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Pancakes – sweet or savory?
We grew up eating a lot of American-style fluffy pancakes, which we’d have for brunch on the weekends. Our blueberry pancake recipe can be found here, if you’d like to check it out for yourself. We sometimes also had Danish pancakes, which are more like crepes, with a sprinkle of sugar or a nice layer of jam. One of our brothers went through a phase of making them a lot – incredible when someone in the family has a cooking/baking hobby, isn’t it – so we tried them with all kinds of delicious fillings, including ice cream and bananas foster (both amazing). You can find the recipe for those Danish pancakes here on the blog as well.
So, needless to say, we love a sweet pancake. We don’t make them as often as we’d like to, but Pancake Day is a great reminder every year that they are truly a great breakfast or snack option. In case you aren’t familiar, Pancake Day falls on Shrove Tuesday every year and is celebrated in the UK by eating some pancakes. Pretty straightforward! However, you don’t have to stick to just the sweet options. By using the pancakes similarly to a tortilla and adding savory fillings, you can end up with a hearty lunch or dinner option. And that’s the recipe we’re bringing to you today: our chicken and asparagus pancakes.
The original savory pancake recipe
Savory pancakes are a reasonably normal thing to find in Denmark as a classic dinner option. They’re known as “fyldte pandekager” or “madpandekager”, and are a super versatile dish to have up your sleeve. We posted our first savory pancake recipe a few years ago, here on the blog. In this recipe, the filling is made with onions, carrots, peppers, ground beef, tomatoes, and corn. If you like a tomato-based sauce, like a chilli or a bolognese, then you’ll like this filling too. They get baked in the oven covered in cheese, too, so that’s an added delicious bonus.
One of our favorite fillings: chicken and asparagus
But what inspired today’s filled pancake recipe is actually one of our favorite Christmastime dishes! Well, it’s not exclusively eaten at Christmas, but that’s the time of year that we tend to have it. Can you guess what it is that I’m referring to? Tarteletter, of course! These are flaky little tartlets filled with a creamy chicken and asparagus filling. The textures together are perfect, and the filling is just so savory and warming, so it’s the perfect little dish. We enjoy it as a part of our big Christmas lunch, or julefrokost, which you can read more about in the book we wrote last year!
A perfect hearty and filling dinner idea
In short, we wanted to create a new savory pancake recipe, and we immediately thought of one of our favorite fillings. That’s how these chicken and asparagus pancakes came to be! Honestly, I think it never hurts to have more dinner ideas, especially for dishes that are versatile like this one. Once you master the pancake part, you can really create a filling with whatever you like, channeling whatever your or your family’s favorite flavors are. In this recipe, we love how the soft pancakes are the perfect vessel for all that creamy filling. The asparagus adds freshness, the chicken adds heartiness, and it’s just a perfect balance. We can highly recommend these, whether it’s for a weeknight dinner, special occasion, or even meal prep!
Ingredients you’ll need
This dish consists of two components: the pancakes and the filling. For the pancakes, you’ll need: flour, salt, milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and a little bit of extra oil or butter for cooking. If you don’t want to use vegetable oil, you can use another oil or butter instead. For the filling, you’ll need chicken, asparagus, onion, olive oil, butter, flour, milk, chicken stock, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. We love to use a rotisserie chicken for this recipe, to make things super easy, but you can easily cook chicken breast to use as well. Traditionally, this filling is made with canned white asparagus, but this can be difficult to find in some countries. Just use regular asparagus instead! To finish, you’ll need some mozzarella cheese and a bit of fresh parsley, although you can use whatever cheese you like best.
How to make our chicken and asparagus pancakes
The process starts by making the pancakes. We’d recommend a non-stick pan, because that really does give the best results, but if you have a pan that you know from experience works for pancakes, it should be fine. Simply mix up the batter until nice and smooth, and pour a spoonful of batter at a time into the pan. Twist the pan around as you pour, so the batter coats it evenly. Once you get your pan up to the right heat, the pancakes should cook quickly.
In the meantime, you’ll make the filling. This starts by cooking the chicken (if needed) and cooking the onion and asparagus briefly until tender. The sauce then starts with a roux of butter and flour, to which you add some milk to make it creamy and thick. Thin it out with chicken stock, then add the asparagus, onion, and chicken back in. You can add some fresh parsley to the sauce at this stage if you like. Then, assemble! Fill each pancake with some of the thick, creamy filling and roll it up. Line the pancakes up in a baking dish and cover with some cheese. Then simply bake until the cheese is nice and melted, and enjoy!
Fyldte pandekager med høns i asparges (Creamy Chicken and Asparagus Pancakes)
These chicken and asparagus pancakes are creamy, hearty, and a delicious dinner idea for your family!
Ingredients
PANCAKE BATTER
- 200 grams all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 500 ml milk
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- Butter/spray for cooking (if needed!)
FILLING
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 200 grams onion
- 300 grams asparagus
- 650 grams pre-cooked chicken (rotisserie chicken, cooked chicken breasts, etc.)
- 56 grams butter
- 60 grams flour
- 375 ml milk
- 250 ml chicken stock
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 tbsp Freshly chopped parsley
TOPPING
- 150 grams grated mozzarella cheese
- Fresh parsley (for garnish, optional)
Instructions
PANCAKES
- To make the pancakes, mix together the flour and salt in a large bowl.
- Add half of the milk (250 ml) and whisk together really well so that there are no lumps – it will look like a pale paste at this point.
- Whisk together the rest of the milk (250 ml), oil, and eggs in a separate bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour and milk mixture and whisk until combined. The pancake batter should be thin and smooth.
- Use a pan (non-stick is best) to cook the pancakes – our pan is a 9-inch/23cm pan on the bottom cooking surface. You can use butter or a spray to coat the pan if you have problems with sticking – we usually don't add this as the pancakes release easily from our pan! After placing your pan over low/medium heat, scoop up some of the batter (between 1/3 cup scoop and 1/2 cup scoop) and add to the center of the pan. Simultaneously, pick up the pan and use your wrist to move it in a circle. This should cause the batter to coat the entire pan and look like a Danish pancake (or a crepe). Add more batter in any spots you may have missed.
- Flip after a minute or two (they cook very quickly!) and remove from heat after another 30 seconds on the second side. Repeat until you run out of batter! You should have enough for at least 12 pancakes, but you may have a few extra (for snacking or dessert!). Set the pancakes to the side while you make your filling.
CHICKEN FILLING
- One of the shortcuts we use in this recipe is using pre-cooked or rotisserie chicken. In the US, you can get them quite cheaply at most grocery stores, and it's nice because it's fully cooked and you get both white and dark meat. If you can't get pre-cooked chicken, you can very easily cook chicken breasts seasoned with salt and pepper in a pan or the oven until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165F (74C).
- Chop the chicken into ½in (~1½ cm) pieces and add to a large bowl.
- Chop the onion and asparagus. You can also use up other veggies that you may have in your fridge – broccoli or cauliflower would work well!
- Sauté the onions in a large pot with about a tablespoon of olive oil until they start to turn translucent, about 5 mins. Add the asparagus and cook for another 5 or so minutes until the asparagus is tender.
- Add the cooked veggies to the bowl with the chicken.
- In the same pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add in the flour and whisk together. Slowly start adding milk while continuously whisking.
- When all the milk has been added, repeat the process with the chicken stock, adding it a bit at a time while whisking.
- Add garlic powder and salt and pepper.
- Add the chicken and veggie mixture to the creamy sauce.
- Stir together and taste for seasoning, adjusting salt and pepper if needed.
- Add in freshly chopped parsley and stir to combine.
- Let the filling cool for 10 minutes before filling the pancakes.
ASSEMBLY
- Preheat your oven to 390 F (200 C).
- Prepare your baking dish (we use a dish that's around 9in x 13in (~23cm x 33 cm)) by adding a little bit of filling across the bottom, to help prevent the pancakes from sticking.
- Fill the pancakes by placing the filling towards the bottom edge of a pancake.
- Fold the bottom edge of the pancake (closest to the filling) about halfway over the filling.
- Fold in both the left and right edges of the pancake towards the center.
- Then, roll it up to enclose the filling. You're basically rolling this up like a burrito.
- Place into a baking dish. Repeat this until you either run out of pancakes or filling. The amount of filling should fill 12 pancakes!
- Sprinkle the grated cheese on top of the pancakes.
- Bake for 10-15 mins or until the cheese is bubbly and golden. Garnish with a little fresh parsley. Serve with a side salad for a delicious and hearty meal!
