Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu
There’s no reason to fuss over finicky chicken cordon bleu recipes when this easy, casserole-style chicken cordon bleu is just as delicious!
I hope you are one of the 100+ people who have made and loved this easy chicken cordon bleu recipe over the years.
Considering it is still a very strong dinner staple in my house, I wanted to give it a moment in the spotlight. Basically, I want to give you a little encouragement to just make it already, and I think you’ll be happy about that.
Don’t get me wrong, I love classic chicken cordon bleu in all its gloriousness. I really do.
But sometimes I want an easier way with less work and all the same delicious flavor and taste.
Enter chicken cordon bleu the easy way. Or the lazy way. Or the slacker way.
I’m good with any or all of those titles. When easy is this delicious, you don’t care about those kinds of things.
Simply put, you take boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cut them in half lengthwise to make two thinner chicken breast cutlets. You can also just use thin pieces of chicken or pound the chicken thin; I’m telling you, this recipe is not fussy.
The chicken is topped with ham, swiss cheese and bread crumbs and baked to golden, bubbly perfection.
Served with a super simple creamy Parmesan-Dijon sauce, this easier chicken cordon bleu is just as satisfying as the original. And you don’t have to mess with all the fuss of pounding, rolling and toothpicking.
My kids go nuts over this meal, and it is often a Sunday dinner staple since it can be made ahead of time. I’ve included make-ahead details below the recipe.
I’ve even included a little note in the recipe about how I make this even more family-friendly by cubing the chicken and making it a bit more casserole-style.
Perfect for those kids that are too little (or too busy) to eat a whole chicken piece themselves.
So yeah, maybe this version isn’t quite as pretty as good ol’ classic chicken cordon bleu, but when your hungry husband and five kids are devouring dinner like they haven’t eaten in a year, pretty is the last thing they have on their minds.
There’s a time and place for everything. Right now, this easy chicken cordon bleu fits very nicely into our style of weeknight dinnering.
What To Serve With This:
Roasted Asparagus or steamed peas
Simple Rice Pilaf
Spinach Salad with Sweet-Spicy Nuts, Apples, Feta & Bacon or Strawberry Spinach Salad
One Year Ago: Ultimate Stuffed Zucchini
Two Years Ago: Chocolate Cream Cheese Truffles
Three Years Ago: Pumpkin Bars
Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu
Ingredients
For the Cordon Bleu:
- 3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in half length-wise (to form two thinner chicken breast cutlets)
- Salt and pepper
- 12 slices deli ham
- 6-8 slices Swiss cheese
- 1 cup bread crumbs, I prefer panko in this recipe
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
For the Parmesan-Dijon Cream Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules, or 1 bouillon cube, crushed
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking dish with cooking spray set aside.
- Lay the cut chicken breasts in a single layer in the 9X13-inch dish. Lightly sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.
- Layer each chicken breast with two slices of ham and top with 2 slices of swiss cheese, shingling across the chicken breast to make sure the entire piece of chicken is covered with ham and cheese. Toss the bread crumbs with the melted butter and sprinkle the mixture over the top of the chicken.
- Bake the chicken for 30-35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through completely, the cheese is bubbling and the bread crumbs are golden.
- For the sauce, while the chicken bakes, in a medium saucepan, melt the 2 tablespoons butter. Stir in the flour, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Slowly pour in the milk while whisking quickly to avoid lumps.
- Stir in the chicken bouillon granules. Whisk constantly over medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer and thicken, about 3-5 minutes.
- Once the sauce has bubbled and thickened, remove from heat and stir in the mustard, Worcestershire sauce and Parmesan cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted. Keep the sauce warm until the chicken is finished baking. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if needed.
- Serve each chicken cordon bleu portion with warm sauce.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
Recipe originally posted June 2011; commentary, pictures, and recipe notes updated September 2016.
Theresa – there is not a double layer of chicken – the chicken is topped with the ham, cheese and bread crumbs and baked that way.
Hi Mel,
This recipe looks amazing, however, I’m a little confused, please help me out. You are taking three chicken breasts and cutting them in half to make six. That part I get, but when you are topping them with the cheese and ham, are you putting the bread crumbs directly on top of the cheese or topping it with the other half of chicken then putting the bread crumbs? I’m thinking based on your serving size that you are topping the layers of chicken, ham, cheese, then bread crumbs to make a sort of open faced chicken cordon bleu….would that be correct?
Thanks for your help!
This is the best I have tasted! So yummy, thanks
Awesome! I never have the cream of chicken soup for all of these recipes I see online. I don’t ever need to buy it….this sauce is delicious!!!! Thanks for a great recipe!!
Very good, such a nice change from the everyday chicken breasts we’re so used to. Served with fresh broccoli and sauce was a great addition to that also.
Yummy and delicious! Will definitely repeat again.
