Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe

I love me some Chicken Cordon Bleu. But I’ve always felt it could be better? I mean Swiss cheese? We can do better than that, right?

And I’ve got nothing against ham; I think it’s pretty darned delicious. Even the sandwich type of ham. But still, we can do better. I’ve had this idea rolling around in my head… what if we improved chicken cordon bleu with some more… ‘high brow’ ingredients?

I just decided to go for it. Luckily, ALDI has all the fancy pants cheeses and cured meats you could want, so I didn’t have to pay much money for my little experiment. I was originally planning on using prosciutto and smoked gouda, but I had some money left over. So I decided to try capicola and gruyere, too. Why not?

Long story short, it turned out AWESOME.

If you’ve never made chicken cordon bleu before, here’s how it goes: butterfly and pound the chicken so it’s nice and flat. Top with meat and cheese, roll it up and then bread it. Bake for about a half hour and enjoy!

Here are some tips for this Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe:

1. Since the cured meat that you’re gonna stuff the chicken with is generally very thin, I placed the meat on top of the chicken first, followed by cheese, and then another slice of meat.
2. You don’t need to season the meat at all. In most recipes, I would season the meat with salt and pepper as I’m preparing it. But in this case, there’s no need to. The cured meats are plenty seasoned. And this seasoning makes its way into the chicken as it cooks.
3. Both gruyere and smoked gouda melt great, but they aren’t as soft and flexible as your typical swiss cheese. So when you roll it all up, the cheese kind of breaks as it rolls. But I actually found this to be helpful – the rolled up chicken stayed together better as I breaded it.

I tried the following combinations of meat/cheese:

• Prosciutto & Smoked Gouda
• Prosciutto & Gruyere
• Capicollo & Smoked Gouda
• Capicollo & Gruyere

The winner… well, they were all much better then your typical ham and swiss (no surprise there), but my favorite was Prosciutto & Gruyere. The Gruyere cheese just melts amazingly well, and the saltiness of the prosciutto seasoned the whole dish. It was awesome.

Enjoy!

Chicken Cordon Bleu - Upgraded

This Chicken Cordon Bleu just got a SERIOUS upgrade! I used a much higher grade of meat than ham, and a much tastier cheese than swiss. It's SO much better!

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Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Servings: 4

Author: Lauren Cobello

Ingredients

• 2 Kirkwood boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 8 slices of Specially Selected Prosciutto
• 8 thin slices of Specially Selected Gruyere Cheese
• 2 eggs beaten with 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup Baker's Corner all-purpose flour
• 1 cup Chef's Cupboard breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup Carlini oil for frying

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven to 350.
• Butterfly each chicken breast in half.
• Cover with plastic wrap, and pound each chicken breast half until it's very thin (about 1/4 inch).
• Top each piece of chicken with 1 slice of prosciutto, followed by 2 slices of cheese, and then another slice of prosciutto.
• Roll up each chicken breast half.
• Drench the rolled up chicken in flour and shake off the excess.
• Dip the rolled up chicken in the egg, and then generously coat in breadcrumbs.
• Heat oil over medium.
• Once it's hot, place the chicken in the pan. Cook each side of the chicken for about a minute, just long enough to brown the breadcrumb crust.
• Place in a glass baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350, or until the chicken is no longer pink.

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