Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

Another week, another new recipe! Another resounding success!! Tonight Miss E and I tried out a recipe I found on TastyKitchen's site and just knew that this recipe would be delicious. Not healthy by any stretch of the imagination, but delicious!!

In addition to this being a rich, creamy, delicious recipe, it was super easy and required no fancy ingredients (big plus in my book!). So while Miss A was at her second dance class of the day, Miss E and I got to work. We took a rotisserie chicken and between us shredded it with two forks.

The toughest part of the entire recipe was making the sauce. It didn't thicken up as easily as I thought, so I ended up adding more flour as I went to achieve the thickness I was after. Actually, that's not true... the toughest part of putting together this recipe was taking an hour to pull it all together because of my five year old sous chef!! I think if you were to put it together sans sous chef, it would only take about 15 minutes to prep.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Recipe adapted from TastyKitchen.com

Ingredients

Casserole Base:
One whole, cooked chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken), shredded
1/2 lb thinly sliced deli ham, roughly chopped
8 slices swiss cheese

Sauce:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour (+ 1 tbsp more as needed)
3 1/2 cups milk
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp pepper

Topping:
6 tbsp butter, melted
1 1/2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
3/4 tsp seasoning salt

Instructions

Spray a 9x13 dish with cooking spray. Layer the shredded chicken, then the ham and then the cheese in the dish.

For the sauce: in a large saucepan, melt butter. Slowly add the flour to make a roux, whisking the entire time. Once the roux is smooth, slowly add the cold milk, while whisking constantly. Cook over medium heat until the sauce thickens. Stir in the lemon juice, mustard, salt, pepper and paprika. Bring to a low boil and turn off the heat.

Pour evenly over the chicken/ham/cheese layers, making sure to pour it into all the corners.

For the topping: melt the remaining butter in the microwave, pour over the Panko crumbs and seasoning salt until combined. Sprinkle the topping over the casserole evenly. Bake in a 350F oven for about 45 minutes, until golden brown.

I served this recipe with perogies and a salad. It went over pretty well in our house! The hubs and I loved it, and Miss E gave it a thumbs up. Not so much from Miss A, but you can't win them all!!

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope I've inspired you a little today!