Chicken stuffed with Swiss and Ham

Its another day and the days are getting closer for some of my family coming in from out of town. MC came in and well, what to do for dinner? Well, I thought what about having something rather nice for MC? I though what about Stuffed Chicken? Chicken Cordon Bleu would be great, but I don't like bleu cheese. The nice thing though is that this can be made with swiss or mozzerella.

 For this recipe, I decided to add some smoked gouda and swiss. I have made this in the past with many other variation of cheeses or pork (proscuitto, cured ham, bacon, or other pork product).

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts
4 slices ham
4 slices of swiss
4 slices of smoked gouda
4 tbsp butter, melted
panko crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

First, start by rinsing the chicken breast. You never know what germs or bacteria you might be getting from the store or the butcher. I always like to play it a little safe and not deal with anything that can cause some problems later on (if you catch my drift...).

Once rinsed, slice the chicken breast in half. Make sure that you slice it evenly, but making sure you do not cut it completely into to separate pieces. It should still be one piece. Once it is sliced open, beat the chicken with a mallet. This will assure that the meat is the same thickness

When working with the ham, place the ham slices one over the other. Place 2 slices of cheese (smoked gouda and swiss). Wrap the cheese with the ham as if you were making a burrito. Tuck in the sides first, then roll. The whole goal is that you don't want the cheese to seep out of the ham or chicken.

 

Place the ham wrapped cheese on the inside of the sliced chicken. Notice that chicken will be wrapping around the ham. If you find that it doesn't, this may be because you have not thinned out the chicken.

Once wrapped, place the chicken into the bowl of melted better, making sure that the chicken is covered in butter. Then place the chicken into a bowl of panko crumbs. Completely cover the chicken in panko. Place the chicken into a preheated oven at 350 degrees. Allow to cook for about 35 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked. (if electrical, may take a little longer)

Well I am going to eat this with a nice white wine butter cream sauce along with that orzo that I had a couple of days ago. Remember, it is great to have everything cooked ahead of time.