Hot Cordon Bleu Sandwiches

Chicken Cordon Bleu......

I love this stuff.  My husband makes the best, which is a recipe here on the website. (I will link at the end).  I was at the grocery store a couple of days ago and found a huge mega section of fresh bakery items on clearance.  You know what I did, right?  You guessed it, swooped up a bunch of rolls and buns and tossed them in the freezer.

I have been on a bit of a sandwich kick lately.  I just would be happy with a sandwich for every meal.  Perhaps it is the fresh tomatoes I can top each one with, or maybe it is the unfortunate carb addiction I have.  Either way, if my husband has to eat another sandwich he will probably fall over!  In order to disguise said sandwiches, and being hungry for the cordon and the bleu, I decided to make one of my favorite dishes into a a hot sandwich.  Ask me how soon you should make these.  Go ahead, ask me.

You can't get to the kitchen fast enough!  These are SO very good.  In fact, they turned out 100 times better than my best expectations  I can't wait for you to try them, all cheesy, and toasty and resting right next to a bowl of soup!

Fall, it's the most wonderful timmmeeeeee of the yeeeaaaarrrr!

3 large chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces (or strips)
1 T. Italian seasoning
3 T. butter
2 heaping T. flour
2 cups milk
6 oz. Swiss cheese
pinch of salt
1 lb thin sliced deli ham
6 rolls of your choice

In a large skillet, add in chicken and Italian seasoning, stir and cook until the chicken is completely cooked through.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a small saucepan melt the butter, add flour and let it cook for about 1 minute, stirring often.  Add in milk, salt and whisk.  Let the mixture begin to simmer and thicken, then add in your cheese.  Mix until completely melted and remove from heat.

Line a baking sheet with foil.  Lay the rolls out and drizzle lightly with olive oil.  Place in the preheated oven for 3-5 minutes until toasted.  Remove.

Place a spoonful of chicken on the roll, top with 2-3 pieces of ham, cover the top with a ladle of swiss cheese sauce.  Do this with all of the sandwiches.  Place back in the oven for 5-10 minutes.

Serve with a delicious Garden Caprese Salad!

ENJOY!

If you like this recipe, you may also enjoy:
Chicken Cordon Bleu

Lasagna Cordon Bleu

 Happy Spring!  It finally feels like spring!  I shouldn't speak up so fast, it could be snowing tomorrow, but right now....awesome!

This is a recipe my husband has been wanting me to work up for awhile now.  This is the first recipe I have made since losing my mom.  I think she brought me good luck, it was amazing.  He told me what he was thinking, I wrote down a tentative recipe, and nailed it.  I am going to make it again this week, because, well, it was THAT awesome.  Have you ever put food in your mouth that made you close your eyes and just soak it in?  This is that food.  I swear.

This seems like a bit of a hassle but it really isn't, I just wanted to be as thorough as possible for any new cooks wanting to try it.

Did I mention it felt awesome to be back in the kitchen?  Thank you ALL for your private messages, emails, tweets, etc, they made my heart joyful, and thankful.  I am so blessed to call you all my friends.  Enjoy this lasagna, and if you make it, tweet me, post it on Facebook, tag me in your Instagram photos, all of it!

Did I mention to NOT skip the topping?  The crunchy, delicious, almost just want to eat it off the whole thing, crunchy top.  YES!!!!


2 large chicken breasts
1 lb thin sliced deli ham
1/2 box of lasagna noodles
16 ounces grated Swiss cheese
4 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. flour
4 cups half and half
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup bread crumbs
4 tbsp. melted butter

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray 9x13 pan with nonstick spray or butter it and set aside.  In a medium pot, poach chicken breasts.  If you have leftover chicken or want to roast it, go for it, but I poached mine.  When they are done, remove from water and set aside to cool.  Take your deli meat and give it a slice, into strips.  No science here, I just cut mine all at the same time into smaller pieces, 3 or 4 cuts top to bottom and it was perfect.   When the chicken cools at some point during this process, just shred it. 

Cook your lasagna noodles.  Just follow package directions, you will only need about 9 noodles.  Make them all, and let your husband use the rest for buttered noodles.  (yes, I am a fabulous wife) Drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking and to be able to handle them without visiting a burn unit.

