Chicken Cordon Bleu

Chicken?  Check.

Ham?  Check.

Swiss Cheese?  Check.

Creamy Sauce?  Check.

Oh yeah, babe.  This dish is all that and a box of crackers.  I could eat Chicken Cordon Bleu every day I think.  Love it!  But I was always afraid to try cooking it.  Why?  The first time I tried it…several years ago…the chicken inside was raw when everything else was perfectly cooked.  Since then I’ve cowered at the thought of making Chicken Cordon Bleu at home.  That is, until a friend made it for a luncheon she was catering.  She was kind enough to tell me how she makes it.   I decided to try it One.  More.  Time.  Let’s see how it turned out…

First you need to lay your boneless, skinless chicken breasts out on some plastic wrap.  Cover with another piece of plastic wrap and pound with a meat mallet until very thin.

Lay a couple slices of ham on top of each chicken breast.

Then top it with some swiss cheese.  You can just slap a slice of cheese on there, but the cheese I had was very ’stiff’, so I kinda chopped it up.  You could shred it too.

Now, just roll up the chicken and place it in a baking dish.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and paprika.

Now, heat a saute pan over medium heat.  Melt about two tablespoons of butter in pan and half an onion, chopped.  Saute until the onions are translucent.

Add in a couple tablespoons of flour and stir together.

Cook for a minute or so and add in some milk.  I just eyeball it, but I’d say I added about 3/4 to one cup here.

Cook just until it starts to thicken.  Pour over chicken in baking dish and spirnkle on some chopped parsley (fresh or dried…either is fine).

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Want to know what it looks like inside when you cut into it? 

I love the way it looks with the layers of meat and cheese! 
Give this one a try soon…it’s simple…but looks like you made a fuss!

Smothered Pork Chops

Okay, people.  If pork chops smothered in caramelized onions and ooey gooey cheese doesn’t get your fire started, then your wood is wet!  These are oh so delish, and really easy to prepare. 

To get started, grab yourself a large ziplock bag.  Dump in 1/2 cup olive oil.  Zest one lemon and add that to the bag.

Then squeeze the juice from half the lemon into the bag.

Mince up 3 garlic cloves and throw those in.

Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp parsley, and 1/2 tsp rosemary.

Use your hand to squish it all around and it will look like this.  Which, frankly, looks pretty gross, but it will make your pork taste awesome.  And that’s what matters here folks.

Then, put your pork chops into the bag.  I like boneless chops that are cut around 1/2″ thick.  Turn the bag and massage it a bit to make sure that the chops are well coated with the marinade.

Now just toss the bag in the fridge to hang out for a couple of hours, or even overnight.  I usually do this in the morning sometime and let them chill out (get it, *chill* out?  Okay.  Never mind.) until supper time.

About 30-45  minutes before you’re ready to eat, slice up a nice onion.

Put some butter in a saute pan to melt.  Then add the onions.

Cook the onions over a medium heat for the first 10-15 minutes to soften them up some, stirring here and there.

Then reduce the heat to low and let them slowly start to caramelize.  Again, stir them every once in a while.  Just let them cook until they turn a nice dark golden brown.

Now, take your chops out of the fridge.  Remove from bag and place in a baking dish (discard marinade).   Broil for about 5 or 6 minutes on each side, or until done.

Then, place caramelized onions on top of each chop.

Top with some shredded colby-jack cheese.

Broil for another couple minutes until the cheese gets all melty and yummy and dreamy. 

Now, stuff your face.

Printable Recipe: Smothered Pork Chops

Bean and Chicken Chili

A.K.A. White Chili.  It’s been cold around here lately and that puts me in the mood for warm soups and chili.  About a week ago, I wanted something warm and comforting, but I didn’t have time to make our regular chili recipe (watch for that in the next week or so!).  So, I looked through a few recipes I had for White Chili.  I didn’t really find one I liked, so I just made up my own recipe.  And it turned out great!  I even used some convenience ingredients to lessen my cook-time!  Oh yeah…now that’s what I call a good recipe – quick, easy and YUMMALICIOUS!  That describes this chili/soup for sure! 

Let’s Get Cookin.

 

Start by throwing one chopped onion and 4 cloves chopped garlic into a soup pot.  Let those cook until translucent.

Then, pour in 7 cups water.  Drop in 7 chicken bouillon cubes.

If you have chicken stock on hand, just use 7 cups of stock instead of water and omit the bouillon cubes.

Bring that mixture to a boil.  Add one small can of pinto beans, navy beans, butter beans, or any other kind of bean of your choice. 

Use a potato masher to lightly mash up the beans.  This will help thicken the chili.  Add another 2 small cans (or one large can) of beans.

Add in 1 tsp dried parsley, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp cumin and 1 tsp paprika.

Now, some people may cringe at the next ingredient, but it’s really not as bad as you might think.  Canned chicken.  Found in the same place as tuna at the grocery store, it works in a pinch.  I didn’t have time to cook chicken and shred it.  So, I used canned chicken.  I wouldn’t eat canned chicken by itself.  Um…no.  But, in a recipe like this, it’s not that big of a deal. 
So, open up two cans of chicken, drain well and chop it up a bit.  Of course, you can use ‘real’ cooked chicken if you want.  I won’t judge you.

Add the chicken to your pot. 

 Let the mixture simmer for about 30 minutes, and voila!  Bean & Chicken Chili!

