April 13, 2012

Homemade Chicken Cordon Bleu

If you're like me, you had a ton of leftover ham after the Easter holiday.  I'm not the biggest fan of ham sandwiches so I needed to figure out what to do with all of it.  I was searching through my fridge and found some chicken breasts, and swiss cheese.  Chicken Cordon Bleu's anyone?  I absolutely love the frozen ones you buy at the store, but I've never made them myself.  It can't be that hard, can it?  Turns out it was pretty easy peasy.

All you need is chicken breasts, ham, swiss cheese, panko crumbs, flour and eggs. 


Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. First, with the flat side of a mallet, I pounded out the chicken breasts until they were about a 1/2" thick.


Then, I added 3 slices of swiss cheese. I would have gone with 2, but these were the super thin slices and I love me some cheese. Next, I added the ham. I would have added some salt and pepper for some seasoning, but the panko that I had was already pre-seasoned.


Tightly roll the chicken into, well, a roll. If you have some toothpicks on hand, you'd want to insert them at this point. I didn't and it still worked fine.


Lay out3 separate shallow dishes. In the first one put 2-3 tablespoons of flour, in the second dish, crack two eggs and lightly beat. In the third, pour in the panko crumbs.


Now, take your chicken and go down the line. Lightly coat in the flour, then get a good coating of the egg wash and finally roll that sucker around in the panko until you can't see your chicken anymore.


Place onto a cookie sheet that has been lined with foil and lightly sprayed. Repeat with the other chicken. Bake in the oven for about 25-35 minutes depending on the size of the bird you started with.


These turned out really delicious and they only took about 10 minutes to prepare.  I paired mine with a baked potato and a glass of Cabernet.  Upon further thought, it would be really easy to take one hour of your day and knock a bunch of these out to keep in your freezer for a later meal.  I may have to do that soon.

Chicken Cordon Bleu
Serves 2


2 chicken breasts
2-3 slices swiss cheese
4-5 slices ham
3 Tbls flour
2 eggs - beaten
1 cup seasoned panko crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.  Between 2 pieces of saran wrap, pound the chicken breasts to 1/2" thickness.  Remove top layer of saran wrap to add the cheese slices and ham.  Wrap these 3 ingredients tightly in a roll.  In 3 separate shallow containers add the flour, eggs and panko crumbs.  Coat the first roll with flour, than move to the egg wash until coated completely.  Next, dip it into the panko crumbs until generously covered.  You don't want to see the chicken anymore.  Place on the cookie sheet and repeat with the other chicken breast.  Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the chicken until it is no longer pink in the middle.