Chicken and Broccoli Braid

This is an easy recipe and is really delicious. One great thing about it is that it has so many food groups. There's meat, dairy, vegetable, and grain. If you have a salad, it's a perfect meal and very easy. You can use leftover chicken or even buy a roasted or rotisserie chicken from the store. You can also use precooked packaged chicken from the refrigerated section at the store. You can use either fresh or frozen (thawed) broccoli. It's a great "go to" recipe when you're tired or don't have a lot of time to spend. You can put together a salad or do whatever else while it bakes.

2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1 cup broccoli, chopped
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 packages (8 ounces each) refrigerated crescent rolls
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place chicken and broccoli in large bowl. Add pepper and cheese. Press garlic over vegetable and chicken mixture. Add mayonnaise and salt; mix well. Unroll 1 package of crescent roll dough; do not separate. Arrange longest sides of dough across width of 12" x 15" pan(a cookie sheet works well). Repeat with remaining package of dough. Seal perforations, so that you have one large rectangle of dough. On longest sides of dough cut into strips 1 1/2 inches apart, 3 inches deep (there will be 6 inches in the center for the filling). Spread filling evenly over middle of dough. To braid, lift strips of dough across mixture to meet in center, twisting each strip one turn to help them stick together. Brush on a bit of water for "glue", if you need to. Continue alternating strips to form a braid. Tuck ends up to form a rim at the end of braid. Brush egg white over dough. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake 25-28 minutes or until deep golden brown.
Cut crosswise to serve.

You can use mayonnaise instead of the ranch dressing. You can also add 1 teaspoon of dill weed to the filling, if you like.

It's still good if you use reduced fat cheese, light ranch dressing, and reduced fat crescent rolls.

Makes: 10 servings