Chicken Cordon Bleu

This was in a 5-ingredient magazine (by Taste of Home), but I decided to add a few more to make it more tasty. If you use low-fat cheese, this recipe is actually pretty healthy, and packed with protein.  I served mine with peas, roasted sweet potato, and brown rice with Craisins. Yum!

Chicken Cordon Bleu (E, N, GF?)
makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper to taste
4 thin slices of ham or prosciutto
1/2 cup shredded Italian blend cheese
1/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs or panko (or both)
Zero calorie butter spray

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350*F.  Coat an 11×7-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
  2. Pound the chicken breasts to 1/4-inch thickness.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne pepper.
    Place a piece of ham over the chicken, and sprinkle a quarter of the cheese on top.  Roll up and secure with toothpicks.
      
  3. Repeat with remaining chicken breasts.
  4. Place rolled up chicken breasts in baking dish, and sprinkle bread crumbs and/or panko over top.
  5. Spray breadcrumbs/panko with butter spray.
  6. Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.
  7. Serve hot. Enjoy!

Notes:
– You could make this gluten-free by finding GF panko or breadcrumbs.
– The recipe calls for Asiago cheese, but I liked the combination offered in the Italian blend.
– When pounding the chicken breasts, I placed them between two pieces of cling-wrap.  It prevents everything from getting too messy!
– The recipe says the chicken should cook for 35-45 minutes, but mine took much longer.  Patience is a virtue, I guess…
– Panko are Japanese-style bread crumbs. They’re really light and crisp up nicely, especially with the butter spray.
– If you’re watching carbs, this would be a great meal – serve with a salad or some roasted vegetables.

Nutrition (according to the magazine; per serving):
291 calories; 10 g fat (4 g saturated); 119 mg cholesterol; 645 mg sodium; 6 g carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 43 g protein.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: