Equal Parts

Fresh fish needs nothing more than salt, pepper, and 12-15 minutes in the oven to be really great. Take it a few steps further, maybe by first searing it on the stovetop, or dressing it with an herbed olive oil, and it becomes downright excellent. This is a sentiment that I was blind to pre-Jeff, thanks to absence, ignorance, and intimidation. Aside from frozen fish sticks and tuna salad, it wasn’t something my parents ever made at home, and therefore it wasn’t something I carried into early adulthood. Now, we bake salmon with our favorite spice blend so frequently that my mom has created a comedy bit. If I’m on the phone with her, telling her my plans for after work, she’ll say something like, “And then you’ll have salmon?” Or, if we talk later in the evening, she’ll say, “How was the salmon?” and the like.

That being said, the pendulum can swing too far, and lately I’ve been revisiting my original favorite protein, chicken. It seems like chicken should be as effortless as fish, but in reality, with just a simple misstep, it can become tough, dry, or bland -- or worse, undercooked and a health hazard. These same risks do exist with seafood, but I find the timeline and texture to be much more forgiving. Historically, in my kitchen, it’s nearly impossible for me to mess up fish, and I almost never get chicken right. I’m on a quest to fix that.

Amelia Morris is my favorite blogger, one of my favorite writers, and, I like to think, my kindred spirit. We share not only a love of food and writing, but also women's gymnastics. She inspires me to find an adult gymnastics class, so that I can one day relive the crowning moment circa 1996 when I completed one round-off-back-handspring and ended my career on a high note. I just re-read her excellent “coming of age story, with recipes,” Bon Appetempt, where she writes about her working mom’s weeknight dinner prep. On busy days, she would heat out-of-the box, frozen chicken cordon bleu in the oven, and when time was available, they were made from scratch -- the chicken breasts pounded thin, rolled with ham and Swiss, coated in breadcrumbs, and cooked until crunchy and oozy.

My mom called last Sunday afternoon to catch up, and she asked what was for dinner (surprisingly, dropping the salmon joke). I told her over speaker phone I was rolling chicken cordon bleu right at that second, and her response was, “You know I used to make those, right?” She had to ask because cooking was a chore for her, a task she usually handed off, her repertoire of dinners small (but mighty). But I more than remembered. I practically tasted them while reading Amelia's story, and planned them for dinner that very night.

Nights when my parents worked late, we often had a store-bought, completely uniform version of chicken cordon bleu, each serving always a perfectly domed oval with a pocket of ham and creamy Swiss. I would cut mine in half straight out of the oven and let the cheese run onto my plate in a puddle, a dipping sauce for each bite. To be honest, this is the way I remember this dish most. But occasionally, when time and desire collided, perhaps on a Saturday while I was at gymnastics, I would come home to my mom's interpretation. She probably didn't follow a recipe -- despite not practicing every day, her intuition was strong -- but I imagine it was similar to the way I made them last weekend.

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU

I adapted Amelia’s recipe slightly, as hers calls for pan-frying followed by baking, and I wanted to eliminate the first step. I baked them entirely, and though I didn’t think to add olive oil to the breadcrumbs at the time, I will do so going forward to help facilitate a golden, toasty crust.

You’ll need:

1 package boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 lb. total, I like to buy the thin-cut breasts)
6 thinly-sliced pieces of Swiss cheese
6 thinly-sliced pieces of ham
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
2 tbsp milk
1-1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 350F. Place a wire cooling rack on top of a sheet of a sheet tray and spray with non-stick cooking spray. The wire rack will help ensure the chicken crisps on all sides.

Pound the chicken breasts as thin as you can without tearing, ideally about 1/4 inch thick. I did this by placing them in a Ziploc bag one at a time and hitting it with a meat mallet. Sprinkle each breast with salt and pepper. Top with a piece of Swiss cheese and a piece of ham, then roll the breasts up as tightly as possible. Secure with a toothpick if necessary (though I didn’t need to).

Set up your dredging stations. In the first bowl, add the flour and a little bit of salt and pepper. In the second bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. In the final bowl, add the panko, olive oil, and a little bit of salt and pepper, and mix together evenly. Working one at a time, dip each chicken roll-up in each bowl in that order, making sure all sides are covered but not excessively so, and place on the wire rack. Bake for about 35 minutes, until the panko is toasted and the chicken is cooked through.