CHICKEN CORDON BLEU CASSEROLE

DOTTIE'S CHICKEN CORDON BLEU CASSEROLE
1 pound boneless chicken breasts or tenders, cut into bite-size pieces *
12 ounces ham, cut into cubes
6 ounces Swiss cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper, to taste
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream (see my comments and update below)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon dill
2 teaspoons chives
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

Put the chicken, ham and cheese in a greased 12x7" baking dish. Season with a little salt and pepper. In a medium bowl, blend the heavy cream into the cream cheese until smooth. Stir in the garlic, pepper, dill, chives and parsley. Pour over the meat and cheese and stir everything together. Bake at 350?for about 40 minutes until bubbly and the chicken is fully cooked. Let stand about 10 minutes before serving to allow some of the liquid to soak back into the sauce.

Makes about 4-6 servings

* Note that the chicken is added raw but you can substitute diced, cooked chicken and reduce the baking time to about 20-30 minutes.

Per 1/4 Recipe: 754 Calories; 55g Fat; 60g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 4g Net Carbs
Per 1/6 Recipe: 503 Calories; 36g Fat; 40g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 3g Net Carbs

This started out as a recipe by Dottie at Low Carb Friends but was then tweaked by Low Carb Layla and Caveman Keto. I took the basic concept and added my own tweaks.

I left out the egg because I didn't want a quiche-like flavor or consistency. I changed the amount of Swiss cheese to 6 ounces, which is the size chunk it comes in where I shop. I also boosted the flavor by adding the same kinds of spices that I use in my Homemade Boursin Cheese Spread recipe. I think my version is closer to Dottie's original recipe than the others but with more cream cheese, like the others used, and my additional seasonings. I'd rather use a whole 8 ounce package of cream cheese and not have 6 extra ounces sitting around in the fridge and I thought it would make a thicker sauce without having to add an egg. I only thinned down the cream cheese with 1/2 cup of cream. I left it rather thick because I knew that the chicken would give off quite a bit of liquid as it cooked. If you want to make this with leftover cooked chicken, you may want to thin the sauce down a little more. As you can see, the sauce did come out a little oily but some of the oil does soak in if you let this stand for a little while before serving.

This is delicous and simple to make and I will definitely make it again. The chicken came out perfectly cooked; not dry or tough. I'm glad though that I added the seasonings to the sauce or I think it might have been a little bland. Click the photos to see close-ups.

UPDATE 1/19/13: You can give the sauce even more flavor by using mayonnaise instead of heavy cream. The batch that I made today was the best to date. I used a little over 3 pounds of chicken tenders, about 8 ounces of ham, 8 ounces of Swiss cheese and what was left in a bag of shredded mozzarella cheese (maybe 2 ounces). I didn't change the ingredient amounts in the sauce, I just used mayonnaise in place of the cream. I was also quite liberal with the seasonings. If you want to make this with 3 pounds of tenders, use a 9x13" baking dish.

1. Prev:CHICKEN BROCCOLI CASSEROLE
2. Next:CHICKEN DIVAN