Chicken Cordon Bleu
Ingredients:
4 Chicken Breasts
1/2 pound of ham, thinly sliced
1/2 pound block of Swiss cheese, cut into strips
Breading:
2 eggs
1/4 cup cream
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper, to taste
Browning:
2 tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup butter
Cream Sauce:
1 cup cream
1/2 cup chicken broth
3 tbsp flour
2 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
Once all the breasts are rolled up prepare a breading station. In a shallow dish combine eggs and 1/4 cup cream and whisk to combine. In a second shallow dish combine bread crumbs, flour, paprika, and salt and pepper. Start by covering each breast at a time in the egg mixture and then the bread crumb mixture set aside on a baking sheet until all breasts are completely breaded. At this point if you want you can cover and refrigerate the chicken breasts until you're ready to cook them off, they can be refrigerated up to one day.
In a large skillet or wide shallow pot melt 1/4 cup of butter with 2 tbsp canola oil over medium high heat. Brown the chicken breasts in the butter/oil on all sides, not cooking through just getting a nice crust on the outside. Working with no more than two breasts at a time. Tongs are a handy tool when doing this step although a spatula could work too. Add more butter and oil as you brown if the pan gets too dry. If the butter or left over crumbs burn, don't worry turn the heat to medium and wipe out the burned bits in the pan if you so desire (fyi you'll want some left over butter and crumbs when making the sauce so don't get rid of it all, and whatever you do don't wash out your browning pan). Once all the breasts are browned place on a baking dish and bake in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into a thick part of the breast reads 165 degrees.
While the breasts are baking make the cream sauce. In the browning pan add the 3 tbsp flour to the left over butter. If there's not at least 1 tablespoon of left over butter in the pan add some and melt it. Create a roux, a paste like consistency out of the flour and butter, cook the roux for 1 minute stirring. whisk in the chicken broth and bring to a simmer, finally whisk in the cream and allow to thicken over medium low heat for 5-10 minutes. The sauce needs to be the consistency of gravy, if it's too thick add a little more cream, if it's too thin mix a tablespoon of flour with a little cream to form a past and whisk that into the sauce, until it's the desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper and chopped parsley.
Serve the chicken breasts hot with cream sauce. Enjoy!
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