Homestyle Chicken Cordon Blue with Spicy Cajun Sauce

During a recent menu planning session, my husband suggested a dish with ham, cheese and chicken breasts.

"Hmm", I said, "You mean Chicken Cordon Blue?"

"Yeah, that." he said.

This request, while sounding delicious,  presented a few obstacles for me.  To start with I am gluten intolerant, so the bread crumbs were out. And I wasn't really into the time consuming task of rolling up and securing the precarious meat bundle with toothpicks. Not my idea of a week night dinner.

After some brainstorming for a tasty crumb topping, I opted to make it a little more home-style with potato chips. In past attempts to use potato chips as a breading, I knew I wanted the chips to be a little finer than just crushing in a zip lock bag, so I used a food chopper.

For the chicken breasts, I was happy to just keep them flat. To get them nice and thin I pounded them with a meat tenderizer and made them a cut them in half diagonally.

After dipping the bottom of the chicken into the chips, I placed them into the greased pan. Topped with ham and cheese, being careful to overlap each generously.

Then, I gave each piece with a good coating of potato chips.

I must admit I was a little concerned about skipping the dredging into egg step, but this totally worked. The little bit of moisture on the chicken kept the chips on and were nice and crunchy on top.  The cheese also became a nice "glue" for the topping.

Since I was going all casual on the dish I skipped the Hollandaise and made a tangy, slightly spicy Cajun Sauce.  I used some Cajun seasoning from Phil Robertson. Yep, the Duck Dynasty patriarch has a Cajun seasoning! It's not too spicy, just a nice flavor.

Next time, I would probably add some additional red pepper.  Whatever version of spice mix you use, just go slow to be sure it doesn't get to hot or too salty.  They vary quite a bit in both areas.

Homestyle Chicken Cordon Blue with Spicy Cajun Sauce

Ingredients

For the Chicken

3-4 chicken breasts
10-12 slices of smoked deli ham
8 slices of havarti cheese
1 1/4 cup homestyle kettle potato chips, reduced fat

For Spicy Cajun Sauce

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
1/2 teaspoon Cajun Spice seasoning

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

2.  Finely crush potato chips and transfer to a shallow dish.

3. Rinse chicken breast and pound out thin with a meat tenderizer. Cut larger breasts in half diagonally and season with Cajun seasoning.

4. Dip chicken breasts into chips and place into pan.

5. Top each piece of chicken with ham to cover generously, followed by havarti cheese and crushed chips.

6.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.

7. While the chicken cooks, prepare sauce.  Heat butter and milk in small saucepan on medium heat.  Once hot and just bubbling, add a slurry of cornstarch and enough water to liquify.  Add to pan and whisk until thick and smooth.

8. Lower heat of saucepan to the lowest setting and add Dijon mustard and Parmesan cheese.  Whisk to smooth and finish with Cajun seasoning.

Note: You will want to watch the heat on the Cajun seasoning.  Start with 1/4 teaspoon and add from there.