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Easy Baked Chicken Cordon Bleu


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5 from 1 review

  • Author: Stacey
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 4-6 1x

Description

Easy baked chicken cordon bleu is a fantastic comfort food with simple steps and excellent flavor.


Ingredients

Units Scale

Chicken

  • 4 chicken breasts (butterflied and pounded)
  • 8 slices of ham (I used black forest)
  • 8 slices of Swiss cheese
  • 5 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2 cups plain panko bread crumbs
  • Salt, to taste

Sauce 

  • 1 clove of garlic, finely diced
  • 1/2 small shallot, finely diced
  • 4 ounces of gruyere cheese (need to buy an 8 ounce block)
  • 1/4 cup of freshly shredded parmesan
  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 2 1/2 cups of whole milk
  • 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt, more if needed

Instructions

  1. Finely dice shallot and garlic and set aside. 
  2. Trim fat from the chicken breasts. Slice them lengthwise to split them open (also called butterfly). Do not cut them in half – the breast needs to stay one piece so you can stuff it with the ham and cheese. My video shows this well. Once the chicken is opened, pound them with a mallet to flatten them just a bit. If you don't have a mallet cover in plastic wrap and use a pan or rolling pin to flatten.
  3. Sprinkle a pinch a salt on both sides of all the chicken. 
  4. Melt your butter in the microwave.
  5. Set up your assembly station with the chicken, ham, cheese, melted butter on a plate, and plain panko breadcrumbs on a plate. 

Assembly:

  1. Take one chicken piece and dip one side into the melted butter.
  2. Pick up chicken and let butter drip off.
  3. Place chicken on top of panko breadcrumbs (buttered side down) and press down on chicken to adhere the breadcrumbs.
  4. Add one slice of cheese on bottom, two slices of folded ham on top of that and one more slice of cheese on top of the ham.
  5. Now fold it gently and place in your baking dish.
  6. Repeat that process for the other three pieces of chicken. 
  7. Put into a preheated oven at 350 degrees and cook for 40 minutes. Then turn broiler on high five minutes to brown the breadcrumbs if you like, this is optional.

Sauce Preparation:

  1. Grate the gruyere cheee.
  2. Melt five tablespoons of butter in a small sauce pot on low to medium heat. 
  3. Add the garlic and shallots. Stir around and let it cook for a few minutes until onions are translucent and garlic is fragrant. Watch the heat on this, you don’t want to burn that garlic. 
  4. Add all-purpose flour to create a roux. This is a thickening agent for sauces. Stir this for a few minutes until the raw flour cooks out a bit. 
  5. Add milk and whisk thoroughly. Heat on low for a few minutes and this will start to thicken. 
  6. Add the shredded gruyere and stir. Add the freshly grated parmesan and stir. I grated the parmesan directly into the pot, but you can grate it ahead of time too. Add salt to taste and stir. 
  7. Remove from heat and let it sit. Ideally, you should heat the sauce and then let it sit a few minutes before serving. If your sauce is too thin add a little more gruyere. If it's too thick a splash more milk.
  8. Pour sauce on top of chicken and serve.

Notes

  1. For toastier browned panko, you can toast your breadcrumbs in a pan before adhering to the chicken. This step makes the process a bit longer and I wanted to focus on a simple baked recipe. But you can certainly do this if you choose. 
  2. I used black forest ham, but any plain ham will be fine. I would stay away from honey ham or any kind of seasoned or spiced ham as this will change the flavor profile. 
  3. Four stuffed chicken breasts is a lot of food. You can easily cut the chicken breasts in half right before serving and that will be plenty of food for one person. Keep in mind you will probably be serving with some kind of rice and/or vegetable side.
  4.  I don’t normally present ingredients like cheese in ounces. But the standard way gruyere cheese is sold is in 8-ounce packages and you only need half of it for the sauce recipe, so I presented the amount as needing 4 ounces.