I made this last night for a friend who has been ill and WOW! I wanted to dive into the sauce pan and swim around in all it’s creamy goodness. Way better than the doctored up cream of chicken sludge I usually serve with chicken. Thanks for a great recipe. It’s a keeper!
I think I might play with the ham cheese and chicken a little but no alteration on the sauce. It was flat out he best sauce I have made. Maybe leave out the salt but wow. Thank you. Had to pin this to Pinterest for later.
I made this tonight and everyone thought it was delicious. I had some leftover cheese sauce I will make Chicken Parmesan and use it up.
This was fabulous! My whole family loved it, including my toddler!
This was excellent. I used pepper jack cheese instead of the traditional Swiss. Loved by all around the table. Is now in the rotation!! So much easier than pounding and stiffing and rolling only to have the cheese melt out!
Trying this tonight!! There is not a recipe on here I have tried that my whole family hasnt loved so I am sure it will be a hit!!! We barely eat anything that isnt on your website any more!!!
For those of you looking for bouillon substitutions, I used Better Than Bouillon with success!
Americas Test Kitchen recipe cuts a pocket in the chicken breast stuffing the ham & cheese inside then breaded in ritz cracker. Why not use heavy cream instead of milk in the sauce?
My husband loved this! It was so easy and fast. I laughed when I saw your comment “cream of chicken soup – free sauce”, because I skip over any recipe that calls for it. Thanks for the great recipe!
Karen – it’s worth a try. I’ve never made it anyway other than the recipe states so if you don’t have an oven, you can try pan-frying the chicken, covering the skillet and letting it cook through on the stovetop.
Hi can i just fry the chicken cordon bleu o just steam it?what if there is no oven availabale?
This recipe was the hit of our recent dinner.- Although I am a bit tired of the process at this point since we served 100 people. We actually cut the chicken breast in half lengthwise and in half again since the pieces were so large. It turned out perfect. I doubled the bread crumbs to make them a little more crispy. We were able to fit 8 breasts in one 9×13 pan. As for the sauce, I used fat free milk and did just a pinch of salt, since I figured the ham and the mustard, as well as the cheese would give us enough salt. It was delicious!!!
It surprises me that I haven’t commented on this recipe yet because I’ve made it twice now. Another slam dunk! I’ve successfully made the encased chicken cordon bleu only once in my life (using one of your posted recipes, of course), but this will be my go to recipe when ever I want the dish now. The other way is such a hassle!! The sauce is delicious (admittedly my sauce turns out thick too), and such a great compliment to the chicken. Thanks again for another great recipe!!
I made this tonight and it is EXCELLENT but I had the same (minor) problems as Tiffany and Michelle Watabe. The sauce thickened up before the three-minute mark and ended up thicker than pancake batter and very sticky. Next time I’ll use more milk and/or not cook it as long. It was also *incredibly* salty which was unfortunate because the flavor was oh. so. good. Next time I’d either leave out the salt or just use a couple shakes.
I made this the other night and we loved it! I didn’t have parmesan so I subbed more swiss in the cheese sauce. Turned out wonderful! Thanks Mel!
Mel, I hadn’t really been in the mood to cook for a few months and I finally got reinspired from your blog! I am actually excited to make dinner again! I’ve never attempted C.C.B. b/c it seemed way too labor intensive and I also O.D.ed on the store bought kind at the Cannon Center at BYU. I made this tonight and it was delicious!!! I used chicken tenderloins because that’s what I had. I bundled two together and wrapped a large piece of deli ham around it. It worked great. The only thing was, I feared the sauce would be too salty but didn’t follow my gut and wished I had. I ended up adding quite a bit of water to the sauce until the salt was toned down. I agree with a few of the other commenters to let the bullion, worcestershire and parm do their thing without the additional salt. I will be making this for years to come! You have the best food blog around!
Hey, Mel! I saw this recipe on Pinterest, but it was a photo from another blog who made your recipe and posted their experience. Glad she linked back to you so I could thank you for the recipe. (I also changed the URL of my Pin so it leads to this post) I have it in the oven now–can’t wait to try it! We are having it with asparagus and roasted baby potatoes.
Made this recipe last night and it was delicious! The only change I would make is leave out the additional salt in the sauce. Will be making this again soon!
Another winner!!! My husband said he was getting tired of chicken, but that this was really good. Easy and yummy!
I made this last night for dinner. When my son found out I was making Chicken Cordon Bleu he asked every 5 minutes if it was done yet. He scarfed up his piece in about 5 seconds. My husband said, and I quote “that was great, make that again.” Overall I would say it was a resounding sucess and will be put into “my favorites” folder. Served with rice pilaf and roasted Brussels sprouts.
From one mom of boys to another, thanks for the recipe that left my kids speechless (because they were eating). I posted this today…http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/09/easy-chicken-cordon-bleu.html
Christy
This recipe ROCKS my world! Thanks so much for posting it! It’s SO easy, and SO delicious! I actually got to thinking that this recipe could be altered in many ways….as in you could pile anything on that chicken, add a little bread crumb, and you’re good to go!!
