I had no plans to share any chicken cordon bleu recipes with you this week, or this month... or this season for that matter, but after promising to film a video of a No Fail Chicken Wrapping Technique, I ended up making this Chicken Cordon Bleu with Cheese Sauce as a reason to film. It turned out to be very tasty, and after a few of you asked more about it, I figured "Why not? Let's share!"
The toughest part of this recipe is pounding out the chicken breast. They are so gigantic these days, they can be a real monster to work with. I trimmed the fat and thin sections off of three breasts I had before getting to work on pounding them thin. I've been known to cut them in half before pounding them to make them smaller, but I knew I had quite a bit of filling in them, so I opted to keep them whole and to pound out a nice area of chicken for easier wrapping.
I placed the chicken between sheets of wax paper and started hitting it with a meat mallet. You need to take your time and work slowly and evenly from the center of the breast to the edges. It'll probably take you a little while to get it all pounded out evenly, but that's just fine. If you go too quickly, you can completely shred the chicken into pieces. All is not lost if this happens, but it's better to avoid having to make corrections if you can. Go slow and pound out evenly.
As the chicken thins and spreads, it has an amazing amount of flexibility at this time. You can pound it in areas and sort of push it left or right. If you can get a little control, what you are looking for is a piece of pounded out chicken that will roll up and overlap (it needs to "more than meet" the other side of the chicken to hold the filling in) but also ideally have enough meat on the edges to tuck in. (Again, you're looking to fully cover the stuffing.)
If your chicken is just not cooperating, have no fear. You can always get a little creative with the stuffing, but if you can get it to spread well, you'll have an easier time with the next part.
Chicken cordon bleu debuted in the United States in 1967. Prior to that, it had done some time in several areas of Europe. It was originally made with Veal in Paris, France in the 1840s - the French referring to the dish as Cordon Bleu, meaning "Blue Ribbon." It was later reworked with chicken in Moscow, Russia. The veal dish was first to the US, followed by chicken 12 years later. It has "Americanized" as chicken stuffed with ham and cheese, but this recipe, I used the savory, salty and strong flavors of prosciutto and Swiss cheese. It's layered in the chicken breasts, leaving room for rolling.
At this point, I use the No Fail Chicken Wrapping Technique mentioned earlier to seal the chicken closed. It truly is a simple and effective easy to hold the chicken together and looks and handles very professionally. Once wrapped, it can sit in the fridge for 30 minutes, a few hours, even overnight. It's perfect for making ahead if you have company coming - then all you need to do is bread it, give it a quick fry, and then pop it into the oven.
Do you need to fry it? No, but I like the look of a nice browned piece of chicken and I like the crunchy breading, so I fried it. This wasn't a full, "cooked through" fry, it was just a few minutes while I turned the pieces to get the outside looking brown, and then I placed them into an enameled cast iron casserole dish and cooked them through, to about 165 degrees, for 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven. They were perfect.
As they sat, I whipped up a quick cheese sauce to top it. I would have reached for equal parts Swiss and Parmesan to complement the Swiss inside, but I used the Swiss all up.
I opted for American cheese since I felt of all the cheese varieties I had in the house, the American would be mellow and not compete with the chicken. Did I need cheese sauce? No, but I like the idea of having a sauce to cover the chicken and keep it moist and creamy.
I served it with rice pilaf and roasted asparagus from the garden. BOTH of my kids ate it, which is a huge feat in itself and says a lot about the "kid approved" part of this dish. It really was a quick and east winner!
So what are you waiting for? Chicken Cordon Bleu with Cheese Sauce is your next meal you didn't even know you were missing. I guarantee you'll love it and it will be a hit with your people too!
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