Chicken Cordon Bleu

SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2009

4.5 stars (out of 5 - an easy dish to mix things up!)

Sunday night I decided to go for an easy, but (apparently) fairly-delicious classic: Chicken Cordon Bleu. I find it's easy to make and is somewhat impressive.

For this you will need (this is for 1 person, adjust accordingly):

2 chicken cutlets*
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I use cheddar, but I think Swiss is the original recipe)
2 thin slices of cooked ham
1-2 tsp Italian seasoning
Salt and Pepper
1 egg
1 cup breadcrumbs
Toothpicks
Parsley for presentation

* You can also use chicken breasts. Simply slice them length-wise, and fold open (like a book). Then use a meat mallot to pound the meat until it's even. I find this a bit, ugh... gross, so I just buy the cutlets.

1. First I laid out the cutlets, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning (you can use what you want). With the Italian seasoning, I try to pick out the big rosemary stems because they don't soften and just stab people in the mouth. Not pleasant.

2. Next, I laid one slice of ham on top of each cutlet, and coated them with the shredded cheese. SB likes a lot of strong cheese, so I added quite a bit of extra-old cheddar. Do as you please. You can also use cheese slices.

3. The third step was to carefully roll the cutlets up. I made sure to tuck the end of the ham over so it doesn't stick out. I then secured the roll with a bunch of toothpicks. It's always good to remember how many toothpicks you used so that you don't forget to take one out and stab someone's mouth!

4. Next, I whisked the egg up in a bowl. I used the egg to help adhere the breadcrumbs to the cutlets, but if you don't have eggs, you can also use a mayo-water combo. I coated each roll with egg.

5. In a separate dish, I laid out some breadcrumbs and stuck the coated rolls into it, pouring extra breadcrumbs on top. I find this part a bit messy, but also I'm a spazz in the kitchen, so maybe other people have a better way of doing this.

6. Once coated I stuck them on a baking pan (sorry about the pic- apparently tinfoil doesn't photograph so well), and popped them in the oven for 20 minutes at 425F, or until cooked.

7. Once I removed them from the oven, I took out the toothpicks, placed them on the plate and served with a side of asparagus and mashed potatoes. You can also garnish with the parsley, but in the end my parsley smelled like dirty feet so I decided not to!

8. Here is a picture of the roll... I need a better camera!