Time for that cheese sauce!  In a large-ish pot, melt your butter, add flour and stir to let the flour cook for a minute or two.  Slowly whisk in your half and half.  When it begins to boil, add in HALF of your grated cheese.  Stir until melted and thickened.  Now, set that aside so we can assemble this bad boy.

Lay down 3 noodles to cover the bottom, now add 1/3 of your cheese sauce, half of your chicken and half of your ham.  Just cover it evenly.  Now take 1/3 of your remaining shredded Swiss and sprinkle that over it all, then back to the noodles.  Rinse and repeat.  When you put your next layer of noodles on (the last layer)  you should have a bit of your cheese sauce and shredded cheese left.  Now STOP.

In a small bowl melt your 4 tbsp. butter.  When it is melted and slightly cooled, add in bread crumbs and remaining shredded cheese.

To finish the top, pour and spread over the remaining cheese sauce, and then sprinkle buttered breadcrumb/cheese mixture on top.  Trust me on this one.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, then 15 more minutes at 375.  Perfection.  Just, perfect perfection.  If you love Chicken Cordon Bleu, and you love pasta, this might be your most perfect culinary dream!

PS. Excuse these photos.  I used my phone, it is a long story but, back to regular photos next time!

ENJOY!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Biscuits

Tis the season for quick recipes, am I right?  Christmas parties, school programs, office parties, shopping, baking, ack!  Who is done shopping?  I am NOT.  I am usually done before Thanksgiving, but this year has been far to full of "life" surprises to get done yet so I am still working on it.  I am doing craft shows up until the weekend before Christmas and frankly, I am to exhausted for huge meals this month!

These little biscuits were suggested to me by my husband.  I think he anticipated them to be for a snack or appetizer, and while they can certainly fulfill those titles, they could also be a great lunch or dinner.  They turned out a bit bigger than I anticipated which was NOT a bad thing.  These are easy to do, with easy ingredients and I bet the kids would enjoy helping.

You are welcome to use canned chicken, or chunks of chicken, I poached and shredded mine.  Ham, you can use the packaged thin sliced variety or have the deli counter slice it thin, just above shredded.  I used a block of Swiss but if you want to use shredded, it will work perfectly.  Make sure to use the BIG OL' biscuits, with the bits of butter and flaky.  This recipe is for 16 of these bundles of love!   Now, on with the show!

2 containers of large biscuits (16)
8 ounce block of Swiss cheese cut into small squares to fit inside
1 lb thin sliced ham (16 pieces)
2 lg chicken breasts poached and shredded
3 T. melted butter
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt

Preheat your oven to the temperature on the biscuit container.  Prep all ingredients.  Take one biscuit and using a rolling pin or your hand make it thinner, and bigger.  We need to make these big enough!  Now wrap a piece of chicken and cheese in a piece of ham and lay it on one half of the biscuit.

Now grab the center and seal it over the ham to the other side. Then seal all the way around using a fork to ensure a good seal!

Repeat with all of your biscuits.  Here is what they will look like or should look like before baking.

Bake for the time recommended on the biscuit containers.  When they are done, immediately brush with melted butter, Parmesan cheese and sprinkle with a pinch of salt!

ENJOY!

Ham Croquettes

We meet again!  And lo and behold, with another leftover Easter ham recipe!  This is the exact reason we bought 2 you know.  Just so my husband could make some of his favorites, which is an absolute pleasure to see him enjoy.  This recipe was one his mom made often and so we would like to share it with you!

These are crispy and lovely on the outside and the inside is just ham goodness.  As I had never heard of these before my husband, I did some looking around and found these to be made about a million different ways and seasoned in as many ways.  These are just plain, not a lot of seasoning as the ham gets to be the star of the show.  I think these might surprise you.  They look like a lot of work but they are definitely not, especially if you have some mashed potatoes needing used up or just mix up some instant ones.  I did not have any and just used 3 decent sized potatoes, and made a small batch. 

You will need a baking sheet with a cooking rack on top to put these on as they cook, or you could probably use paper towels, either way, prep somewhere to put them.  I made these bigger than what I have seen, and I got about 10 patties. 

