Chicken Cordon Bleu

Everyone loves Chicken Cordon Bleu, filled with cheese and ham, making it not only beautiful but remarkably tasty. It might look dauntingly difficult to master, yet with just a few extra leaked cheese, there is nothing hard at all. It is all about bashing that chicken as thin as possible, filling it with the best jambon and cheese, and rolling it nicely, so that no cheese has a place to escape. You can make it with veal too, and even pork, but I believe that it tastes the best when prepared with an exquisite organic chicken.

140 g sourdough breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
sea salt to taste
4 small chicken breasts
4 medium slices of boiled ham (jambon blanc)
80 g Beaufort, Gruyère, or Comté cheese, grated
mild extra virgin olive oil
pepper

In a bowl, mix the first three ingredients. Set aside.

Cut each chicken breast horizontally in half, put in between baking paper sheets, and bash it until it is very thin. Add a slice of ham, then cheese, and some pepper if you wish, and close it neatly to prevent cheese from leaking out. You can close it starting with shorter edges and then the long ones.

Heat the oven 190ºC hot. When the oven is hot, heat the pan and add oil. Coat in the breadcrumb mixture, put in the pan and fry from all sides. When done, nice and golden, put the pan in the oven and cook for additional 14-16 minutes until ready. Take out and serve it with salad which you can mix while the meat is cooking.

Salad. Four handfuls of lettuce mixed with extra virgin olive oil, 1/3 tsp of mustard, salt and pepper.