chicken cordon bleu

It’s been an ongoing journey to find foods that Mr. Nodakademic and I both enjoy eating. The challenge: to find foods that he likes, but that won’t bore me to death, and that are at least somewhat healthy*. Here’s a meal that fits the bill.

This recipe is for two. Add more chicken breasts and other ingredients if you’re feeding more than two people. (As is the case with most of my recipes: this one was also found somewhere online, or possibly cobbled together from a couple of online recipes. I do not take credit, though I have no source.)

Baked Chicken Cordon Bleu
You’ll need…
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 slices of ham
2 slices of swiss cheese (I use Kraft 2% swiss singles)
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
salt & pepper
~2 tbsp butter
Also helpful: one of those hammers for tenderizing meat; saran wrap.

Before your hands get messy, beat your egg in a dish and put your breading in another dish. Set that aside while you work on the chicken. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a pan or dish (something with at least a small lip; I usually use an 8×8 baking dish).

Now, messy time! Pound your chicken to about a 1/4″ thickness using the meat tenderizer hammer. You’ll contain the mess better if you first lay the chicken between two pieces of saran wrap. You’ll end up with this.

Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of each chicken breast. Then, add a slice of swiss and two of ham to each breast.

Notice how I wrapped up the swiss inside the ham? That’s to help prevent all the cheese from oozing out of the chicken while it cooks. Sometimes my method succeeds, other times the cheese does seep out a bit. You don’t have to do this step; I just do because we prefer our cheese to remain inside our chicken. The downside? If it works, all the cheese and ham remains in the *middle* of your chicken. So, the first few bites will be cheese- and ham-less. Give and take. Anyway, roll them up like pinwheels with the ham and cheese inside.

Dip each chicken piece in egg, then coat it in breading and place it in your greased dish. Slap a dollop of butter on each one–about a tablespoon each.

Cook them, uncovered, for about 35 minutes or until juices run clear.

While it’s cooking, you might want to make a nice gravy for it using dry white wine and swiss cheese. If you Google search for cordon bleu recipes, many will include a recipe for such a sauce. I made it once and Mr. N wasn’t a fan, so I no longer do this step. I usually make this dish with mashed potatoes and some chicken gravy instead.

*I do consider this to be a somewhat healthy meal. Why? No skin on the chicken, nothing is fried, and I use low-fat cheese to make it. We also eat it with a vegetable; our broccoli is not shown in my pictures because we ate it while the chicken was cooking.