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December 18, 2004
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Tonight we made Chicken Cordon Bleu one of my favorite dishes.
It's also one I have seen maligned in sad and evil ways:
The most evil by far was done by a fellow cook I worked with who believed he was "God's gift to cooking." He dredged the unflattened chicken breasts in flour, added the ham and cheese, rolled it up and dropped it in the deep fryer to seal it in. Those of you who are familiar with restaurant deep friers know how long that would take to cook the chicken thoroughly (I didn't try it, so I don't know if it was fully cooked.)
As if to add insult to injury, he then made a cream sauce and poured it into the serving pan over the greasy chicken. The final result crusty brown chicken breast peeking out from a two inch lake of yellowish cream sauce, with pools of grease reflecting the flourescent lights from the cafeteria ceiling above. (shudder)
The second, less deadly but terribly disappointing entry was the Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich from Jack in the Box. For starters, it was done on plain grilled chicken, which was dry and tough. The "we don't make it until you order it rule" (which means assemble it, not cook) left the overcooked warm chicken breast unable to melt the swiss cheese on the sandwhich. Finally, the supposed "creamy garlic parmesian" sauce tasted a lot like Ranch dressing to me.
The most acceptable food item using the name Chicken Cordon Bleu is the institutional pre-frozen type with processed chicken. They're not great, but at least they're tasty.
Homemade Chicken Cordon Bleu on the other hand is not that hard to make and is delicious! I made a slight error this time around, I breaded the chicken prior to rolling it up. This led to some excess cheese leakage from the the chicken, but the final result was still excellent!
posted by John at 7:21 PM
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