Chicken Cordon Bleu

(*Side note: I apologize for the time stamp in all of the pictures ... I still haven't figured out how to get that to go away!)

I first had this shortly after my husband and I were married and my sister-in-law served it to us. I had no idea how to make it at home until then. My sister-in-law took her chicken breasts to the butcher at the grocery store and had him tenderize the chicken breasts for her. But, we liked it so much, we invested in a meat mallet so we could do it ourselves. (Yes, WE; my husband has made this before.) It's actually a lot of fun to make when I'm stressed out or upset about something! Hee hee.

What you need:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 deli-thin ham slices
4 deli-thin Swiss cheese slices
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups cornflake crumbs (more or less)
toothpicks
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese
rice

How you do it:

Tenderize the chicken breasts. Place one slice ham and one slice Swiss cheese in middle of chicken breast. Roll up and secure with toothpicks. Beat egg and milk together; dip chicken in egg mixture, then roll in cornflake crumbs. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes, or until chicken is done. Meanwhile, make rice, and heat together soup and cream cheese. Serve chicken and rice with gravy.

Step By Step:

First, start by placing your chicken breast on a piece of parchment paper. Make sure the parchment paper is large enough to fold over the chicken breasts. I have used waxed paper in the past, but it gets torn apart by the mallet much faster than the parchment paper, so I can usually only tenderize two chicken breasts for each sheet of wax paper, but on parchment paper I can get through four or so.

Fold over the parchment paper, hand the meat tenderizer mallet to your 8yo and let her go at it! Or, if you prefer (or don't have an 8yo to do it for you), start pounding away. Make sure you tenderize the thickest part of the chicken the most, and don't hit it too much in the super thin areas because you'll break apart the meat.

Once you've tenderized all your chicken breasts, place a thin slice of ham in the middle of each chicken breast.

Place a deli-thin slice of Swiss cheese atop the ham. And, I thought we took pictures of the next step, but I guess we didn't. I start by folding in the sides of the chicken, and the bottom. Then, you roll it up and secure it with two to three toothpicks. Set it aside.

Here's a trick to really good coating. Beat one egg in a bowl. Add 1/2 cup evaporated milk, and mix together really well. Set it aside. This mixture helps the crumbs to stick to the chicken better than just milk, melted butter, or a beaten egg.

Pour some cornflake crumbs in a dish. You can use bread crumbs if you prefer. I like the crunchiness of the cornflake crumbs. I used to find a box of cornflake crumbs at the grocery store when we lived in Utah, so for the last five years I've been crushing my own crumbs (which is fine, except the flakes are either not finely crushed enough, or they are too powdery). However, the last time I was at the store, I saw a box of cornflake crumbs in the baking aisle ... if you can't find them, be sure to check the bottom shelf (seems like all the goodies are down there).

Take your rolled up chicken and dip it into the egg-milk mixture.

Roll the chicken in the cornflake crumbs. This can get a little messy. I usually use my right hand for the dipping, and my left hand for the rolling. And, after I place the chicken in the pie dish (with my right hand), I roll it slightly on its side, then take a spoon (in my left hand) and scoop some crumbs on the top of the chicken, then I roll it with my left hand and pick it up to press the ends in the crumbs.

Place the chicken in a 9x13 baking dish and bake at 350° for 45 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

*Tip: I always use a foil-lined baking dish. Everyone has their own tricks to line the dish, but I've found this most effective: rinse the dish with water and semi-dry it before lining it with foil. The wetness left in the dish (not too much) will make the foil stick to the dish instead of moving around every time you place a chicken in there.

I like to serve my chicken cordon bleu with rice and a gravy. The gravy is so basic and yummy: one can cream of chicken soup, and one (8 oz.) package of cream cheese. Heat it up and pour it over the chicken and rice.

*Tip: It's easiest if you remove the toothpicks before you pour on the gravy or cut the chicken. Also, if you use colored toothpicks (like I did), your chicken will be slightly colored where the toothpicks were. Don't worry, it's not bad chicken, just food coloring!

