Chicken Cordon Blue

[Trevor M]

Tonight I decided to give my wife something she'd never had before for supper. Chicken Cordon Blue.

• Pounded flat 4 chicken breasts in a clean empty bread bag using a meat mallet.
• Once flattened, I seasoned it with Lea & Perrins, season salt, and pepper.
• Then placed 4 slices of ham (my wife isn't real big on ham, mine had considerably more) and because neither of us like swiss cheese, I used mozza instead.
• Put the top chicken breast over it, put them back in the bread bag and pounded the two chicken breasts together, put them into a freezer bag and put them in the freezer for an hour and a half so they wouldn't fall apart when I was breading them.
• Breaded them the usual way, flour, egg wash, regular bread crumbs, into the oven at 400F for 45 minutes.
• When they were almost finished I added a bit of mozza on top and put them back in to melt it.

For the sauce I reduced a cup and a half of white wine then added 2 cups of chicken stock. Once it started to boil I let it reduce for another 5 minutes then thickened it, added salt and pepper, and light cream which then was ladled over the top and was garnished with a pinch of parsley. Served it with rice into which I added diced carrot, celery, onion, red and green peppers, and bean sprouts, that I cut into 3, salt and pepper, and soy sauce.

Next time I'm going to use smaller chicken breasts or just make them using a single breast for each CB. These ones were huge by the time I got them pounded out and we have left overs which isn't a bad thing. Something different for her lunch tomorrow.

Despite not liking ham, my wife tells me she really liked it and I'll have to do it again at a later date. I used pictures of her plate this time. Like I said I didn't put much ham into hers because I know she's not a fan.

For dessert we have store bought apple or cherry turnovers

I am aware that there are many different sauces that could be used. In the restaurant I worked in where this was on the menu we used a red wine and beef stock gravy into which we put sliced or quartered mushrooms. We also occasionally would use the sauce I made today and periodically a variation of a hollandaise sauce.