What is this sandwich?
This sandwich experience includes crispy chicken, slices of ham, melty Swiss cheese, and a creamy and tangy dijonnaise sauce inside a soft, caramelized onion bun. This is chicken cordon bleu stuffed into sandwich form.
Cordon bleu and some history
The internet librarians over at Wikipedia say that cordon bleu is meat—typically veal, pork, or chicken—that has been pounded thin, wrapped around a slice of ham and a slice of cheese, and then breaded and pan-fried or baked. The phrase cordon bleu is French, and it translates into English as blue ribbon. In 16th century France, a blue ribbon was originally used to denote knights in the Order of the Holy Spirit because they wore specific crosses hung with a blue ribbon or blue sash.
It is thought that the banquets the Order of the Holy Spirit knights held were so often famously filled with high-quality, fancy food that eventually the symbol of the blue ribbon became synonymous with high class and haute cuisine. The cordon bleu or blue ribbon association with high class and fancy cuisine is what led a French culinary magazine from the late 1800s and then later, a French (now International) cooking school to both name themselves Cordon Bleu.
Despite its seemingly French origin, the dish of cordon bleu first came about in Brig, Switzerland, and started appearing in cookbooks in the 1940s. According to the Wikipedia page linked above “chicken cordon bleu” was first cited in the New York Times in 1967 which doesn’t seem like that long ago (depending on who you ask).
What we’ve learned
So, we’ve learned that this dish was not originally a sandwich, and it was instead a thin piece of chicken that had been butterflied or cut to reveal a pocket that could be filled with ham and cheese. The version of cordon bleu that is cooked for this sandwich isn’t exactly traditional. First off there’s no wrapping ham and cheese inside of the chicken and secondly, the choice of breadcrumbs isn’t quite the same. But the flavors will be like traditional cordon bleu.
We’re all about the haute cuisine over here at Bounded by Buns, so this is a perfect sandwich for us to tackle. First, we need some bread and for this fancy (or not-so-fancy) sandwich and I decided to make caramelized onion buns.
Caramelized onion buns
This is a fancy version of one of my regular burger bun recipes. The fancy part comes with the addition of caramelized onions which bring a bit more sugar and a lot more savoriness to the final soft and squishy bun.
First, you caramelize diced onions and then add them into the dough which changes the color of the dough and adds extra sweetness. The recipe calls for you to save some caramelized onions to sprinkle on top before the final bake to give them the appearance of onion-baked buns.
Caramelized onions are sticky little devils, so I found when it came time to sprinkle some onions on top of each bun before baking that it was easiest to sprinkle them using a fork or knife and not your fingers. If you’re a fancy chef, you could use your plating tweezers, but my kitchen seems to be fresh out of those.
Here’s my caramelized onion bun recipe that works great in this sandwich and it’s also great for burgers, roast beef and cheddar sandwiches, and more basic cold-cut sandwiches as well.
Caramelized onion sandwich buns
These are very flavorful buns perfect for your next burger night. The addition of caramelized onions brings a bit of sweetness that will balance well with savory sandwich combinations.
Get RecipeThis recipe is not focused on making traditional cordon Bleu, but we need melty cheese, slices of ham, a mustardy sauce, and crispy chicken.
Ham and Swiss cheese
There’s not a whole lot to write about in the section. We’re talking about deli sliced meat and cheese.
My wife isn’t a fan of ham, so we bought ham and turkey slices from our grocery deli and both worked great. The ham I bought was a little thick so I only used two slices, but this sandwich would work great with an extra slice or two if the meat was sliced thinner.
Technically cordon bleu was invented in Switzerland so it makes a lot of sense that it would call for the use of Swiss cheese. You could use pretty much any cheese in this sort of sandwich, but I stuck with the traditional holey Swiss slices. This sandwich would be a great use for that block of cheese that you have in the back of the fridge as well. Just make sure to slice it thin enough that it will melt.
Dijonnaise
Traditional cordon bleu doesn’t usually have a sauce that accompanies it but for a sandwich, I felt we needed a spread to moisten the bread and add a bit more flavor. I chose to incorporate a Dijonnaise which is just a fancy way to say, “a blend of mayo and mustard”.
In my experience, there are two good ways to make a good Dijon mustard-focused sauce for this sandwich and I have recipes for both. One requires a bit more effort than the other, but they both will take less than 10 minutes once you have all the ingredients.
This is my Dijonnaise recipe that starts from scratch making the mayonnaise from scratch.
Homemade dijonnaise
A lot bit creamy and a little bit mustardy. This combination is almost perfect for your next cold-cut sandwich or jam-packed, meat-filled sub.
Get RecipeThis is my Dijonnaise recipe that only requires mixing storebought mayonnaise with Dijon mustard.
Last but not least, we need to make the chicken part of chicken cordon bleu.
Oven-baked panko chicken
I’ve shared a few recipes that I make in the oven that use Panko breadcrumbs to add crunch and seasoning. Just a couple of weeks ago I shared a shrimp recipe that is very similar in process to this crispy chicken recipe.
The goal of this process is to get consistently thin pieces of chicken so that they cook evenly, and we use pre-browned breadcrumbs so that visually the chicken looks very appealing and still has a flavorful crunch.
