Chicken Cordon Bleu

This is one of our all-time favorite recipes.  It's so good and so easy.  Prep time was about 10 minutes (chicken was already defrosted).

• 5 chicken breasts
• 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup egg whites
• 7-10 slices of smoked ham deli meat (we used the thin-sliced)
• 3 Sargento reduced fat Colby Jack cheese snacks
• garlic salt and reduced fat Parmesan to taste

I know that in traditional recipes, you pound the chicken.  However, I am lazy and the chicken breasts I buy (Tyson frozen) are always really thick, so I just slice them lengthwise, making a pocket but still leaving one side intact.  I do most of the prep work for this recipe right on the baking sheet I cook the chicken on.

After slicing the chicken breasts, pat the inside of the "pocket" with a paper towel to dry it.  Place 1-2 slices of the lunch meat inside, depending on your tastes and the size of the breast.  Slice the cheese snacks in half lengthwise, then cut each piece in half width wise.  You should end up with 12 pieces of cheese.  I use 2-3 pieces per breast (the bigger pieces get more cheese).  Just tuck the pieces into the pocket on top of the ham.

Tuck as much of the ham and cheese into the chicken as possible, then dip it in the egg whites.  After it's good and coated with egg whites, roll it around in your bread crumbs (it's easiest for me to dump the bread crumbs onto a plate).  Repeat dipping in the egg whites and rolling in bread crumbs again to get a thicker breading. 

Sprinkle garlic salt and parmesan cheese on top of the chicken breasts.  Spray the breasts with Pam cooking spray, this helps to keep the breading on and brown the tops of the chicken breasts.

Bake at 375F for 25-30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

I ended up with a dirty baking sheet and 2 dirty dishes (one from the egg whites and one from the breadcrumbs).  Clean up was fast!