Jeff, the A.D.D. Chef

This recipe is perfect for the A.D.D.er who thrives on hyperfocused multi-step processes. It begins with thinly sliced chicken breasts and progresses to a rolling, flouring, egg coating, bread crumb covering and frying process that is topped off with a sauce making and baking process. None of these steps are complicated…but there are many of them.

To make this an enjoyable cooking experience, queue up your favorite music CDs, turn up the volume and get ready to spend about 2 hours cooking. (With experience you’ll be able to cut this time in half.) The recipe below is very forgiving so precise measuring is not required. The suggested quantities will make enough for six people (two pieces per person).

INGREDIENTS

• 12 Thinly sliced chicken breasts
• 1/2 lb. virginia ham or some other flavorful ham
• 1/2 lb. swiss cheese (mild, not pungent)
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
• 1 package of fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup of white wine
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup unseasoned (plain) bread crumbs
• Olive Oil (for frying)

DIRECTIONS

To make sure that you don’t forget any of the steps involved in this dish, it makes sense to set up an assembly line.

1. Set up the right side of the assembly line (see below). On the right is the ham and swiss cheese, to the left is the sliced chicken breast.
   
2. Set up the left side of the assembly line (see below). From the right you have the flour which has been mixed with the garlic salt and black pepper. In the middle are two beaten eggs. On the left is the bread crumbs.
   
3. Here is a view of the full assembly line. You will start at the far end (where the ham, cheese and chicken are located) and move to the left. We are now ready to begin.
   
4. Place one piece of cheese on top of one piece of ham and roll it up.
5. Place this ham-cheese roll on a chicken breast and roll up the chicken breast. You should have something like this:
   
6. Roll this in the flour.
7. Roll this in the egg.
8. Roll this in the bread crumbs.
9. Each piece needs to be fried to a golden brown. It is up to you if you want to roll all of the pieces and then fry them or fry them one at a time.
   
10. Place all of the fried pieces in a large tray.
11. In a large bowl mix the two cans of cream of mushroom soup with the fresh mushrooms and white wine. Then cover the chicken with this sauce (see below).
    
12. Bake the chicken for about 15 minutes at 350 F. oven.

Note: Some variations, as noted at What is Chicken Cordon Bleu?, can be to substitute prosciutto for the ham or gruyere cheese for the swiss cheese. We’ve already seen prosciutto used in the Chicken Rollatini and Eggplant Rollatini. Gruyere cheese is often used in French Onion Soup. You might also want to add a small container (16 oz.) of sour cream to the sauce.