Chicken Wellington

I finally participated in this month's What's Baking theme.  I've been getting the emails for awhile now and finally found the time to participate.  The theme this month was puff pastry and was hosted by Cara at The Boys Made Me Do It.  I've never worked with puff pastry before. I've had it a few times, mostly as an appetizer such as Brie En Croute.

This recipe was really good. I've never had beef wellington so I wasn't really sure what to expect but my Husband and I both loved it. It came together pretty quickly, was delicious & we had all of the ingredients on hand which always makes me appreciate a recipe even more!
I would definitely make this again but with a couple changes.  The first being that I would shred the chicken and mix the mushroom, onions and cream cheese mixture with the shredded chicken. I know that it wouldn't be a wellington with those changes and more of a 'stuffed' puff pastry but I think that it would be a better final product. The way the recipe is now, the bottom puff pastry gets a bit soggy because of the onions and mushrooms as the bottom layer and with the cream cheese on the top, between the chicken and puff pastry, makes it a little hard to cut through because it created a barrier between the chicken and the puff pastry, so the pastry didn't really stick to the chicken like I think it should have. The second change I would make is that I might make my own puff pastry! I was surprised at the price of puff pastry in the grocery store. For a package (two sheets), it was around $3.50 I think. Annie's Eats has a recipe for homemade puff pastry that looks intimidating but as I've learned with other recipes I've made, you just have to try!

After trying this recipe, I definitely want to try a beef wellington, I think we would both really enjoy that as well.

Chicken Wellington
Recipe slightly adapted from: Pepperidge Farms

Ingredients
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 tblsp butter
3/4 cup sliced mushrooms (I used canned)
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/3 of an 8 oz block of cream cheese
1 tblsp Dijon mustard
all purpose flour, for rolling out the puff pastry
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
1 tsp Italian seasoning, divided
1/8 tsp black pepper
sprinkle of salt

Directions:
Heat the oven to 400*.  Lightly grease a baking sheet with cooking spray. Season both sides of your chicken with the salt, pepper & a 1/2 tsp Italian seasonings. Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes each side. Remove the chicken from the skillet & refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

Melt the other tablespoon of butter in the skillet. Add the onions and mushrooms and cook until tender and the liquid has evaporated. Add the other 1/2 tsp Italian seasonings.

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and Dijon mustard. Mix together until thoroughly combined.

Sprinkle your work surface with flour. Roll out the puff pastry in to a 14" square. Cut into 4 equally sized squares.

Spoon a tablespoon of the mushroom and onion mixture on to the puff pastry. Top with one chicken breast.  Top the chicken breast with one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture. Fold the corners of the pastries up and over the chicken breast. Place the pastries seam side down on the baking sheet. Lightly spray each pastry bundle with cooking spray.

Bake for 25 minutes until the pastries are golden brown.