Chicken Cordon Bleu

A co-worker of mine asked me if I would find her an easy recipe for Chicken Cordon Bleu because her husbands loves. I don't know if I would go so far as to say this is easy, but it wasn't too hard. The worst part of this dish are the tooth picks. I am not good at placing them AND because I used colored tooth picks, they colored my meat! You can see the blue in the picture above. It didn't affect the flavor, but it made them a little less elegant.

I got this recipe at Allrecipes.com. I am starting to really like that web site. They have a rating scale for each recipe so you know if it is tried and true. This one scored 5 out of 5 stars. I liked this recipe because it wasn't breaded and I got to make the sauce from scratch. A couple of the recipes on allrecipes.com call for cream of chicken soup and sour cream...pass.

Chicken Cordon Bleu:

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
6 slices Swiss cheese
6 slices ham
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon paprika
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Pound chicken breasts if they are too thick.

Before pounding:

After pounding...Smack those babies!

Place a cheese and ham slice on each breast within 1/2 inch of the edges.

Fold the edges of the chicken over the filling, and secure with toothpicks. (I don't know who thinks they can fold the edges of chicken and nicely secure toothpicks. I obviously need that culinary class because I suck at it.)

Mix the flour and paprika in a small bowl, and coat the chicken pieces.

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and cook the chicken until browned on all sides. Add the wine and bouillon. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

Remove the toothpicks, and transfer the breasts to a warm platter. Blend the cornstarch with the cream in a small bowl, and whisk slowly into the skillet. Cook, stirring until thickened, and pour over the chicken.

Serve warm.

We had friends over to help us test this one out and they REALLY liked it. Alex LOVED it. I didn't like the swiss cheese, so that kind of marred the dish for me. The next time I make this one I'll change up a couple of things. I wouldn't use all butter; I'd use half butter, half olive oil and cut it back to a total of two tablespoons or less of each. I'd also use a different kind of cheese...maybe provolone or a different kind of swiss. The stuff I got was your basic strong swiss and it just didn't dig it. This was a GREAT recipe. You need to try it out...and tell me all about how you toothpick up the chicken.

Notice the spaghetti squash on the right side of the plate...I am saving that one for another post.