Here is what you will need:

Croquettes
3 cups ground cooked ham
1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 egg

For breading
2 cups flour
2 eggs + 2 T. water, beaten together
3 cups bread crumbs (flavored or plain)

Béchamel
3 T. butter
4 T. flour
3-4 cups milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper (optional)

Make your béchamel first.  In a medium pot, melt your butter, add flour and salt, and whisk for 2 minutes.  Slowly add in your milk.  Now you can warm your milk if you like, it will make for a quicker thickening process.  Just keep whisking at a slow boil until thickened.  Add in pepper and whisk to combine.  When it is nice and thick, set aside. 

For the croquettes, in a large bowl add in ground ham, mashed potatoes, pepper and egg.  Mix until completely combined. 

I used my cookie scoop to portion out my croquettes.  Flatten them out into patties until all of the mixture is used up.  You can refrigerate them at this time if you like for a few minutes but it isn't necessary.  They are fragile and completely workable but might be easier to refrigerate for a few minutes first.  Now get your bread station together.  One plate with flour, one with breadcrumbs and a lard shallow bowl with egg.  Heat up a large nonstick skillet with about 3 T. of vegetable, canola or peanut oil. 

Dip the patties in flour, GENTLY shake them off, into the egg and then into breadcrumbs and in the pan.  Let fry on medium until golden brown and then flip.

Drain on the cookie sheet you prepared earlier.  Fry until all are done, and serve with the béchamel on the top! You might need to reheat a bit. 

ENJOY!

Simple Ham Salad

Ok, we need to talk.  Remember when I said, I often make things I don't personally care for, because I just like to make all kinds of things?  This is one.  This was my husbands reason for 2 hams at Easter, I should have known he had a plan.  Ham this, ham that, ham fried, ham ground, ham anything, ham everything!  It's ok, he loves it.  And maybe you will too!  I mean after all, it does take ground ham lovers to make the world go 'round, right?

That being said, I actually enjoy the flavor here.  I just don't care for the consistency.  I used my meat grinder attachment on my mixer, but you could certainly use a food processor and just get it to the consistency that you like.  Maybe you like it a bit more chunky or maybe even (omg I am gonna say this) more mushy. 

How many people write a blog on a recipe they don't care for?  You just remember that, if you ever think for a second I am not honest!  My husband just ate the last of this last night, (thank you Lord) and yet, there were more recipes he wanted to try with this ham.  You will be getting that one later, and I actually liked it!

Anyway, this is just simple, and easy and a good use up for leftover ham if you are into that "make everything leftover into a salad" sort of thing.  God bless her, my mom fits into this category as well.  Any leftover meat became a sandwich spread.  I feel so ill right now.  She did it with goose once. 

If you haven't lost your lunch at this point, from this positive, happy, exciting blog post, we will get on with the VERY SIMPLE recipe that is my husbands favorite ham salad!  Eat it on crackers, as a sandwich, the world is your sandwich friends, make it how you like it!

3 cups ham, ground, chopped fine, etc
1/2 cup mayo (no miracle whip)
2 T. sweet pickle relish

Combine all ingredients.  If you prefer more relish add more, if you prefer less add less.  Maybe start with 1 T. and go from there.  Serve on toasted bread as a sandwich or with crackers as a dip.  You choose!!!

ENJOY!

Food Truck Baked Ham and Cheese Sandwiches

Evening!  I hope you are experiencing the same FABULOUS temps we are!  Spring has sprung, and I couldn't be happier.  Spring is my favorite season, so I am a happy girl!

These sandwiches.  Oh these sandwiches.  Some of my all time favorites.  At a previous place of employment in Jersey, every day around 11 the same food truck would come park outside, (we had a different name for it) and they would have these ham and cheese sandwiches.  They had a tiny bit of a mustard-ish sauce and they were wrapped in foil and I KNOW they had been in that oven for hours, maybe days, God only know but they were SO SO SO SO GOOD!

This is my version of them at home.  Now, I don't know whether this is a real recipe persay, or just a method.  I mean you can change the cheese, the meat, the sauce, but this is MY baked ham and cheese so I am giving you the ingredients I use.  As I always say, the world is your sandwich, make it how you like it!

