Week 14- Cheeseless Chicken Cordon Bleu

What do you do with leftover ham? Because we had quite a bit left over from Easter, and ham sandwiches only go so far. I had been talking to someone recently who was raving over the Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwich from Schlotzsky's, which is a sandwich chain available in Texas, among other places. The idea of Chicken Cordon Bleu intrigued me, mainly because I haven't ever tried it before. I didn't actually have a recipe, but based on what I have heard, it's pretty much ham and swiss cheese stuffed into a breaded chicken breast.

I had previously made a Rachael Ray recipe that involved thinly sliced steak, rolled around a filling of breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. I took that technique and applied it to this dinner, using thinly pounded chicken breasts and wrapping it around a filling of diced ham mixed with breadcrumbs and thyme (no cheese, for Bryan-safe reasons).

Most of the time, recipes recommend dipping foods into an egg wash before breading- the egg gives the breading something to stick to. I don't use egg washes (again, for Bryan-safe reasons), so I usually just make do with a very thin breading. This time, though, I decided to try something tricky. I remembered a Sandra Lee recipe for Baklava which called for butter-flavored cooking spray as a shortcut for melted butter (brushed between phyllo layers). So I sprayed my Chicken Cordon Bleus with butter-flavored cooking spray before dipping into the breadcrumbs- and it worked great! A new recipe and a new technique- I'm pretty pleased with myself this week. =)

Recipe- No recipe, but inspired by a number of sources, including Rachael Ray, Schlotzsky's, and Sandra Lee.
Modifications- Made a cream sauce for the non-allergic family to use.
Reactions- Generally a success. The lone dissenter was Claudia, who simply didn't want to try.
Notes- I think this recipe is a keeper, although the quality of the ham definitely improved the dish.

Week 13- Imaginary Chicken

This week's recipe was something of an adventure. We were in the Dallas area with Dad's family for the weekend, and Grandmama was planning to make chicken for Easter dinner. The problem was, she wasn't entirely sure how to make the chicken. She and Bryan's Aunt K had discussed the menu, and Aunt K mentioned a recipe that she had seen on the Kraft website for a chicken that she thought sounded good- it had a sauce with mustard, honey, Italian dressing, and a few other things, and was baked with new potatoes. However, the next time she checked the website, it was no longer there. Grandmama couldn't find it either, and when I tried an ingredient search, I couldn't find an exact match- a few other recipes were close, but nothing had all 3 ingredients that Aunt K remembered. Grandmama wasn't sure what to do, so I told her that I could try to put something together- and if it didn't match exactly, no one would ever really know, right? And so, Imaginary Chicken came to be...

Recipe- No recipe, but based on something that may have appeared on the Kraft Recipe website.
Modifications- No recipe, so no modifications.
Reactions- Depends on who you ask. My picky family weren't really fans (Dad said it was okay, but not his favorite, and Bryan ate a few bites without comment). The less picky relatives and I really liked it, though.
Notes- I think the mustard taste was a little too strong for my family, so I might play with the honey:mustard ratio a little. However, this may end up falling into the category of "Make for Company".