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!