I am pleased to announce I have found white American cheese in Nebraska.  Oddly, it isn't all American at all, it is an American/Swiss hybrid and it tastes just like WaWa white American cheese used to taste! ACK, I am in heaven.  I literally have a gigantor size square log of it pre sliced, ready for my enjoyment at any moment of the day!

I made 4 sandwiches, but obviously adjust to how many you need.  Such a great quick weeknight or weekend meal and I don't see any problem putting these on your grill either!  Make them all at once, perfect!

For the sauce you will need:
1/4 cup mustard (yellow or Dijon)
1=2 tsp. mayo

Just combine ingredients together in a small bow and set aside.

4 hoagie buns
8 thin slices of ham (if you use shaved that is fine, just get as much as you will want for 4 sammies)
8 slices of white American cheese

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Slice rolls in half length wise.  Slather sauce on one side of the bun. Then  bend a slice cheese in half and use them length wise to cover the bun. 

Add two pieces of ham folded in half. 

Add another slice of halved cheese and put the tops on!  Roll each sandwich in a piece of foil and place on a cookie sheet, and put into your preheated oven for 25-40 minutes.  You can check them at 25 but you want them crispy, crusty and ooey, gooey melty cheese. 

Enjoy these yummy delights!!!

Three Meat Quiche

Good Morning......err... wait, evening! HA!  Eggs, sausage, etc, had me thinking morning, but in reality, this can be eaten anytime!  This is my first quiche, ever.  It is true, I have never made a quiche.  Why not you ask?  No idea, none at all, just haven't. 

This was a request of my husband.  And how about this, I have him thinking like a food blogger/food stylist.  He asked me to not put the bacon inside but make the top a lattice work of bacon.  Genius.  He is adorable and he never ceases to throw out ideas for me.  I love that he is so supportive, I am grateful and blessed.  He is a meat man, so I made this a 3 meat quiche.  I mean, it is basically a savory custard, what have I been so afraid of?  I feel so silly!  This is EASILY made ahead if you are expecting company.  And how about lunch with a salad?!  Soup and some quiche, YES!

There are just a couple of things that need to be done ahead.  You need a pie crust, you can either buy one or use my recipe which is perfection, you can find  it here.  You need to blind bake the crust.   I baked mine at 425 for 12 minutes.  You need the pie crust to be baked so it will hold your custard filling and not get soggy!

While you have that in the oven, use 1lb, thick cut bacon and lattice it on parchment paper laid on a baking sheet.  (see photo) Bake it for 20-30 minutes, same temp as the shell, until it is crispy.  Remove from the oven and let it sit to cool so you can pat off the extra fat.  I can trimmed mine, so when I was ready it would fit perfect on top.  The trimmings you ask?  Cooks treat, duh!  Lower oven to 350 now!

Ingredients:
4 eggs
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup diced bacon
1/2 lb. ground breakfast sausage, browned and drained
1 lb. thick cut bacon
1 pie crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In cooled crust, add in browned sausage and diced ham.  Spread evenly like this...

In a bowl whisk together eggs, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese.  Pour over the meat in the pie crust.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until set.  You should be able to insert a knife and have it come out clean.  Let it sit for 10 minutes.  Lay your latticed bacon that you have patted dry of extra grease over the top. 

 

 

ENJOY!!

 



 

Crockpot O' Pintos

Ahh, so we meet again.  Me....and the bean. I mean, you and I as well, but that is a beautiful meeting.  Me and the bean have not had a relationship for 40 years.  I want to love the bean, my health wants to love the bean, and always having to pick beans out of chili at the parties of friends and family gets tedious.  This recipe, didn't make me love the bean any better. 

Let me clarify.  This is a great recipe.  It is especially great for someone who loathes beans, but wanted to learn to make a good pot of beans and has no idea what a good pot of beans tastes like.  Phew, did you get all that?  I listened to a lot of your comments and advice.  I even attempted this "method" that would make the room smell nice even after consuming the beans. 

Let's just cut to the chase.  I hope you give you these a try.  They are crockpot friendly for all of you crocky lovers out there and I hope you enjoy them as much as the beans lovers in my family did!

This is a bit of a process at first, but, well not really.  Ok for some of you it might be but just do it.  Trust me.

