Chicken Cordon Bleu

In my continuing efforts to use food in my refrigerator, I found that I had all the necessary ingredients to make my very simple chicken cordon bleu. This is something I've been making for over 10 years and probably the most complex part of the recipe is rolling everything together in a way that it sticks together, rolled, in a toothpick in order to bake.

This process has become easier in recent years since Perdue started to sell very thin chicken breasts, I think usually used for scappoline or some other similar dish, but they work really well when you roll anything into chicken. Unfortunately, this type wasn't available and since I was working my way through the fridge, I thought this was a good a time as any to take out some of my frustration over the government shutdown by taking a mallet to the chicken to flatten it out.

Chicken Cordon Bleu (serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken breasts, pounded thin and flat.
• Deli ham, thinly sliced
• Deli swiss cheese, thinly slice
• Dijon mustard
• Italian breadcrumbs
• Toothpicks

Directions:

****You'll notice that I didn't give very specific amounts to the above ingredients, because this is really easy to just eyeball. But as a rule of thumb, you'll use one slice of ham and one slice of cheese for each flat breast. I used very small breasts, so the cheese and ham kind of spill out into the pan and get crispy. But that's how I like it!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Take flat piece of chicken and spread dijon mustard on top of it, just enough to lightly coat the chicken. Then, place one piece of cheese and one piece of ham on top of the chicken. Gently roll the chicken lengthwise until it becomes ball and stick with a toothpick to secure. Lightly dust with breadcrumbs.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I like to serve with brown rice and green beans.