Chicken French Style

Okay, I want to know if cordon bleu is really French. When I was in Quebec, I don't recall seeing a cordon bleu on any menu. However, I might not have been looking very carefully. Also, answer this for me: If this is a French recipe, why do you use Swiss cheese? Would a French cheese be more appropriate? I do know that my family is French Canadian and chicken cordon bleu happens to be my dad's favorite meal. I have personally never made it but I have eaten the very tasty frozen ones from Costco. Knowing how much I love my crockpot, I thought I would give this recipe a try.

I would like to disclaim right up front: This is a recipe I will never make again. Not because it wasn't tasty. It's because they were a pain to make, and when you eat them, you have to worry about toothpicks unless you were smart and counted how many you put in each chicken breast. Jason and I both really liked this recipe, but again, it was a pain in the arse to make. Or pain in the hoosegow as my French Canadian Memere would say.

You can serve these little rolls on either rice or over egg noodles which is what we did. Also, depending on the size of your chicken breasts, you might only need 3 instead of the 6 it calls for. I was able to get a lot of my aggression out on these poor little chicken breasts. Like the regular, non-crockpot cordon bleu, you have to pound the breasts pretty thin.

The recipe calls for prosciutto and hopefully your's will be more cooperative than mine. In retrospect, I should have used ham. The prosciutto was so darn thin that when I peeled it off the paper, it just fell apart. Pain in the butt take one. I had to cut the cheese down a little bit so that it would fit on the chicken breasts. Pain in the butt take two. Next, the chicken had to be rolled up and secured with toothpicks. Pain in the butt take three, four and five. Seriously, PAIN IN THE BUTT.

I didn't want to use white wine, probably because I am lazy and that would have required me to buy some, so instead, I used some chicken broth that I had in the fridge. I feel the substitution was completely fine and I doubt it altered the taste.

I hope you are more successful than I am when making these. Again, they were good, but did I mention a slight pain?

Chicken Cordon Bleu Rolls
from: The New Creative CrockPot Cookbook

6 chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4 inch thickness
6 slices prosciutto
6 slices Swiss cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup white wine

On each chicken breast, place on piece of prosciutto and cheese. Roll up each chicken breast and secure with a toothpick. Season each roll with salt and pepper. Place in the crockpot. In a small bowl, whisk together the soup, milk and white wine. Pour this mixture over the chicken breast rolls. Cover; cook on low 4 to 6 hours (or on high 3 to 4 hours).


This is what the rolls look like when you cut into them. Yummy!