Butterflying chicken
To get the chicken consistently thin we need to butterfly it.
I’ve butterflied quite a few types of meat for this sandwich blog, and I typically point to an instructional video on YouTube to explain how it works. I’ve never really been able to feel satisfied that I’ve explained the process well enough through words and static photos. But I will keep trying. Here are eight photos that I think will help to describe the process. If you’re not interested or dislike looking at raw meat, you can scroll past.
Butterflying a chicken breast is cutting the chicken horizontally so you can open it up like a book—or butterfly.
In the first photo, you’re looking at the top of the chicken breast. By top, I mean that this is the side that the skin would be attached to. In this example, there is no chicken tender attached, but it would be attached to the underside and the tender sits in between the breast meat and the ribs.
Once the chicken is butterflied, we want to continue further and pound the chicken even thinner.
Pounding the chicken flat
You could make chicken cordon bleu with just a butterflied piece of chicken breast, but for this sandwich, it helps a lot if you also pound the meat to a consistent thickness so that it bakes quickly and evenly. I use a specialized meat mallet that I somehow acquired many years ago, but Amazon or your local home goods store should have plenty that you could choose from if you need a new chicken hammer.
Panko and the cooking process
Before we start to cook the chicken, we need to toast our breadcrumbs. This step could be considered optional if you don’t have the time, but you will end up with chicken that is coated with very light tan breadcrumbs instead of golden-brown breadcrumbs.
My Panko toasting process involves 2 or 3 tablespoons of butter, 3/4ths of a cup of Panko breadcrumbs, and about 7 or 8 minutes over medium heat. You simply want to cook the breadcrumbs until they take on a nice “fried food” color.
Sandwich assembly time
Once you have the chicken cooked and all your ingredients ready, the next part is easy.
The sandwich
Here are a bunch of photos of this sandwich in action and the recipe is just a bit further down the page.
Crispy chicken cordon bleu sandwich
This chicken cordon bleu sandwich includes crispy chicken, slices of ham, melty Swiss cheese, and a creamy and tangy dijonnaise sauce inside a soft, caramelized onion bun.
Ingredients:
Crispy Panko chicken- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3⁄4 cup Panko breadcrumbs
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
- 1 whole egg
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 chicken breast, butterflied
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- chicken (from above)
- 2 or 3 slices of ham
- 1 or 2 slices of Swiss cheese
- 2 sandwich buns (see notes for the buns I used)
- Dijonnaise (from above)
Directions:
Butter browned Panko breadcrumbs: Add 3 tablespoons of butter to a skillet over medium heat. Once the butter is melted and bubbly add 3/4 cup of Panko breadcrumbs.
Cook the breadcrumbs, stirring often until they start to look golden brown like the exterior of fried chicken. Once they are browned remove them to a paper towel-lined plate to cool.
Panko chicken: preheat your oven to 450 F / 230 C.
Butterfly your chicken breast and then cut it into two pieces. Butterflying cuts the chicken breast parallel with your cutting board so that you will have a flat, thinner piece of chicken. Here's a short butterflying tutorial if you've never butterflied a chicken breast before. After you've butterflied the chicken, go ahead and cut the large chicken piece in half so that you have two thin cutlets.
Cover the cutlets with plastic wrap or even better, a large zip-top bag that you have laid on top of the chicken. Using a meat mallet or a heavy pot, pound the chicken through the plastic to attempt to flatten each piece of chicken until it is less than 1/4-inch thick. This might take some effort and it will expand the width of your chicken piece considerably. After the chicken has all been pounded, cut each cutlet into pieces that are around the size and shape of your bread. The goal is to get 2 hand-sized, quarter-inch thick cutlets out of one chicken breast.
Set up your chicken dredging station. You will need two bowls or large plates for this.
The first bowl will contain 1 whole egg, 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise, and 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Whisk to combine well. The second bowl will have the butter-browned Panko breadcrumbs.
Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with cooking spray, this is where your chicken will go when you have coated it in breadcrumbs.
For each chicken cutlet, dip into the egg mixture (ensuring that it's fully coated everywhere) and finally press into the Panko breadcrumbs until each piece is fully coated. Place on the cooking spray sprayed aluminum foil.
Bake for 6 minutes, remove from oven, and flip each chicken cutlet. Bake for an additional 5 minutes.
Once the chicken is done, remove the sheet pan from the oven and turn the oven on to broil.
Add slices of ham and cheese on top of both pieces of chicken. Place the sheet pan back into the oven and broil to melt the cheese. You can toast your bun at this point as well if you want. You will want to keep an eye on the cheese to make sure it doesn't burn. It should probably take 3 to 4 minutes to get all melty.
Dijonnaise: while the cheese is melting, combine mayonnaise and Dijon mustard in a small bowl and stir to combine well.
Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Sandwich assembly: spread some Dijonnaise on the bottom of the bun. Top it with the chicken, ham, and melty cheese, and then close it all with the top bun.
Serve and enjoy.
Notes:
I used my own homemade caramelized onion buns for this sandwich but you can buy anything from hamburger buns to another type of onion roll if you prefer.
Check back next week
Next week we’ll be putting things in pockets.
