The whole idea of embracing something like Cordon Bleu Day is to make dinner a little educational-. Then we get to feel like we’ve really enhanced our children’s cultural experience without driving ourselves crazy. And if your kids love anything with breading and cheese, then there’s a pretty good chance they will love Cordon Bleu. It’s a French-inspired meat dish that’s prepared in a special way. Unlike many meat dishes, this requires a thin cut of meat or for the meat cutlet to be pounded thin. It’s then folded over a slice of ham and Swiss cheese, coated with breading, and fried. [photo via flickr]
This particular recipe is for Chicken Cordon Bleu which is relatively easy to make and healthy enough for everyone. Feel free to make adjustments to the recipe to serve your family’s need. We’re certainly thinking about swapping out cheeses the next time we make this–perhaps going with mozzarella, or even a Gruyere. Really, we just like how fancy we sound pondering that kind of thing…
Ingredients
4 boneless chicken breast cutlets
8 slices of thin ham/Canadian bacon/prosciutto
8 slices of Swiss cheese or whatever cheese you like
3 cups of fresh bread crumbs
2 tablespoons of butter
Directions
- Take each chicken breast cutlet and flatten it. Place each cutlet in a separate plastic bag, seal it, then pound it flat with a meat mallet. Be sure to use the flat surface to ensure that the cutlet is even. Do this with all four chicken cutlets.
- Mix two cups of breadcrumbs with melted butter and stir until you have an evenly coated mixture of crumbs.
- Once the chicken is flat, you can take one piece and add two pieces of ham and two slices of cheese. Fold good and set aside. Follow the same step with the other cutlets.
- Take one chicken piece and dip them into the breadcrumb mixture before placing into the baking dish. Follow the same steps with the other chicken cutlets, then sprinkle the chicken cutlets with the remaining cup of breadcrumbs. Place the dish into the oven and bake well for thirty minutes or so. You want the check to cook thoroughly.
- About half and hour later, you can check on the chickens. Make sure the crumbs are a crispy golden brown and the cheese is fully melted. Serve and enjoy!
If you have a favorite sauce that your family loves, you may want to consider making it for the chicken cordon bleu. If not, a jar of sauce will suffice. A jar of marinara sauce or Alfredo sauce make great alternative. Don’t forget to serve up some kid-friendly veggies like green beans or corn.
