Easy Chicken Roll-Ups

The dinner party was a great success.  All that remained to do after the guests arrived was roast the vegetables and warm the bread.  The evening before I made the chicken dish, baked and stuffed the potatoes, prepped the salad stuff, and even sliced the bread and wrapped in foil.  My kitchen was spotless when the guests arrived, and I even had time for a short nap in the afternoon. 

Here's the simple version of Cordon Bleu I made.

Put foil on your counter to make clean-up easier.  Cover the chicken breasts with plastic wrap and pound them out (great way to get out some aggression!)

Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. Throw on some fresh chopped parley

Add some slices of ham. I used Black Forest Ham from Costco (ooooops! - hit the publish button by accident so if you're viewing this in your reader you may have to come to the site to see the rest )

Sprinkle on some mozzarella cheese. You could also use the traditional Swiss.

 

Roll them up and secure with small metal turkey skewers.  Bamboo tends to shred the chicken and a word of warning:  if you have to use toothpicks - COUNT THEM so they can ALL be removed before serving.  Guests choking at your dinner table on a stray toothpick tends to throw a bit of a monkey wrench in your elegant evening.

Brown them in a bit of olive oil and plunk in a baking dish.  You're just going for a bit of color here - not cooking them all the way through. Don't worry if they look a little messy. We're going to cover all that up later.

While they are browning, start a basic white sauce in a sauce pan.   After browning the chicken, deglaze the pan with a bit of extra dry sherry and add that to the sauce.  The little bits of cheese that have leaked out and browned add a scrumptious taste to the sauce.  Add grated Romano or Parmesan cheese to your sauce and finish with a dollop of dry sherry.

If you are making this the day before simply cover and put in fridge. The next day bake the chicken at 375 for about 25 minutes.  Remove skewers and spoon the sherry sauce over chicken, throw on more mozzarella or grated Romano, sprinkle with paprika for a bit of color, and pop back in oven for a few minutes for the sauce to warm.  Some fresh chopped parsley on top before serving also looks lovely.  

I have lots of new vintage and antique items to put into my Etsy shop and I haven't even done my planning for the week yet.  Where does the time go??