Chicken Cordon Bleau

This is one of my favorite dishes ever!  I love Chicken Cordon Bleau, I don't know why I don't make it more often!  It's actually a lot more simple than you'd think.  Just a lot of touching raw chicken, ugh.   I have been making this for years now, I kind of came up w/ it myself.  But, recently I found a new way to stuff the chicken, which you'll see below.  Try it out and let me know what you think.  I know ya'll will be impressed, it's just that good!

Oh my gosh, I just wish I had some to eat right now!  It's seriously that good!

 

This is how I've always made my Chicken Cordon Bleau.  Rolled the ham with the cheese and then rolled the chicken around it, securing it w/ toothpicks.  Which works great for those skinner/smaller pieces of chicken.  But...

For those thicker pieces of chicken I found this great new way to stuff the chicken from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  You cut a pocket in the thickest part of the chicken breast.  Roll the cheese inside the ham...

and stuff inside the chicken. It works great!! She has much better pictures if you want to look at hers.  You can then secure w/ tooth picks if it doesn't close all the way.

You may also secure w/ cooking twine for those pesky pieces of chicken that would take a million toothpicks to close shut.

The bottom 2 are rolled up, the rest are stuffed.

Prepare your eggs, flour and bread crumbs.

Dip in eggs, flour... 

eggs again and finally cover in bread crumbs.

This is my favorite/easiest way of "frying" the chicken...place a cubed Tb of butter on each chicken, secured w/ a toothpick.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes...

And you've got this!!!  Yum!!

Look at all that cheese oozing out.

And this is what the inside looks like.  YUMMY!!

Chicken Cordon Bleau

Ingredients:

6 thick boneless, skinless chicken breasts

6-12 thin slices deli ham

2 cups shredded swiss cheese (I've used sliced too, the shredded was actually a little easier)

3 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour

Italian flavored bread crumbs

6 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Top each ham slice with about 1/4 cup shredded cheese. If your ham slices are too small, shingle two ham slices on top of each other to create a larger slice and roll the cheese up in that. Roll tightly and set aside. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Following the pictures above, cut a pocket in the thickest part of the chicken breast and stuff each pocket with 2 ham/cheese rolls (I could usually only stuff w/ 1 roll). Pull the top flap of chicken over the rolls and press to seal (you can use a toothpick to gently secure the pocket edge, if you like). Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Refrigerate the stuffed chicken, covered, for at least 20 minutes.

Pour bread crumbs in a shallow dish or pie plate.  In another dish, beat the eggs. Place the flour in a third shallow dish. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator. Working with one stuffed chicken breast at a time,dip in the egg mixture, covering both sides,  and then coat the chicken lightly with flour and finally dip a 2nd time in the eggs. Dredge the chicken in the  bread crumbs, pressing lightly to help the crumbs stick to the chicken. (The breaded chicken can be refrigerated covered for up to 1 day.)

Transfer the chicken to a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until golden brown and the chicken is cooked through (160 degrees on an thermometer), about 25-30 minutes. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving.  Enjoy!