Greek Chicken Salad Poufs

I use Alton Brown's recipe for savoury pate a choux to make the poufs and then I prepare a very simple chicken salad for the filling. (Pate a choux is the batter used when making cream puffs, which use the sweet preparation.) I took these to a potluck at work and they were a big hit. By the way, Alton Brown does not recommend using a pastry bag, but rather a freezer bag with the corner cut out of it. In this one regard, I think he's an idiot. He uses this trick every other episode because he disapproves of mono-taskers. If he has an application for a pastry bag every other time he cooks, though, he should use one (especially since for this recipe, he actually advocated having the tip assembly for a pastry bag anyway, even if you were using a freezer bag.)

***

Here is the recipe for the pate a choux, c/p'd from foodnetwork.com. The instructions indicate that you're supposed to mix this up with a mixer and bowl. I don't have one and a spatula and some elbow grease did the trick, just fine. I also did not have parchment to put on my cookie sheets, so I just greased them up with a little bit of shortening and there was no problem lifting the poufs off the sheet.

1 cup water
3/4 stick butter (6 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon salt
5 & 3/4 ounces flour (Yes, it is best to weigh flour, rather than measure it by volume. Just tap your measuring cup with a table knife, poke it to knock out air pockets, and level off the top with the back of the knife and you'll be okay. 5 & 3/4 ounces is equivalent to 1 & 1/3 cup.)
1 cup eggs, about 4 large eggs and 2 whites

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Boil water, butter, and salt or sugar. Add flour and remove from heat. Work mixture together and return to heat. Continue working the mixture until all flour is incorporated and dough forms a ball. Transfer mixture into bowl of a standing mixer and let cool for 3 or 4 minutes. With mixer on stir or lowest speed add eggs, 1 at a time, making sure the first egg is completely incorporated before continuing. Once all eggs have been added and the mixture is smooth put dough into piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe immediately into golfball-size shapes, 2 inches apart onto parchment lined sheet pans. Cook for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 degrees F and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. Once they are removed from the oven pierce with a paring knife immediately to release steam. (I remember from this episode that you MUST NOT open the oven while the poufs are cooking, no matter how tempted you may be. The heat loss is particular devastating in this case and the poufs will probably be ruined.)

***

Here is the recipe that I used for the chicken salad:

1 lb. chicken breast, diced (I just picked up a package of the scraps that they sell "for stir fry")
1 cup chopped celery
pinch of cilantro
pinch of rubbed sage
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup feta cheese

Cook the chicken by your preferred method. I boiled it because it was fast, cooked the pieces consistently, and gave them the right texture for chicken salad. Blend together the celery, mayonnaise, feta cheese, and herbs. Toss the chicken with the sauce blend and then mash the mixture together with a potato masher.

***

These can be served either warm or chilled. If chilled, then let both the poufs and the chicken salad chill in the refrigerator separately until you're ready to serve them. Slice open the poufs. They may not have a huge cavity in them, but that's okay. This preparation looks quite nice with a pouf "overstuffed" with chicken salad, with the 'cap' of the pouf set on top of the filling at a jaunty angle. You don't have to be particularly accurate with the amount of filling. I used approximately a heaping tablespoon per pouf.