Week 39.5: Chicken Cordon Bleu with White Wine Sauce

This is one I did on my own. I didn't really have a reason to cook, besides it being something to do, and this had been a recipe that had caught my eye earlier this week. Here are some things that I learned in this kitchen this afternoon:

1. Cooking with wine makes almost anything taste fancy. And it totally made me FEEL fancy.

2. Chicken is kinda gross to work with(chalk a point up for my "I could definitely be a vegetarian if I wanted/needed to be" argument...).

3. I can improvise in a recipe, and it just might turn out okay. In this case, I made the following alterations:

-It called for "dry white wine" but to be honest with you, I don't really know what that means. I just used whatever I had in my fridge...

-I was supposed to use heavy whipping cream in the sauce, but only had half and half, so just used that.

-I took out some aggression...I mean...methodically crushed some bouillon cubes since I didn't have "granules."

4. Sometimes it's okay...and even necessary...to use tools from your toolbox while cooking. Today: needle-nosed pliers. Clean, of course.

5. I need to stop cooking way more food than I can possible eat. I have so many left-overs in my fridge right now, it's ridiculous. Anyone want to come have lunch with me?

Anyway, this CCB with WWS was pretty delicious. I got a few bites, and then threw the rest in the fridge where it will wait to go to left-over heaven. It was a little more labor-intensive than I am used to when cooking alone, but I think it was worth it. I ended up cutting the chicken, cheese, ham, and butter in half because I just wasn't getting out of the chicken breasts what I needed to. I ended up with three good, usable pieces, and then a ton of little pieces that wouldn't work for CCB, but will be great in stir-fry or calzones later.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS
6 thin sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts
6 slices Swiss cheese
6 slices ham
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon paprika
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS
Pound chicken breasts if they are too thick. Place a cheese and ham slice on each breast within 1/2 inch of the edges. Fold the edges of the chicken over the filling, and secure with toothpicks. This is something I had to experiment with. I ended up kind of threading the toothpicks through the chicken edges, kind of like a safety pin...does that make sense?

Mix the flour and paprika in a small bowl, and coat the chicken pieces.

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and cook the chicken until browned on all sides. Add the wine and bouillon. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.



Remove the toothpicks, and transfer the breasts to a warm platter. Blend the cornstarch with the cream in a small bowl, and whisk slowly into the skillet. Cook, stirring until thickened, and pour over the chicken. Serve warm.


I wasn't sure if I would be able to tell when the sauce was thick enough, but it ended up being kind of obvious when it would part to see the bottom of the pan before slowly filling in.