Chicken Cordon Bleu...My 300th Post!

There are so many options for ingredients for stuffed chicken. My favorites include Spinach, Red Pepper, and Gruyere and Boursin Chicken. Surprisingly, I have never made Chicken Cordon Bleu, so why not give something new a try on a random Monday night?

Even better, let's celebrate my 300th blog post with a yummy new dish!!

I invited my parents over to join Jon in being my test subjects. I won't make you scroll to the bottom of the post to see the results - everyone loved it and cleaned their plates. It was very simple, clean, and classic tasting.

I knew the basics of making this dish - pound out the chicken, layer with ham and Swiss cheese, roll, bread, bake. But to get the flavors and seasoning right, I followed the instructions and basic ingredients in this Tyler Florence Recipe. My adaptation is below.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thickness, maybe even less. Be careful not to tear the chicken.
• 4 slices deli ham
• 4 slices Swiss cheese
• Salt and pepper
• Flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 c breadcrumbs
• 1/2 c panko breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• Updated November 2011: I also add a touch of Dijon mustard mixed with just a bit of minced garlic to the inside of the chicken before layering with the ham and cheese. If you don't have Dijon, sprinkle them with dry mustard.
  

Directions

• Season inside of chicken with salt and pepper and a touch of thyme
  
• Layer with ham and cheese, roll tightly and secure with a toothpick. I then transferred them to the fridge until I was ready to cook them an hour later.
• In three consecutive dishes, put: flour mixed with some salt and pepper, egg beaten with 1 tbsp water, breadcrumbs mixed with some salt, pepper, and the thyme
• Coat chicken in flour, dip in egg, then roll in the bread crumbs. Place in a baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
• Bake on 375 for 40 minutes, turning the broiler on for the last minute.

Here is the chicken right out of the oven -

What a nice spiral once cut!

When thinking about this recipe, I thought that it needed a sauce, so I turned to this recipe on the blog Le Petit Pierogi.

Sauce Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1-2 garlic cloves, chopped (I used 2, pressed)
• 1/2 cup half and half (I used about 3/4 c)
• 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
• Splash of white wine
• Salt
• Pepper
• Shredded Parmesean cheese (I used about 1/3 c)

Making the Sauce

• Melt butter in small saucepan or skillet.
• Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
• Add a splash of white wine and cook another minute or two.
• In a small bowl, whisk together half and half and cornstarch then add it to the wine/butter mixture. Keep whisking everything in the pan until thickened and smooth.
• Add salt, pepper and a little bit of shredded Parmesean Cheese.
• Drizzle over Chicken Cordon Bleu just before serving.

By this point I was so ready to eat that I didn't put too much effort into the picture, but you get the idea of what the sauce looked like -

Again, we all loved this dish. The flavors were so simple on their own, but together were the perfect combination in this classic French dish.