Monday, April 13, 2009

Curtis's Crumbed Chicken Breasts

I made this dish for my review of Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone. As I said in the review, this was a simple and tasty way to prepare chicken, but as I was eating it, I suddenly realized that I could have added some ham to this and had a pretty great Chicken Cordon Bleu. As it was, I was pretty much having a Chicken Cordon Bleu with only half of the cordon bleu part. Hm. Curtis says in the write-up for this recipe, that when he worked in a Michelin-starred restaurant, he'd make this but would add prosciutto and shaved truffle to the filling - a very fancy version of Chicken Cordon Bleu, IMO.

Crumbed Chicken Breasts Filled with Swiss Cheese, p. 156 of Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone, adapted by me

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
two 3" sticks of Swiss cheese
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs


1. Slice a pocket into the chicken breasts and stuff in the cheese. In my case, I got carried away and pretty much sliced my breasts in half because I wasn't paying proper attention, so I had to truss my breasts. This was OK because I got these fancy silicone trussing thingies to try out for free from the Cooking Club of America a couple of years ago before I let my membership last, and I'd never used them before now. Turns out they work great!2. Season the breast with salt & pepper.

3. Put the flour in one shallow bowl. Beat the egg in a second shallow bowl. Put the bread crumbs into a third shallow bowl. Dredge the chicken first in the flour, then cover with egg, then cover in bread crumbs. Repeat with other breast.

4. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until done. (The original recipe has the reader pan-frying the breasts first and then finishing them in the oven, but I skipped that as I thought just baking them would be easier and lower in fat.)
5. Serve & Enjoy. I had mine with some roasted asparagus and left over Nigella pasta -which was like the bottomless pit of pasta, I had so much left!
It was a pretty nice meal, but next time I'm definitely using ham!

11 comments:

Dewi said...

What a delicious chicken. Delicious and simple to prepare. So, this will be perfect for a busy week.
Cheers,
elra

Coleens Recipes said...

Very nice...perfect dinner.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

That looks good!

Cheers,

Rosa

Donna-FFW said...

This looks fabulous.. You are so right .. ham would probably bring this over the top.. what a cool kitchen gadget to wrap the chicken!

Bob said...

Looks great! I bet prosciutto would be unreal in that.

Van Santos said...

I agree here, prosciutto would ROCK.

Did you use soft/semi-soft swiss cheese?

tshsmom said...

Those trussing thingies are really cool!

Tina said...

I'd like to try that with thighs or a dark meat. I find the breast meat dries out too much for me. This looks really good. I like the blue silicone thingees.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah ham with the swiss would be great together. I'm gonna have to get this book! I've never seen those trussing things before. I usually end up impaling stuff w/ a million toothpicks, so I bet these are much better.

Wandering Coyote said...

Adventures: I usually use a ton of toothpicks, too, but these things are great and they clean easily, too.

Elyse said...

Wow, I love the blue ties. How great! So much better than the ole toothpick method :) The chicken looks delish.

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