First off you will need:
4 cups dried pinto beans

Rinse these in a strainer.  Pick out any rocks, odd pieces, I even have heard of there being sticks in them.  Just clean them up and rinse a couple of times.  Now place in a pot, and cover with water.  Make sure the water comes up a few inches higher than the beans.  Place on high heat and bring to a boil.  Let boil for 5 minutes.  Immediately drain the water.  It will be brown and gross looking.  This is "supposedly" all the toxins that will keep your house from blowing up with gas from whoever eats these!   Now, rinse the beans again.  Place back in the pot, cover with water.  Again, make the water a few inches higher, cover and let sit for at least 8 hours.  Overnight is awesome, 12ish hours is even better. 

Now get up, get yourself going and get your crockpot out.   Here is what you will need for the rest:

1 ham bone (ham hock or bacon will work too) 
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
2 cups beef stock (use veggie or chicken if you choose)
2 cups water
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. cumin
2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Place beans in your slow cooker.  Add stock, water, and all seasonings.  Stir it up and then nestle your onions and ham bone down in the beanie bed of love.  Put the lid on, set on high and let it rip for 8 hours.  If you need to add water as it cooks, please do so.  (or stock).  Serve as you wish.  With cornbread, with cheese, with cilantro, with anything you please!

You can feel free to smoosh the life outta these babies, toss them in a skillet with a bit of oil, and make some homemade refried beans!

ENJOY!

PS.  What I failed to tell you when I wrote this post was that I actually used a CORNED BEEF for the first 2 hours.  I had leftover corned beef in the freezer sitting right next to the ham bone.  I saw pink and tossed it in.  When I went to stir it, I was like...hmm, this is NOT ham.  Holy cow, it was in fact, corned beef!  Of course this was after I forgot to turn the crockpot ON for an hour.  UGH!  See, everyone makes mistakes, especially in a hurry.  Moral of the story, MARK YOUR ZIPLOC BAGS! HAHA!

Hearty Ham and Bean Soup

Haven't we discussed this before?  Me, enjoying cooking things I don't care to eat?   Is anyone else that way?  I love cooking everything even if I don't always feel like I would put it in my mouth for love nor money!  I love this way this smells cooking, just LOVE it.  I don't do beans, we all know this from Chefwannabe secret #3044 or something.  Maybe I am odd.  But I don't think I can be the only one!

 

 

This is a dish that was an old standby growing up.  If we had ham, which was afforded only on holidays, my mom never threw the ham bone out.  She always made a huge pot of ham and bean soup.  Yuck!   My mom was never big on lots of seasoning, and this is one dish, I agree with her on.  Basics my friends, just the basics.  Let the ham and chicken stock do the work.  My mom of course used all water, but I decided to add that little extra element of flavor by trading out half with chicken stock.  I tasted the broth, and it was awesome!

 

Some of you are wondering if you can do this with canned beans, and the answer is yes.  You can.  But if you have the time, do dried.  Do not salt your soup, your ham and stock should take care of that.  Let anyone who wants to raise their blood pressure a couple of hundred points add their own!  (btw that comment comes from a salt fanatic working hard to not use AS much)  Anyway if you use canned beans, you don't need to cook it as long, just long enough to infuse beautiful ham flavor into them.  I would say an hour, on a low simmer. 



Enjoy this dish friends!  Good old home cookin'!

 

2 cups dried white northern beans
1 lb ham bone or ham hocks
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 small onion diced fine
1 small carrot grated
1 cup dice ham (optional)

The night before.....

In a large bowl, add in dried beans.  Add water, until they are covered plus about 3 inches.  DO NOT SALT.  Let sit overnight. 

After a long rest......

In a large pot, add in onions, carrot, ham bone, beans, water, ham (if using) and stock.  Give a good stir and simmer for 2 hours, or until beans are tender, stirring every 30 minutes or so.  The more you stir, the thicker your soup will be. Roughing up the beans will smoosh them and allow the soup to thicken more. Simmer with the lid off the last 30 minutes.  I served up a bowl that was more soupy and then thickened up the rest!

Slow Cooker Method:
Add all ingredients to slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.  You will have a more soup like consistency so using an immersion blender, blend your soup slightly.  You can do this by adding about 1/3 of your soup into a food processor or blender and adding it back in as well!