To serve, I like to add a dollop of sour cream.

Chicken Bryan…love on a plate

(I realize that I never posted the retro kitchen pics…I forgot to take my card reader with me on vacation!  I’ll get to those soon, I promise!)

When I came accross this recipe for Chicken Bryan on Ree’s Tasty Kitchen site I thought…hmmm…that might be good.  If you’ve eaten at Carrabba’s then you’ve probably heard of this dish before.  I have never eat there, and as a result have never heard of the Chicken Bryan.  And, I have absolutely no idea WHY it is called such.  ??  Any ideas??  Anywho, I’ve been looking for new ways to eat chicken because frankly, I’m getting tired of the same old chicken recipes.  And we eat a lot of chicken.  A lot.

Okay, so on to the making of this dish.  It’s not a particularly healthy dish…it has quite a bit of butter in it, but it is full of flavor, so that makes up for the unhealthy aspect, right?  Right.  I thought so.

Let’s get started then.  We’ll start by making a sun-dried tomato sauce.

Place 2 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp. finely chopped garlic and 1 tbsp finely chopped onion in a large skillet over medium heat.

Cook until the garlic and onion are tender and transparent.  Then add in about 1/2 cup chicken broth and 1/4 fresh squeezed lemon juice. (The stuff in the bottle will work in a pinch, but the fresh stuff is much…well…fresher tasting!).

Increase the heat to medium high and simmer until the mixture is reduced to half.

While the liquid is reducing, heat another skillet over medium heat.  Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and cook evenly on both sides until cooked through.

Back to the liquid that’s reducing.  When it reduces to half it will look something like this.  At this point, you need to reduce the heat to low. 

Cut up 10 tbsp. of cold butter into small pieces.  Add cold butter one piece at a time, stirring until incorporated.  I didn’t use all 10 tbsp, but feel free to if you think your arteries can handle it.  Butter is yummy.  I think I used about 6 tbsp or so.

After you’ve added all the butter you can handle, chop up about a cup of sun-dried tomatoes and add them to the skillet.

If you have fresh basil, chop up about a 1/4 cup and toss that in.  I didn’t have any, so I used dried basil…about 2-3 tablespoons.

The original recipe said to top the chicken with goat cheese and then spoon the sauce over.  Again, I didn’t have any goat cheese, so I just spooned the sauce over and threw a handful of grated fresh parmasen and romano cheese on top.  But, if you have goat cheese laying around…try that…I’m sure it is pure deliciousness.

Oh.  my.  gosh.  I thought this would be a ‘good’ recipe that we might like.   We LOVED it.  Well, hubs and I loved it, and the kids loved it minus the tomatoes.  That’s a kid for ya…like the buttery sauce but pick out the tomatoes.  Oh well.  The lemon juice adds a nice tangy quality that makes your tastebuds dance.  Seriously.  They danced.  I’ll be making this one again.  But not too often.  You know…all that butter.  I don’t think my arteries could handle it too often! 

CHICKEN BRYAN PRINTABLE RECIPE

Southwest Summer Chicken

Okay, the name is a little deceiving.  You really can make this year round.  But…hey…it sounded good, so I’m sticking with it.

It’s a really easy and scrum-delicious recipe, and it’s versatile too.  You could do this with pretty much any meat.  Pork.  Beef.  Veal.  Venison.  Probably even fish. 

Here’s how simple it really is.  You make a rub.  Rub it on the meat.  You make a bbq sauce mixture, you spread it on the meat.  You let it marinate for a couple of hours in the fridge.  You grill the meat.  Yes.  It is THAT simple!  So, let’s get to cookin’ this chicken!

 

First up, you grab a bowl and add 1 tbsp dried onion flakes.

 

Then toss is 2 tsp. ground cumin.

 

Add 1 tsp cornstarch.

 

And 1 tsp garlic powder.

 

Put in a 1/2 tsp dried oregano.

 

Almost done.  Add in 1/2 tsp paprika.

 

And stir it all together.

Done!  You just made a rub mixture!  Give yourself a pat on the back!  Now, we’re going to take our rub mixture and, well…rub it onto the chicken.  Actually, you need to massage it into the chicken, being sure to rub in circular motions and to apply just the right amount of pressure – you want to massage firmly, but not too deeply.  You know, to relieve the chicken’s stress.  Okay, seriously.  It makes not a hill of beans difference HOW you rub the rub into the meat.  But if you enjoy massaging the chicken, go for it.  Maybe it will relieve some of your  stress!  Just make sure you get it coated nice and evenly.  Like this.  And rub the rub into both side of the meat. 

 

Now, in the same bowl (or a new bowl if you really want to have to wash another dish) combine 1/4 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce – I like a brown sugar/honey-bbq sauce, store brand is fine with me – and 2 tbsp lemon juice.

 

Stir those together and spread over the chicken.  Again, on both sides.  Like so…

 

Just cover the plate with plastic wrap and let it hang it out in the fridge for about 2 hours. 

When you’re ready to cook, tell your husband to fire up the grill, hand him the plate of chicken and tell him to “get grillin”.  Well, that’s what I do.  Anyway, grill the chicken over medium-low heat until done.

 

That’s it folks.  I told you.  Simple.   And delicious.  I promise.  Try it.  You’ll agree. 

 

Printable Version of Southwest Summer Chicken