Holiday Recipe #1: Mummy Dogs

Occasionally, I try to make the holidays a little bit more fun for my children by using some holiday recipes. Just thought I'd post some of my favorites here, in case any of you want to try them out!

Today all of my children stayed home from school because we are all sick. So, since my girls were eating lunch with us, I decided to make one of our favorite Halloween lunches: Mummy Dogs.

So simple, and so entertaining.

What you need:

1 can crescent rolls
8 hot dogs
pizza cutter
mustard & ketchup

How to do it:

Press the crescent seams together to form two long rectangles. Using a pizza cutter, cut each of the rectangles into four strips, cutting from one short side to the other (the length of the rectangle). Take a hot dog and starting on one end of a dough strip, roll the hot dog in the dough making sure to not overlap the dough (except at the bottom, which you'll pinch together to seal the end of the mummy). Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes. Using a toothpick, make dots for eyes out of mustard or ketchup.

My Boschy Adventures: Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

Okay, so I've been using my Boschy to make a lot of stuff. The most I've done is wheat bread ... I'm determined to find a good wheat bread recipe. But, I've also made white bread, rolls, pretzels (twice), and most recently Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread (Muffins).

I posted this recipe on my old blog, but I haven't been able to import all my old recipes here. So, I'm posting it again! I LOVE these muffins! I like to make them as mini muffins because they are perfect size for a snack (and less messy than cutting the bread). This recipe makes almost 100 mini muffins, about 50 regular-sized muffins, 8 mini bread loaves, or 3 regular-sized bread loaves. You'll have to adjust the baking time according to which pan you use. I don't usually make this recipe into regular-sized muffins, but I will tell you that I bake the mini muffins for 18 minutes each batch (I only have one 24-cup pan), and the mini loaves for about 45 minutes. Just about every time a friend of mine watches my children for me, I take a bag of these muffins for a snack (and a thank you). And, I don't think I've ever had a friend not ask for the recipe. So, I thought I'd spare all of you the chore of watching my children and just give you the recipe!

CHOCOLATE CHIP PUMPKIN BREAD

3 cups sugar

1 (15-oz.) can pumpkin puree

1 cup veggie oil

2/3 cup water

4 eggs

3 1/2 cups flour

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

1 Tbsp. nutmeg

2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour three 1 lb. size coffee cans, or three 9x5-inch loaf pans. In a large bowl combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, water and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in dry ingredients, Fold in chips and nuts. Pour into cans/pans. Bake for 1 hour, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on wire racks before removing from cans/pans. (I actually immediately dump mine out and let them cool on the rack when I make mini muffins because I need the pan again.)

Zuppa Toscana Soup

Our family went to a friend's soup pot luck on Saturday night. I wasn't in the mood to make any of my regular soup recipes. That's usually how I work ... either I get a recipe suggested from a friend, or I try out a new recipe on a bunch of people (just in case we don't like it so we won't have to keep a ton of leftovers in the fridge that we won't end up eating).

Anyway, for some reason I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find a recipe to replicate the Zuppa Toscana soup served at Olive Garden. So, I tried this recipe; and it turned out pretty similar and very yummy. (In fact, one of the guys there asked if I was trying to win a prize [we'd just won "most original chili" at a chili cook-off].) This is definitely worth trying if you like that spicy sausage and potato soup.

Zuppa Toscana

1 lb. ground spicy Italian sausage, crumbled

1/2 lb. smoked bacon (6 slices), chopped

1 qt. water

2 (14.5 oz.) cans chicken broth (about 3 2/3 cups)

2 large russet potatoes, scrubbed clean and sliced 1/4-inch thick

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed or minced

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cups chopped kale or swiss chard (I couldn't find either at the grocery store, so I used spinach)

1 cup heavy whipping cream (I added probably about another 1/2 cup)

salt & pepper, to taste

In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown sausage, breaking into small pieces as you fry it; drain, set aside. In the same skillet over medium-high heat, brown bacon; drain, set aside. Place water, broth, potatoes, garlic, and onion in a pot; simmer over medium heat until potatoes are tender. Add sausage and bacon to pot; simmer for 10 minutes. Add kale and cream to pot; season with salt and pepper; heat through.