Chicken breast stuffed with cheese and ham, topped with panko, baked until golden then served with an awesome Cordon Bleu sauce – a Dijon Cream Sauce. This is a seriously EASY Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe with all the crunch, all the flavour, but less calories and FAR easier.
You are going to be amazed how incredible this tastes – seriously!
HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN CORDON BLEU
Step 1 Toast Panko Breadcrumbs – THIS is the secret to baking breaded / crumbed things in the oven that come out truly golden all over and truly crunchy. All you do is pour the breadcrumbs onto a baking tray, spray lightly with oil, then bake for 3 minutes until light golden. This simple step makes all the difference!
Step 2 Cut pocket into chicken and stuff with ham and cheese.
Step 3 Choose a method to coat chicken in breadcrumbs
- Dredging – using the traditional method dredging in egg then coating in breadcrumbs; or
- Super shortcut method – spreading mayonnaise and dijon on the top of the chicken, then sprinkling it with panko breadcrumbs. So you get most of the crunch – and save on washing up!
DREDGING METHOD – the traditional way, dredging in an egg mixture then coating in breadcrumbs.
SHORTCUT METHOD – Just spread mayonnaise and mustard on the surface of the chicken (not underneath) then sprinkle with breadcrumbs. The mustard adds flavour and the mayonnaise adds flavour PLUS a bit of oil while it bakes.
Here’s a comparison of each method, before and after baking.
You can see how beautiful golden both are! The Shortcut Method has a few more brown splotches on it compared to the Dredging method, but that’s a very small compromise!
Don’t they look incredible??? Especially given this is an EASY Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe??
I once compared the ingredients my Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu to the “real” way of making Cordon Bleu and in all honesty, I use almost the same amount of ham and cheese so this really doesn’t lack in the flavour department compared to the real thing. I even use almost the same amount of breadcrumbs because more breadcrumbs sticks to the chicken by using the mayonnaise mixture, as opposed to dunking in egg mixture then rolling in breadcrumbs.
- Panko breadcrumbs – 1/2 cup for Shortcut Method or 1 cup for Dredging Method
- Oilspray
- 2 small chicken breasts, around 6-7oz/180-210g each
- 4 slices swiss cheese (Note 1)
- 4 to 6 slices of ham, about 2.5oz/75g (Note 2)
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp plain flour
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise, preferably whole egg
- 1 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter
- 1 1/2 tbsp flour
- 1 1/4 cups milk (Note 3)
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp parmesan cheese, finely grated
- 1 tsp thyme leaves (optional)
- Salt and pepper
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Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
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Spread panko breadcrumbs on a baking tray and spray with oil. Bake for 3 minutes or until light golden. Remove and scrape into bowl straight away.
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Cut a pocket into each chicken breast, as per the photo below.
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Fold the cheese in half and place 2 pieces inside each pocket. Do the same with the ham. Close the pocket, seal with toothpicks.
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Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
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Whisk egg and flour. Dip chicken into egg mixture, then into the panko breadcrumbs. Transfer to tray, spray with oil.
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Mix the mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper in a bowl. Spread onto the top and sides of the chicken (not underside).
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Sprinkle panko over the chicken, using your other hand to press the breadcrumbs onto the side of the chicken. Spray with oil.
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Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown and just cooked through. Rest for 5 minutes before serving with the Dijon Cream Sauce.
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Melt butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. Add flour and cook for 1 1/2 minutes.
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Add half the milk and whisk until the flour mixture is blended in.
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Add remaining milk, mustard and cheese. Cook for 3 minutes, whisking constantly, until thickened. It will thicken as it cools.
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Remove from heat, stir through thyme leaves and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with chicken.
1. Swiss cheese is best for this recipe because it melts but holds it’s shape quite well. If you substitute with gruyere, cheddar, mozzarella or any other melting cheese, most of it will ooze out because the chicken is not sealed. You can seal the seam using toothpicks if you wish. In which case, you can use any cheese you want.
2. I used small ham rounds so I needed 3 for each to cover the surface inside the chicken.
3. Preferably full fat milk but low fat is also ok.
4. Nutrition per serving – 180g/6oz chicken only, assuming about 1/3 of the sauce is used between the 2 servings.
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