Lightened Up Chicken Cordon Bleu

I have loved chicken cordon bleu for as long as I can remember.  The gooey melty cheese nestled inside a moist chicken breast complimented by salty ham....yummy.  Unfortunately, some recipes for this dish can be very diet unfriendly.  Once I found an oven baked chicken coating recipe I liked (see cornflake chicken tenders), I knew I wanted to try it on chicken cordon bleu.  If you aren't a fan of mustard, don't worry, you can't taste it.  It just gives the breading a bit of flavor when used in the egg wash mix.  The sauce served with this version is really the star of the show though...with a bit of tang from buttermilk.  It puts this dish over the top. 

You can choose to secure your chicken breasts with a toothpick once you are done rolling them, but I find that if you very carefully coat the rolled breasts and then place them with seam side down on the baking sheet, they hold together just fine once they are baked.  Freezing the precut cheese for about 20 minutes before assembling the chicken, will help prevent the cheese from oozing out while baking.

From the oven

Ready to roll

Lightened Up Chicken Cordon Bleu adapted from Taste of Home

Servings - 8   Serving size - 1 chicken breast with about 2 TBS sauce  Points plus per serving - 7 points+

Calories - 230.8,   Total Fat - 7.4g,   Carb. - 17.1g,   Protein - 32.2g,   Fiber - 0.4g

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts ( 4 oz. each)

salt and pepper

8-1 oz. slices of extra lean ( 5% fat) deli ham

4- 1 oz. slices of center cut Swiss cheese, cut in half

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup egg beaters

2 TBSP. dijon mustard

1 cup Kellogg's cornflake crumbs

1/2 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
cooking spray or misto

For Sauce:

1 can 98% fat free condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1/2 cup buttermilk, lowfat

1 tsp. lemon juice

1.  Pound chicken breasts between sheet of plastic wrap to 1/4 inch thickness. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  

2.  Place a cheese slice half ( freeze first until just slightly firm, but still pliable) and one piece of ham on non-shiny side of chicken breast, keeping the ham and cheese in the very middle of the breast.  ( see picture above)  Fold up jelly roll style, from short end.  Secure with toothpick if desired.  Place aside, with seam side down and repeat with remaining breasts.  

3.  Set up breading stations.  Put flour into shallow bowl.  In another shallow bowl, combine egg beaters and dijon mustard.  In a third bigger bowl, combine the cornflake crumbs with the paprika, garlic powder, salt and fresh ground pepper.  Mix to combine.  

4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment or spray with cooking spray.  

5.  Dip the chicken in the flour, shaking off excess.  Next dredge in the eggbeaters/dijon mustard mixture and finally, gently roll in cornflake mixture.  Place on baking sheet seam side down.  Spray with cooking spray or misto.

6.  Bake for 25 -30 minutes or until meat is no longer pink. 

7.  While the chicken is in the oven, combine the soup and buttermilk in a small saucepan.  Cook over low heat until warm.  Add the lemon juice.  Serve over the baked chicken. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE



I must confess...I made up a batch of those oreo truffles that I have read and heard so much about lately.  First, let me say...absolutely NOTHING healthy about these things...lol  even though I did use low fat cream cheese.  But they certainly are good....kids really are enjoying them...thank goodness!  They will not be making my blog for obvious reasons...but there are about a gazillion recipes out there if you google oreo truffles...in case you are curious!  :)

Have you ever made oreo truffles? If you have, what flavor combinations did you make?