I made a chicken parmesan version….chicken cutlets, topped with marinara sauce, mozzarella, and the homemade bread crumbs. It was delicious and my 3-year-old gobbled it up, which is kindof a miracle! It turned out a little liquidy, but my husband actually had the idea to put pasta underneath to soak up some of the liquid, so I’ll have to give that a shot next time. 🙂
My 14 year old daughter made this for dinner this week. It was delish and I would make it again. Thanks for sharing.
This recipe (both recipes, actually) = PERFECTION. Never going to mess with the real cordon bleu, this is now my absolute go-to for this meal. HOORAY, you ‘ve done it again!
I made this on Friday night for dinner, and it was great! There was only one small problem – my sauce was not saucy at all! It was really really really thick. I don’t know if I cooked the flour mixture too long, but it seemed to thicken up way before the 3-5 min was up. I even whisked in extra milk at the end to try to loosen it up, but it didn’t help much. The chicken definitely needed the sauce for flavor, in my opinion. But the leftover sauce used the next night was really just bad, but not in a flavor way – just texture! It was a giant glob! Any ideas on how to fix that for next time? Because this was yummy (and SO easy), so there’ll definitely be a next time!
Hi Tiffany – not sure why your sauce was so thick! If you make it again, either increase the liquid or decrease the butter/flour ratio, but honestly, I’m kind of bemused why it would have cooked up so thick and so quickly. Mine is definitely on the runnier side of thick when I make it.
Mel, I love all your chicken cordon bleu recipes. I’ve tried both the breadbowls and the casserole and love them both. I’m excited to try this one too. I’m sure it won’t let me down. None of your stuff ever does!
I have a similar recipe my mom has always made, but we always end up dipping in ranch or something since the recipe has no sauce. We will definitely be adding the sauce to our recipe! Thanks. You really are brilliant.
I’m going to try this with chicken tenders–that’s what’s in the freezer. The sauce looks yummy, I will watch the salt amount unless you have chicken granules that are salt free.
Love your site–but I think I’ve already mentioned that!
mel, you seriously saved us from a night of nasty leftovers or expensive pizza. i always know i can count on your site. this was delicious and SO easy. the sauce was awesome too. i linked this up on facebook. thanks for such awesome recipes!
I am new to your website over the last few months and LOVE your recipes! One of my good friends shared it with me and our family is loving the good cooking in our house. I am excited to make this Chicken. It looks easy and delicious. Thank you for what you do!
made this tonight! it was soo easy that i was able to throw it together with my 4 little boys in the kitchen with me. i used chicken tenders because that was what i had and they worked great. it was so delicious i don’t think i will make it any other way…unless it’s for company ha ha! thank you so much i love your recipes!
Okay, seriously!? I keep thinking I should try chicken cordon blue this way and have yet to do it. It’s so nice to see you were able to pull out and pull off the ideas swirling around in my head! Sweet! I, too save the heels of breads just for breadcrumbs. Makes me feel a bit more frugal and I love that!
I tried this tonight for dinner. We all loved it! The only comment I have is that the sauce is saltier than Lot’s wife!! 🙂 I would probably omit the salt, because the boullion and parmesan alone do the trick. At least for me. Thanks for the great recipe!
Mel–when you say to cut them in half so that they’re thinner, do you mean thinner as in side to side thinner (about the shape of a chicken strip), or do you mean thinner as in top to under side thinner? Clear as mud? Haha! Thanks for an easier take on a great meal classic! I’ll try it soon! –Kim
Hi Kim – I cut them in half so they are thinner like a pounded chicken breast (not like a chicken strip). Make sense?
This looks great! Can hardly wait to try it. Thanks. 🙂
I love this stress free, hassle free version of an old favorite!
mmm Chicken cordon bleu is my favorite! I cant wait to try this version! Thanks so much.
you are a dear! this is the dish my husband requested for fathers day and i was dreading the pounding and rolling. i am going to give this recipe a try. love your site and share it with EVERYONE!
I think I’ll have this for dinner tonight! So nice when you already have everything on hand.
You have done it again, Mel! That looks like the most delicious Chicken Cordon Bleu ever! The sauce must be especially yummy…my family will love this! 🙂
Thanks for thinking of me yet again Mel! I have been wondering for awhile what to do with my bread heels. Looking forward to making this! 🙂
Looks good! What kind of chicken bouillon granules do you use? I need a decent brand recommendation to have around the pantry…
Beautifully done!
Made this for dinner tonight, I am sooo hooked. Wanna add this to my regular monthly menu. paired with fresh fried green beans and mushrooms and steamed cauliflower. Awesome recipe. thanks
What a delicious and quick version of classic Chicken Cordon bleu Mel. It looks so decadent. The warm Parmesan Dijon Cream Sauce sounds heavenly. Thank you so much for another wonderful recipe. I love your site & the recipe so much. 🙂 Have a great week!