Your "me no likey beans" Chefwannabe

Stick to your Ribs, Not Your Thighs Potato Soup!

You have spoken!  You wanted my healthier, vegetable-ier, meatier version of potato soup.  This one is delish and I am really excited to share it.  Like what I named it?  It is true, it is "stick to your ribs" hearty, but it won't stick to your thighs!  Or your butt!  Or your gut!  Or your bat wings!  WOOHOO!

You know how I love soup and soup season is upon us!  WOOHOO!  My husband is equally as thrilled.  NOT.  He always says, "soup isn't a MEAL".  Any of you have husbands or wives like this?   Chili is a meal, but any other soup is SOUP.  Chili is not soup.  Really?  I adore my husband but this soup logic has got to be dealt with if I am gonna keep him around another 13 years! HA! 

This one pot, with prep included, probably 30 minutes tops.  You could easily prep this if you do make ahead meal prep bags.  I used to do this on Sunday evenings.  Prep for the week.  For this soup, I would chop the carrots, celery, onion and ham and put it all in a bag with the butter and olive oil added as well.  I would put into a very small snack baggie, my salt, pepper, rosemary and parsley.  Then all I would have to do on meal night, is peel and dice some potatoes, get out my chicken stock and now you have about a 15-20 minute meal.  Remember to check your potatoes, depending on how big or small you dice them, you will need to decrease or increase your simmer time by a couple of minutes!

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp butter
1 cup diced ham
3 medium potatoes (peeled and diced smallish)
1 large carrot, diced
2 ribs of celery, chopped
1 small onion, diced
1 tsp garlic, mined
1 tsp rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
4-5 cups low sodium chicken stock
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup Wondra flour
1 tbsp. parsley

In a medium pot, add oil and butter.  When melted add in ham, potatoes, carrot, celery, and onion. Saute for 2-3 minutes, add in garlic, rosemary and salt and pepper to taste.  Stir to combine for 1 minutes.  Add in chicken stalk, and milk.  Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes.  Now there are 2 endings to this story.  If you want a thicker soup, add in Wondra while whisking, it will thicken your soup just enough to make it feel like you are eating a creamy, amazing, sinful soup.  Stir in parsley and serve.  OR... Stir soup and add in parsley and serve!

No matter how you eat it, please enjoy it!  I always love to see photos of recipes of mine you have tried!  Make sure to tweet them, instagram them or post them on my Facebook!  Make sure to hashtag them with #thechefwannabeinme ! 

Your "happiness is not adding to my thunderthighs" Chefwannabe

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Hey guys!!!  It is 2 days before I turn 39.  This is NOT easy.  My husband is concerned already about a year from now when I am about to turn 40.  He is sure we will be spending it in my padded cell.  We might be, I mean, might as well bring 40 in, in a memorable way. 

Anyway, this Chicken Cordon Bleu is so easy.  It is one of the first meals my husband cooked for me.  It is a favorite of me, Cody and George.  We use to have it on special occasions mostly.  We used to make it the "real" way.  Pound the chicken thin, lay the meat and cheese on top, roll it up, blah, blah blah.  Cody would LOVE for George to double Ziploc the chicken, let him put a newspaper on the kitchen floor and whack at it with the meat mallet.  Ya know, a boy with permission to hammer stuff until it is paper thin?  Yea, loved that.   However, recently we started doing it this way, just because it seemed easier and less time consuming.  You might have to use your fingers to make the opening a bit wider, but I promise it works beautifully.  As long as you seal up those ands well with flour, egg and breadcrumbs, it is all good!  We love it and hope you do too.  As you can see it is gorgeous AND delicious. 

Now these ARE fried for a minute.  They in NO way are greasy.  You just have to brown up that breading and we prefer doing it the old fashioned way.  We don't eat this often so I don't mind frying and then baking them off.  If you don't roll like that, you can try just baking them all the way, but I have no idea how they will come out.  We have always used regular dried Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, but this time we used seasoned panko and loved it!!

I have written this out, perhaps in a bit of an unconventional way.  All of the ingredients are in BOLD PURPLE lettering.  Maybe I should change it to red so you can see it better.  Ok, done, it is now bold and red.  Anyhoodle, enjoy this Chicken Cordon Bleu made easy!

Here is what you will need:
6 large chicken breasts (boneless and skinless)
6 slices Swiss cheese
12 thin slices of ham

Before anything else, make your meat and cheese rolls.  Sandwich your cheese between 2 slices of ham, roll into a tight log.  Do this with all of the meat and cheese so that you have 6 meat/cheese rolls.  Set aside and prepare chicken.

Take your chicken and stand it on end, place a long thin knife on top and pierce all the way to the bottom, in the center of the chicken.  When you reach the bottom rotate your knife, making the whole big enough for the rolls to slide into.  Repeat with all chicken, slide 1 roll into the center of each and place on a platter.

Now to dredge the chicken and prepare for frying. 

Shallow Bowl #1 - Combine 2 cups flour, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper
Shallow Bowl # 2 - beat 4 eggs well.
Shallow Bowl # 3- 3 cups bread crumbs (seasoned panko OR regular dry Italian seasoned)

Cover chicken in flour mixture completely, dip into egg mixture and pay special attention to the ends where the ham and cheese can be seen since you will want that sealed well with bread crumbs.  Then cover heavily in bread crumbs.  Set aside until all are done. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  In a high sided skillet, add in 2 cups of oil (your choice), when the oil is ready (toss a bit of flour in, if it sizzles it is read) place 1 or 2 pieces of chicken into the oil and fry only long enough to brown it.  We aren't cooking it all the way through, just beautifully browning our chicken, about 2-3 minutes on each side.  Do this over a medium heat as to not burn the chicken.  Place until parchment lined baking sheet.  Repeat with all pieces of chicken.

Place in the oven for 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of your chicken breasts. 

When they are done, allow to rest 10 minutes before serving!!!

We almost always serve this with asparagas or green beans.  Sometimes a little side of pasta.  You do what you want, just make sure you do it soon!!

Your "my GOD why is turning 29..eerr 39, so difficult"chefwannabe

 

PS.  By the time you read this I will have turned 39.  My life will be OVER. LOL

Start YOUR day with a McGeorge!

We meet again........odd how that happens isn't it? :)

You know for the first time, I caught so much heck for a recipe I posted.  So let me clear a few things up from this point on.  First off, all things in moderation.  I was referred to as "killing children" with my Alien Hot Dogs and Spaghetti recipe, it is recipes like that, that are "handing children heart disease".  Oh for the love of all that is holy people, there are a few things you need to understand.  1. MOST kids love hot dogs.  2. It was a fun Halloween or special day kind of recipe.  3. Some people, feed their children what they can afford and don't have so many choices in their diet.  Let me rephrase, they have choices, but perhaps, not as many as your finances afford you.  4. I try to write recipes for ALL walks of life and ALL sorts of people.  And last but not least, if you don't like a recipe, skip over it.  What is the need for the negative, nasty, plain old rude comments?  Not in my house folks, I respect everyone's opinions but rudeness is not, and will not be ok here.  I believe any food I make at home, and don't buy frozen, or canned, or prepackaged is ALWAYS better because I know what is in it and it isn't full of chemicals and preservatives.  At the same time, I use my share of canned or prepackaged items for quick meals.  I don't all the time, but let's be honest, we all have times we need things in a hurry.  Stop judging, as my husband always says, "When you point a finger, you have 3 more pointing back at you".  Keep it in mind and just enjoy the friends, the food and the laughs.  Does it need to be harder than that?  No!

 

Ok now that I am done with THAT.  Let me get to the recipe.  It isn't really a recipe, it is more of an assembly but, sometimes, you need some assembly recipes too!  I will tell you, I am a sucker for a good breakfast sandwich.  I like almost any sandwich.  Sue me.  These are awesome and my husband used to make tons of them and put them in the freezer.  If we were in a rush, we could zap them in the micro and head out the door or take them to work/school frozen and heat them up when we got there.  And we would have these for dinner just as often as we had them for breakfast! 

