Ham!

Have you ever seen the Iron Chef: America Battle Ham episode? The way the chairman's nephew says "ham!" is hilarious. "Haa-aaa-aaaammm!" There's no way I can convey it in text, but the title of this post imitates him.

Like most people, we had an abundance of ham after Easter. So of course I had to figure out what to do with it. My biggest success was chicken cordon bleu.

Chicken cordon bleu and I have a long, lovely history together. In middle school, when Pace opened up in our area (later becoming Sam's Club), we went and marveled at the sheer quantity of random groceries. My 13 year old self indulged in Barber's frozen prepared chicken cordon bleu, and took much joy in popping one in the oven on night my parents made my most hated meal, stuffed bell peppers.

In the past few years, I've indulged in these here and there, but once I had my cousin Rich's chicken cordon bleu (doused in an amazing (and amazingly fattening) bechamel sauce I couldn't really go back to the Barber ones.

Well, we had ham, we had frozen chicken, and we just happened to have swiss cheese. Obviously I had to make chicken cordon bleu.

Chicken Cordon Bleu
adapted from Tyler Florence's recipe

4 chicken breasts, sliced in half horizontally and pounded to flatten a bit.
4 slices of ham (prosciutto would be good, too), each cut in half
about 1/2 cup grated swiss cheese
2T flour
1/2 cup panko
1/2t thyme
1t olive oil
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray an 8x8 baking pan with nonstick spray.

Beat the egg in a bowl, set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, panko, thyme, olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

Place a piece of ham on top of each chicken breast. Sprinkle as much swiss cheese as you like on top of the ham. Roll up the chicken, and secure each roulade with a toothpick.

Dunk each roulade in the egg, then the breadcrumb mixture. Place in the baking pan, and bake for 45 min, until chicken is fully cooked.


These are really good, even as leftovers. I think I may try to bring more ham into my kitchen, just so I can make these again.