Leonards's Chicken meets Hot Pockets Equals One Tasty Handheld Dinner

While reading my most recent edition of Food Network magazine, I came across a recipe for homemade "Hot Pocket" style sandwiches. Problem was that none of the mag's flavor combos were ever gonna fly with my kiddos! All were either too boring or too wierd....which got me to thinking, what would my family want in a homemade Hot Pocket...(besides gobs of flavor)? I refuse to buy the commercially made Hot Pockets much to my kids dismay...those things are plain nasty pockets of artifical flavors...blech!

Going thru all the possible flavor combinations, I had a lightbulb moment and decided to take my kids FAVE chicken dish (Leonard's Chicken), deconstruct it and voila...the Leonard's Hot Pocket was born! Juicy roasted chicken, baby swiss cheese and sweet & smoky Black Forest ham...yum to the max! The critics all gave them two thumbs up and Harrison even had one for a snack today after school. In this test recipe, I used white french bread dough, next time I am going to try whole wheat and see what the critics in my house have to say.

3 cups shredded chicken (rotisserie chicken rocks here)
1 1/2 cups shredded baby swiss cheese
1 cup julienned Black Forest ham ( I love Boars Head)
1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp seasoned salt
flour for dusting
2 tubes refrigerated french bread
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 425. Spray baking sheet lightly with Pam cooking spray. In a large bowl combine chicken, cheese and ham. Sprinkle spices over mixture and toss with hands to combine thorughly.
Open tube of dough and unroll on a lightly floured surface. Cut into 4 eqeual pieces, repeat with second tube of dough. Roll each piece of dough into a 6x8" rectangle, dusting with flouring to keep dough from sticking. Place a generous handful of filling mixture in center of each dough rectangle, pressing filling down slightly. Fold the two shorter sides of dough over filling to cover. Fold in the two long sides of the dough to form pocket. Pinch edges to seal. Place pockets, seam side down on baking sheet. Brush tops with egg wash and place in oven. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and serve.