Chicken Cordon Bleu

We had a surprise 80th birthday party for one of our hiking buddies.  We made all gluten-free dishes. I made this from Kalyn's kitchen. She mentioned that all South Beach Diet phase 1 is gluten-free.  We had such a good time planning and pulling-off this surprise for Shirley. She is totally responsible for all of us hiking all these years. She is a great role-model for us all.


Printable Recipe
https://sites.google.com/site/whatscookingsherry/chicken-cordon-bleu

Ingredients:
6 chicken breast halves
12 pieces Canadian Bacon (II only needed 1 1/2 for each chicken breast)
6 oz. Gruyere cheese sliced into 8 thin slices (I had the cheese deli cut 12-14 slices for me)
(Don't substitute, the nutty taste of the Gruyere makes this dish.)
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup half and half
1 Tablespoon olive oil, for browning chicken
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pound chicken breasts until fairly thin, then rub each one with poultry seasoning. Saute' chicken in olive oil until nicely browned on both sides. Spray glass or crockery baking dish with nonstick spray or olive oil. Place chicken breasts in baking dish in a single layer. Top each with two pieces of Canadian bacon and then a piece of Gruyere.

Deglaze pan that chicken breasts were browned in with chicken stock, scraping off any browned bits, and let stock cook until slightly reduced. Add half and half and warm over low heat about 2 minutes. While it warms, cut the rest of the cheese into tiny pieces. Add cheese and stir until melted and smooth. Pour a little sauce over each chicken breast. (There will not be a lot of sauce.)

Bake 20-25 minutes, until cheese is melted and mixture is hot and bubbly. Serve hot.