Chicken Cordon Bleu

Happy holidays and new year wishes to all of our blogger peps out there in web world. We hope ya'll had a wonderful time and ate tons of great food. Lord knows I (Michael) did and I now have the weight to prove it.

Here is a wonderful cordon bleu recipe for you to try. Believe it or not this was our first cordon bleu and it trurned out really well except that it was ever so slightly overdone. We never got the thermometer to reach 165F - if you don't have one, I would just say to check by cutting one of the pieces to make sure it's done. We actually cooked it for about 15 minutes because we were trying to get that thermometer up. It wasn't really overdone, but I would not stress about getting to that 165 - it should be done after 7 minutes. You can substitute swiss for gruyere if you'd like. Recipe adapted from Eating Well. Serves 6.

Ingredients

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 3/4 pounds), sliced in half long-ways
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shredded Gruyère cheese
• 5 tablespoons reduced-fat cream cheese
• 1/2 cup coarse dry whole-wheat breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1/2 cup chopped ham (about 2 ounces)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Sprinkle chicken with 1/2 teaspoon pepper and salt. Combine cheese and cream cheese in a bowl. Combine the remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper with breadcrumbs, parsley (or thyme) and 1.5 tablespoons oil in another bowl.
3. Heat the remaining 1.5 tablespoons oil in a large, ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook the chicken until browned on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Move the chicken to the center so all pieces are touching. Spread with the cheese mixture, sprinkle with ham, then top with the breadcrumb mixture.
4. Bake until the chicken is no longer pink in the center and an instant-read thermometer registers 165°F, 5 to 7 minutes.