So we decided we needed either smaller English muffins or a jumbo muffin tin which I am going to pick up this weekend.  It really doesn't matter that the egg is smaller, just want it to look nicer.  Hubs always does the eggs in a muffin tin and bakes them.  This time he used cupcake liners, I assured him it would never work.  I even laughed saying, "ok but when we have to make another batch because you can't get the papers off don't forget I told you so".  Alas, it worked.  He did spray them I think with nonstick spray though.  Actually it worked REALLY well. 

You will need:

English Muffins
Eggs (however many sandwiches you want to make)
Meat (sausage, bacon, turkey bacon, ham, or skip the meat)
Cheese  (I use the "not cheese" singles because they taste most like the McDonald's version, use any cheese you like)
Butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line cupcake pan with liners and spray with a light coat of nonstick cooking spray.  Crack your eggs into the cups.

Now take a skewer or toothpick and just break the yolk, no need to scramble it, unless you want but just break it.  He was adamant I not forget that part!  Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  You will know when they are done, they will be all white and firm to the touch. 

While they are baking, toast muffins and butter liberally.  Prepare your meat, if you are frying it, baking it, heating it in the microwave, just get it hot!  Now for the hard part......layer it on the muffin however you like and enjoy!

I actually also made soup the same night, here is that recipe.  The Soup With No Name.

Easy as can be, but sometimes the simplest things we just don't think of.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!!

We figured the cost of these 12 sandwiches was around 6.00!

Your "don't tick me off"chefwannabe

Breakfast (Pizza) For Dinner

Do you like breakfast for dinner?  I am learning people either love it or hate it.  My family LOVES it!  We are always up for a good breakfast for dinner but I wanted to change things up a bit.  

 

This was so easy and as you know (if you read my blogs and fb page) I am on a quest to USE UP what is in the cupboards and freezer!  The amount of food we accumulate is ridiculous! I refuse to throw things out, so this is what I came up with.  Where I used shoestring french fries you could use any sort of hashbrowns as well, just make sure they are thawed out!  (And eggs are on sale for .79 a dozen this week!)  

 

First thing is to make the crust.  My recipe for pizza crust is amazing, I promise.  The dough will be so light and fluffy you will want to use it for a pillow!  Click this link and scroll down to the recipe, Pizza Crust Recipe.  Next, fry up your bacon, I used a skillet because I made a terribly fattening, and unhealthy choice to use bacon grease to make my bechamel.  *plugs ears*.  You will find my bechamel recipe in the event you actually need one in my Croque Madam/Monsieur blog.  You will use the bacon grease in place of the butter.  Or clean your pan and start fresh with butter.  Make sure your bacon is nice and crispy, drain it on a paper towel and crumble.  Set aside for later use.  

 

Here is what you will need:

Pizza Crust

2 cups THAWED hashbrowns or french fries you have chopped into smaller pieces

1 lb deli shaved/thin sliced ham

5 strips of bacon fried and crumbled

5 eggs beaten with 1/4 cup milk/cream/half and half (add salt and pepper and hot sauce to taste if you like)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

prepared bechamel sauce

Green onions for the top (optional)

 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Using a large cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray, stretch and pull your dough so that it goes up the sides of the cookie sheet a little bit.  

Pour your bechamel on top of the crust and spread evenly.  You may have a bit extra, depending on your taste or how big your pizza is.  Mine made a LARGE cookie sheet size.  

Add ham, bacon, potatoes, and half of your cheese.  Pour over your egg mixture.  Pour it as evenly as possible.  I started with 3 eggs and had to add more, 5 seemed perfect for my size pizza.  Top with the rest of your cheese like this...

Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Make sure to let cool 5 minutes before cutting.  This crust is fairly thick.  I would normally get 2 large size pizza's from this crust because I like a thin crust.  I wanted it to be thicker to be more like bread than pizza dough.  It is delicious and it will feed a crowd for sure!!  My husband even got a piece for breakfast this morning in a baggie with a love note on it.  Come on you know I am the perfect wife......pffttt.  HAHA   Oh did I mention he is so NOT used to breakfast he forgot to take it!!

 

So here is your final product...........does yours look like this?  You can add more meat, take away meat, whatever you want just like any other pizza.  This is what we like, you add or subtract what you like or don't like for your family!!  I topped mine with green onions after baking as well!

GOOD MORNING!!! Err....Good EVENING!

Your "to old to be this mixed up"Chefwannabe

Chris