Cajun Pork Braid

Submitted by gailanng

"The filling can be prepared the day before and refrigerated. Just roll it in plastic wrap."

 

• Ready In: 55mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 6 slices
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 lb ground lean pork
• 1⁄2 cup onion, chopped
• 1⁄2 cup celery, chopped
• 1⁄4 cup bell pepper, chopped
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon red pepper
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, cubed
• 2 tablespoons green onions, chopped (scallions)
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley
• 1 (8 ounce) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
• 1 egg, beaten

directions

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees.
2. In large skillet, brown pork and drain.
3. Add onions, celery, green bell pepper, garlic, salt and pepper.
4. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes.
5. Add cream cheese, green onion, and parsley. Stir until cream cheese is melted and blended; cool completely.
6. Unroll dough onto lightly greased cookie sheet and firmly press perforations to seal. This can be done on a greased piece of foil to fit cookie sheet.
7. With floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 12"x10" rectangle.
8. Spoon pork down center, leaving 1" on both (short) ends and 3" on both (long) sides.
9. Cut dough on each long side of filling into fourteen 3/4" diagonal strips, 2" long. This can be done with kitchen shears.
10. Brush beaten egg over dough strips.
11. Fold ends of dough over filling.
12. Lay dough strips alternately over filling, forming a roll resembling a braid.
13. Brush exterior dough with remaining egg.
14. Bake 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Reviews

[Boomette]

oh wow this is so amazing and I'm proud of myself. It's beautiful lol I love the taste of the filling. Even my son loved it. I omitted salt and red pepper. Thanks Gailanng :) Made for Holiday tag game

 

[Kittencalrecipezazz]

this is delicious! I used green onion, increased the garlic and added in 1 tablespoon of crushed chili flakes, I'm going to try this meat filling next time using my own homemade bread dough, thank you Gail this is a wonderful recipe, I made this for KK's Green event

 

[DeniseBC]

WOW! This is a fun recipe! I made it as directed, but used orange bell pepper as we prefer that to green. I also used 1/3 less fat cream cheese as I can't bring myself to use full fat much anymore. I used a pretty liberal 1/4 t. red pepper and next time will probably use more. I got a later start than I intended, so our filling wasn't quite at room temperature; next time I'll probably make it the night before for a quicker weeknight supper. To me this was an easy recipe to make that makes a big impression. LOVE using the crescent roll dough for easy pastry. Thanks gailanng for a tasty, fun recipe! Made for Potluck Tag, Feb '10.

 

[Nif_H]

We enjoyed our dinner tonight thanks to this recipe. It looked really nice and the flavour was great. I made the filling earlier in the day and refrigerated it. The only recommendation would be to cut the pieces that you pull a bit thicker. It's hard to do if you make them only 3/4" thick. Made for our ZWT5 group, the Kitchen Witches. Thanks!

 

[Debbie R.]

I had some real problems making this, but that's because I did a couple of things wrong. On the day of making it, I had made the filling the same day. It tasted good, but not fantastic. Enter the magic of putting it overnight in the fridge and letting the flavors meld for awhile. Excellent! ZWT5