Chicken Cordon Bleu-ish

Must be hundreds of recipes out there for making this classic dish—some baked, some sautéed—some with fancy rich sauces, some too ordinary and unappealing, and some so fiddly, who has that much time. This is a basic sautéed dish with some uptown fillings, and a very quick, easy, tasty sauce.

INGREDIENTS:  
• Boneless chicken breasts–medium size
• Gruyere cheese
• Prosciutto or other dry, aged ham
• purpose flour
• large egg, beaten
• panko bread crumbs

Instead of trying to beat the chicken breasts to a fare-thee-well to get them flat enough to fill and roll up, use a very sharp knife and slice carefully, horizontally, almost all the way through each piece—than flatten out the split piece with your hands or the flat side of a knife. Place some of the ham and cheese on each flattened breast—not too close to the edges. Carefully roll the pieces up into neat packets. Now you have a couple of choices: either wrap the packets tightly in plastic food wrap and chill for a few hours then carefully remove the wrap, or tie them with kitchen string as shown below. Adjust amounts of coating ingredients to number of prepared packets.

Mix flour with salt and pepper in one dish, then mix panko bread crumbs with any dry spices or seasoned salt in second dish, and beat 1-2 eggs in third dish. Heat oil in heavy sauté pan—dredge chicken packets thoroughly in flour, then dip in egg, then coat with panko crumbs. Sauté at medium heat, turning once—until crisp and browned on both sides. Packets should be cooked to 165’—finish cooking in 350’ oven if necessary.

Instead of a heavy cooked sauce, try this. Mix ½ cup mayo, 1 tblsp Dijon mustard, ½ tsp paprika and a little hot sauce.

The Kitchen Hive