Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole

Mmmmm, our new friends out here in the North East had us over for dinner a few months ago and they made us something they call Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole. It was so yummy, so I asked them yesterday what the recipe was and we gave it a try.

Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole

Ingredients:

Chicken breast

ham (Deli slices)

Swiss cheese or provolone cheese

bread crumbs or crushed ritz crackers

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. cube raw chicken & cover bottom of 9x13 pan with chicken (we had tenderloins so we didn't bother cutting them up until we served it and that worked fine for us)
3. Layer ham on top of chicken(if you are using the cheep stuff you might want more than 1 layer of ham, but if it is thick you will be fine with 1 layer.)
4. cover Ham with a layer of cheese.
5. Sprinkle bread crumbs or ritz crackers over the cheese layer
6. Cover with foil and cook for 50 minutes.
7. remove foil and cook an additional 10-15 minutes to brown the top.
8. serve with white sauce and noodles or rice.

• Since we are only a family of 4 with 2 little kids who don't eat much, we were able to make a smaller batch of this in a 9x9 square pan. I made it early in the day and then put it in the fridge until the evening. and we didn't have any problems with the cooking times or anything.
• I am excited to have another recipe that uses Swiss cheese. I like to make THIS quiche recipe, but it is the only Swiss cheese recipe I have so I don't always have Swiss cheese on hand. Do you have any Swiss cheese recipes that your family likes?

Here is the recipe I used for our white sauce.

Creamy Parmesan Sauce

Ingredients:
1 T butter
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2-3/4 C half and half
1/2 T cornstarch or 1 TBSP flour
salt & pepper
~1/3 C shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan, then saute the garlic for a minute or two. Add in a splash of wine and continue to simmer for another 1-2 minutes.
2. Whisk together the half-and-half with the cornstarch. Slowly pour into the sauce pan and mix until it is smooth and thickened.
3. Add the cheese, salt and pepper to the sauce pan and cook until melted.
4. Drizzle the sauce over the breasts just before serving.

• It was so yummy, but VERY thick. If you spread it over your chicken as soon as you are done, it might not be a problem, but we have a kid who doesn't like sauce, so we like to put it on the table and each person can use it or not. And it thickens as it sits out.
• It was also yummy to have the sauce to add to the rice
• I think next time we might tweak it a little to have more 1/2 & 1/2 or just use regular milk so it is runnier and easier to spread. Or we will keep it thick and make a double batch.
• I will also be sure to take a photo to share.

THIS and THAT were the places where I found the recipe for the sauce, I have altered them a little to fit our family, but the original sauce recipes are from www.laurensrecipecollection.com & www.mecookingcreations.blogspot.com