you can – but with a catch.

You can prepare the chicken salad and the carrot-shaped crescent rolls in advance, but you should hold off on assembling them until just before serving, as the chicken salad will make the bread soggy over time. Store the ingredients in separate sealed containers (chicken salad in the fridge, crescent rolls at room temperature) for up to 24 hours in advance for the best presentation.

How long are they good for?

For best results, plan on enjoying these crescent rolls carrots when they’re freshly made, ideally within an hour or two. This is because the moisture from the chicken salad will slowly seep into the bread, making them soggy as time goes on.

Can you freeze them?

Bad news here, guys. Much like making them in advance or storing the leftovers, I cannot recommend freezing crescent roll carrots. Aside from the issue of the chicken salad saturating the crescent roll bread with moisture, the chicken salad includes mayonnaise, which is an emulsion, and emulsions are notorious for having an unpleasant texture after the freezing and thawing process.

Step 1 – Combine the chicken, celery, onion, hardboiled eggs, garlic salt, and pepper in a bowl to create your chicken salad. Once mixed, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator to chill until you’re ready to add the filling.

Step 2 – Tear off pieces of aluminum foil (roughly 12 inches long) and mold each into a cone shape. These will act as makeshift molds that you’ll shape the crescent dough around to create the carrot look.

Step 3 – Roll out the crescent roll dough and cut it into roughly 1/2 or 1-inch strips. Wrap the strips around the foil cones, starting from the pointed end and ensuring each layer slightly overlaps the previous one without leaving gaps. Once wrapped, place the cones on parchment-lined baking sheets, facing any seams or loose ends down to keep them secured while baking.

Step 4 – Bake!

Step 5 – Let the baked crescent rolls cool until easy to handle.

Step 6 – Once cooled, carefully remove the aluminum foil from inside each baked crescent roll. If needed, use scissors to help remove them.

Step 7 – Take the chilled chicken salad and spoon it into each crescent roll ‘carrot.’ Fill up to just beyond the rim, so the salad can be seen peeking over the top.

Step 8 – Insert a few sprigs of parsley into the chicken salad, creating the look of a green carrot top.

Step 9 – Serve and enjoy!