Chicken Cordon Bleu

I love chicken cordon bleu, my favorite part is having cheese and ham in the middle of a breaded chicken breast Mmm!  This variation I found on mels kitchen cafe!  This recipe is alot easier than others that I have tried, there's no pounding out the chicken, so less mess... that's a plus and putting in the filling is alot easier to do.  This makes enough for 4 servings.

Ingredients:

1 package of Ritz crackers
4 slices of sandwich bread
6 Tbsp butter, melted
8 thin slices deli ham
2 cups shredded swiss cheese
4 thick boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 lbs total)
salt and pepper
3 large eggs
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 cup all-purpose flour

Gravy:
1 can Cream of chicken soup
Milk

Preheat the oven to 450.  crush crackers until coursely ground. Break up bread into tiny pieces and put in a pan with the crackers and drizzle butter over top.  Put into preheated oven for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until crumbs are lightly browned.  (leave oven on for the chicken)

Next take your slicesof ham and place a 1/4 cup of shredded swiss cheese into the center and roll up, then roll it up again in a second slice.  Repeat the same thing so you have one for all 4 pieces of chicken.  Take your chicken breast and cut a pocket in the side of the chicken for your filling.  Stuff your ham roll into the chicken and try to get it all the way into the chicken... sometimes it can be hard to get it in all the way.  Then using toothpicks close up the open end of the chicken. I usually end up using 4 toothpicks in each chicken. Place chicken in the refrigerator for as least 20 minutes.

In a pie dish beat the eggs and mustard together and set aside.  In another pie dish fill with 1 cup of flour.  Take the chicken out of the fridge and you will be working with one chicken at a time.  First place the chicken in the flour, then into the egg mixture, next into the cracker mixture until well breaded and put into a greased 9x13 pan (The breaded chicken can be in the refrigerator covered for up to 1 day)

Place the 9x13 pan on the lowest rack of the oven until bottom of the chicken is browned, about 10 minutes.  Then move the chicken to the middle rack and reduce heat to 400 (you don't have to leave the chicken out of the oven while the temperature adjusts)  Bake until golden brown and the chicken is cooked through, about 25-30 minutes.  Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving.  Also while enjoying this meal please watch out for the toothpicks.  You can top the chicken with cream of chicken and milk mixture. add enough milk until the gravy is the consistency that you would like.

Contributed by: Tiffany