Chicken cordon bleu

[jeff]

This recipe serves two.

2 Chicken breast
Gruyere cheese - about 4-6oz sliced into thin strips.
Thin sliced ham or beef
1/2 cup flour
1/2 to 1 cup of bread crumbs *plain*
2 eggs
salt
pepper
thyme
butter for cooking
oil for cooking

Sauce

3-4 mushrooms sliced
1/2 onion diced
1 to 2 TBS blue cheese crumbles
2 TBS white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
dash of Worcestershire sauce

preheat the oven to 350o

start out by placing about 2TBS butter in a pan and cook under med/high heat, half of the onion/mushrooms till they have a nice color then move those to the outside of the pan and add the rest of the mushrooms/onion.
AFTER they're cooked, add some kosher salt. do not add salt while the mushrooms are cooking!

While the mushrooms/onions are cooking, take the chicken and place it in a ziplock bag, plastic wrap, or as I did, put it back into the bag I used from the grocery store. You can either use a food mallet, bottom of a pan, (pictured) or as I feel works better, use your hands. You want to mash the chicken so it's about 1/8"-1/4" thick. Be careful to not tear the chicken but if you do.... ohwell =)

Once the chicken is is flat, take 2-3 pieces of the cheese and place it on the chicken, then the ham/beef (beef pictured) then another layer of cheese. Try to roll the chicken up into a nice tight wrap, put some pressure on the chicken to kinda form it into the roll so it stays. Set aside.

check your mushroom/onion mix, if its nicely colored you can move them off the heat and set aside.

Back to the chicken...

Set up 3 bowls/containers and 1 plate.

Take the flour and place in 1 of the containers and add some salt, pepper and thyme. after this you should have.

1 container with flour, 1 with the 2 eggs beaten (egg wash) and the last one with the plain bread crumbs.

Start out by placing and rolling the chicken in the flour, clean off any excess flour, then lay the floured chicken into the egg, once again roll it over so it gets coated in the egg wash, then remove the excess egg, then place the chicken in the last container with the bread crumbs. cover with the breadcrumbs then set the chicken on a plate. repeat this step for the other piece of chicken.

Once the chicken is breaded, place the chicken in the fridge for 15 minutes to setup. (this will help keep the bread on the chicken rather then coming off in the cooking pot)

Take a pot and place 3 TBS butter and 3 TBS oil of choice in it. Take a cooking thermometer and place the tip into the oil, you want to cook with the oil at 350o, so preheat the oil to 365-370o because when you add the cold chicken to the oil it will drop 10-15o.

Once the oil is at 365-370o place the chicken into the oil, cook the chicken for about 20-30 seconds, once the chicken has a nice colored crust, roll the chicken over 90o, keep doing this till all 4 sides are nice and evenly cooked. Once all the sides look great, remove the chicken from the oil and move it to another pan, add your thermometer probe into the biggest piece of chicken, make sure you stick the prob into the chicken meat and not the cheese/ham. Place the chicken into the preheated oven, and set your alarm to go off when the chicken hits 165o I'm not going to say a time since there really is no set time on how long this will take to cook, it will take however long it needs to take =) just remember 165o

While the chicken is in the oven, put the mushroom/onions back on the burner and add 1/2 cup heavy cream, dash of Worcestershire, 1 TBS blue cheese, once melted, (taste the sauce) if you want a richer flavor add another 1 TBS, then add the 2 TBS white wine. Cook this over heat till the blue cheese is fully melted. then remove from heat.

Once the alarm goes off for 165o, remove the chicken from the oven and set it on a cutting board. Slice the chicken into even sized pieces and plate with the mushroom sauce.

TIP start the sauce when the chicken is around 135-140o if the sauce is made to early it will get too thick unless you keep it hot.

Also note, recipe is for 2 pieces but I made 3 in the pictures since I had a extra piece of small chicken.

Also if desired, shave some fresh parmesan cheese, add some blue cheese crumbles, fresh crushed pepper and some parsley. (as pictured)

[jeff]

....

[jeff]

....

[jeff]

..,.

[The Shepherd]

I'll be making this in the near future, looks awesome.

[510dat]

That looks excellent! What could I use to substitute for the gruyere? I've used that stuff before, and it smelled and tasted like a used sock. >_<

[The Shepherd]

Try Swiss cheese, I think that is another way to do them up. I was surprised at the gruyere though I'll try it with that.

[jeff]

I found that basic recipe books called for swiss, the higher end more profession books list gruyere.

Take it for what it's worth. is either one wrong/right? nope. use whatever you like.

[The Shepherd]

It was my turn to bring in food on Thursday night for my co-workers. I tried out this recipe and they were very impressed. It turned out great, I think I put in a bit too much blue cheese into the sauce but that's my style (add the called for amount then add a bit more, then another bit more). It was pretty easy to make and tasted good. I used prosciutto instead of ham for the added "ohhhh...ahhhh factor". I served it up with my cream cheese mashed potatoes, asparagus and a roasted garlic soup......if I wasn't in such a rush I'd have taken pics of the soup.

Good recipe.

[510dat]

I made this for dinner last night, it took me about three hours to do, but I'm sure that could be cut in half. I tend to take forever when I cook.

I used some gouda for the inside cheese instead of gruyere, and ommitted the mushrooms from the sauce, but I kept it pretty close to the recipe. I don't have a meat thermometer, so we just poked at it every fifteen or twenty minutes. Final cooking time was about 45 minutes, and it came out really well.