- Hey, it's Alix, and today, I'm gonna show you
how to make my chicken cordon bleu bake.
(slow-paced music)
Cordon bleu.
So this recipe is kind of a cross
between a classic chicken cordon bleu and a Beef Wellington.
So I have the classic elements of a chicken cordon bleu,
but instead of the breading outside,
I did a puff pastry outside.
So the chicken cordon bleu inside is all very classic
and traditional.
So you can choose to season your breasts individually,
but I just threw them on the bowl
and seasoned it all in there,
just to make it a little easier and faster.
So you're gonna want to pound out your chicken breasts
until it's pretty thin.
This will help you to roll it in the next step.
If you happen to have a metal mallet,
that's a really easy way
to make sure your chicken is pounded out properly,
but there's other tools you can use
lying around in your house
to make sure you get that thin piece of chicken.
I used a wooden spoon.
It takes a little extra effort, but it still works.
And you could also use a cast-iron skillet.
So I layered this with a double layer of the cheese,
just to make sure you get that
extra ooey-gooey cheesy center.
And it actually made for a pretty good visual at the end.
So to make the rolling process easier,
I had my chicken on a piece of plastic wrap,
so once you roll it up, you're able to encase that
in the plastic and roll it even tighter.
You want a really tight seal,
so rolling it back and forth will help you achieve that.
You kind of want to get all of the air you can out of it,
and tightly roll it and seal it on the edges,
so that you have a nice, tight little chicken.
Little chicken.
They look like little piggies.
(oinks)
So putting the chicken back in the fridge
is an important step
to allow the chicken to kind of firm up and hold its shape.
So now for the outside.
I used puff pastry because that is classic
to a Beef Wellington.
I trimmed the puff pastry down,
just because with the individual wrapped chickens,
you don't want to have too much extra puff pastry
'cause it'll just be like too bready,
and it also it might not cook all the way through
if there's a lot of extra kind of bunched up right there.
So classically, in a Wellington,
the puff pastry is brushed with English mustard.
You could really use any mustard variety that you like,
like a Dijon or just a regular yellow mustard,
but English mustard has a ton of flavor
and a really bright, vibrant yellow color.
And you can usually find it at most grocery stores.
So once your chickens are cooled and set,
pop that right on the puff pastry and give it a wrap.
Now, again, if you have too much extra puff pastry,
trim that off, and then you can tuck the sides under
and kind of fix it so it looks really nice.
The egg wash will help your puff pastry
get really nice and brown and golden-colored
once its baked.
So then it's time to get a little fancy with it.
So in order to create a nice design on the outside,
I took a fork and kind of drew marks
in the puff pastry itself.
So I did the lines one way,
and then I went back and did it diagonally,
so it had a nice kind of diamond pattern on the puff pastry.
So once it bakes, it looks really nice and pretty.
Then hit it with a little more salt,
and you're ready to bake.
Salt bae that ish.
So you want to bake your rolls
until, of course, the chicken is cooked through.
Now this chicken will actually cook pretty fast
because it's pounded out so thin.
So it just won't take as long to cook
as like a full piece of chicken breast.
But you also are looking for a really deep,
golden-brown color on the puff pastry,
to make sure it's all the way cooked through.
Pounding out the chicken breasts and rolling it up like this
will help you get that really beautiful spiral center
that every chicken cordon bleu should have.
Also what's great about using the puff pastry,
as opposed to a classic chicken cordon bleu breading,
is that it's so much cleaner.
Breading is often pretty messy,
since you have like a lot going on
with the egg and the breadcrumbs and the flour.
But this, you get it all in one go, and no mess, no fuss.
It's what I like.
This dish is also super showstopping.
It's a great dish for a dinner party.
They're pretty big,
so you might not need to eat the whole thing,
but they look really fancy.
And they taste even better.
And they're also so cute.
Look at them.
They're like little,
I don't know a good word for that.
I keep doing this.
They're just so cute.