This post may contain affiliate links. Read disclosure policy
These cream cheese pinwheels are the perfect party food! Handheld, easy to pop in your mouth, and loaded with chicken, bacon, and ranch!
It’s the best food season of the year – football food season! I love all the snacks and dips and appetizers and generally completely unhealthy concoctions that are deemed totally reasonable to consume during a football game.
Luckily, these cream cheese pinwheels can do double duty and you can serve them up at any party or event you like! Plus, we have options for the dough so you can make these as a cold appetizer or as a hot melty appetizer!
We filled soft, buttery, flaky crescent dough with shredded chicken, crumbled bacon, a homemade mix of ranch seasoning, and plenty of cream cheese for the ultimate cream cheese pinwheels. You’re going to love these just as much as you love our bacon pinwheels!
You may notice that this filling is awfully similar to that of my chicken pockets. That’s because it’s totally the same. I made those chicken pockets for dinner one night and thought, you know what, these would make an excellent snack for football games. I was right.
Crescent Dough Vs. Tortillas
There are lots of pinwheel recipes and rollup recipes and most of them use either crescent dough sheets/rolls or tortillas to make the pinwheels.
We love both! I tend to use the crescent dough more often because I like the soft, flaky texture. That’s what you’ll find in these cream cheese pinwheels.
The crescent dough works better for baking, but the tortilla pinwheels are great for air frying! They get nice and crispy like these cheesy taco pinwheels or these crack chicken pinwheels which is similar to this recipe! You can also roll these into tortilla pinwheels and just serve them up cold. That’s also a delicious option!
Cream Cheese Pinwheels with Bacon and Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups cooked shredded chicken
- 4 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
- 3 tablespoons chopped green onion
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried dill
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 packages crescent dough sheets
- Ranch dressing for dipping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl, add the chicken, bacon, green onions, cream cheese, sour cream, and all the spices. Stir well to combine.
- Remove one crescent dough sheet from the package and place it on your work surface.
- Spoon half of the chicken mixture onto the dough and spread in an even layer.
- Roll the dough up and slice into 9 equal rounds using a serrated knife.
- Repeat with the remaining crescent sheet and filling.
- Place the crescent rounds on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
- Serve with ranch dressing for dipping, as desired.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Ingredient Notes:
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate and member of other qualifying programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Shredded Chicken – You may use canned chicken, rotisserie chicken, or our easy crockpot shredded chicken recipe!
Bacon – In addition to the cooked chicken you will also need cooked and crumbled bacon.
Cream Cheese & Sour Cream – These two ingredients will get mixed up with the chicken, bacon, and seasoning to make the creamy, cheesy, savory filling for these
Crescent Dough – If you can find sheets of crescent dough that’s the best option but you can also use crescent rolls. Just press the perforations together with your fingers to form a solid sheet of dough.
Seasoning – I’m using a mix of salt, black pepper, dried dill, garlic powder, and onion powder. If you want to add some spicy flavors a bit of cayenne pepper would work! You could also swap this for about 2 teaspoons of ranch seasoning.
Ranch Dressing – This is optional but we love to serve these pinwheels with some ranch dressing for dipping! They’d also be good dipped in our honey mustard recipe to add a little sweetness.
What We Love About This PINWHEEL Recipe:
- Savory: The bacon, chicken, and cream cheese with the seasoning is perfectly savory! You’ll love the filling in these pinwheels and it’s so easy to make.
- Party Food: These pinwheels are excellent appetizers or snacks for holidays, sporting events, parties and gatherings of all sorts. They are perfectly sized for snacking, and they’re budget friendly too!
- Hot or Cold: Serve these hot as directed or skip the crescent dough and use tortillas to make cold pinwheels instead!
How To Make Pinwheels:
Filling: While your oven preheats prepare the filling by adding the shredded chicken, crumbled bacon, green onion, cream cheese, sour cream, and spices to a medium mixing bowl. Stir until the mixture is well combined.
Dough: Place one of the crescent dough sheets onto your work surface and then spoon half of the chicken mixture onto it and spread it in an even layer.
Roll: After spreading on the filling you can roll the dough up and then slice it into 9 equal rounds using a serrated knife. Repeat this with the remaining sheet of dough and filling.
Helpful TIp!
Using a serrated knife will allow you to easily slice through the dough without squishing it and causing the filling to ooze out.
Bake: Line a large baking sheet with some parchment paper and place the crescent rounds on the sheet. Bake them for 15 minutes or until they are golden brown and cooked through!
We like to serve these bacon and chicken pinwheels with some ranch dressing for dipping!
Helpful Tip!
Dough Sheets Vs. Crescent Rolls
Pillsbury sells crescent dough sheets right next to the crescent rolls and we love them! If you can’t find them, go ahead and use crescent rolls. The only difference is that you’ll need to pinch the seams together to form a solid sheet of dough.
Tortilla Pinwheels:
Prefer to use tortillas instead of crescent dough? No problem!
Use 2-3 flour tortillas (depending on the size) and spread them with the filling mixture. Tightly roll them up and use a serrated knife to slice into pinwheels.
Go ahead and serve these cold or pop them in your air fryer at 370 degrees for 5 minutes if you’d like them hot and crispy.
FAQ’s:
You can keep any leftovers stored in an airtight container in your refrigerator for about 3 to 4 days. They can be reheated in the microwave or oven, but they’re good cold too!
Yes you can! These cream cheese pinwheels with chicken and bacon are great for making ahead of time if you’ve got a party or gathering. These are excellent appetizers and they can be served hot or cold!
MORE PARTY FOOD RECIPES!
This recipe was originally published in September 2017. It was updated with new photos in January 2024. Original photo below:
Elena says
Perfect party food. Fast and easy to prep to take to your next gathering!
Nance says
Going to try tonight. Can they be made ahead and refrigerated to cook later?
Karly says
Hi Nance! I’m not sure how well the dough would do in the fridge after it’s been opened. I think it probably needs to be baked right away.
Agness of Run Agness Run says
This dish looks so delicious and mouth-watering, Karly! Is there any alternative to sour cream?
Karly says
Greek yogurt would work great. 🙂
Tricia @ Saving Room for Dessert says
These look wonderful Karly! Football is fine with me – but I just can’t sit through a whole game anymore. So much blah, blah, blah. But I need to make these delicious treats – and I could make a meal out of them. Great recipe!
Tracy | Baking Mischief says
I’m so with you. Football food >>>> football! 😉 I love a good pinwheel, and these look extra yummy!
Christine Ho says
The cream cheese filling makes the pinwheels look so tempting and delicious. Love it.
Janet Bradley says
Could these also be served as a Wrap (served cold). Recipe sounds amazing.
Karly says
Yeah, I think a wrap would be great! 🙂
OhioWolverine says
Try them with a little green onion added! These are my faves!
Karly says
That’d be delicious!
Kelsie | the itsy-bitsy kitchen says
Football food is the best! These look so yummy and perfect for my next tailgater :).
Dianna says
Amazing! The pinwheels looks delicious! Love this filling, yummy!