Pancetta and Saga Blue Stuffed Chicken Breast

So, today I had the idea of making chicken cordon bleu… but I wanted to make it a bit less traditional. So from start to finish this recipe is my own, and prepared my own special way. There may be other ways to do it, so experiment. See what you can find out on your own.

Start by trimming and cleaning your chicken breasts. Next, you’ll want to pound out your chicken breast to about a 1/2” thick.

I put the breast on a long piece of wax paper, and then fold the paper over the chicken to beat it flat. A lot of people use plastic wrap, or just beat it without anything on top of it… but, the chicken can stick to the surface it’s on, and the tenderizer itself, so I’d recommend using something to keep that from happening.

As you’re pounding out the chicken, cook up the Pancetta in a frying pan right quick. No need for any oil or anything in the pan, the Pancetta lubricates itself from sticking.

While the Pancetta is getting a little brown, cut the wax and edges off of your Saga Blue Cheese.

This is what it looks like straight from the package. For folks not familiar with Saga Blue, it’s basically Brie Blue Cheese… so, it’s creamy like Brie, but has that lovely spicy bite of Blue Cheese. Chop the rind off, and clean up the edges a bit.

So now, your Pancetta is cooked, your chicken is flat, and your cheese is ready. It’s time to put it together. Lay the chicken out flat, put down some salt and pepper, put the Pancetta in the middle of the breast, add a nice 1/2” x 1/2” “tube” of cheese down the center of the pancetta, and then roll up the chicken with the pancetta and cheese at the center.

I used bamboo skewers to keep everything together for the rest of prep time. After you’ve got all of your chicken rolled up, it’s time to cover it all in breadcrumbs.

For breadcrumbs, I used some nice Panko Breadcrumbs mixed with parmesan, romano, and some Italian spices. Whip an egg in a bowl, drag the chicken through the egg, then through the breadcrumbs. Don’t be surprised if you can only get one side of the rolled chicken done. No big deal. We can take care of that in a second.

You can see above that I could only cover the bottom of the chicken. So, I grabbed my pastry brush and painted the top of the chicken with some egg, then covered with breadcrumbs.

So… That’s it for prep. Now, cover the whole thing with foil, and cook at 275 degrees for about 45 minutes. Then remove the foil and increase the temperature to 325 for about 20-25 minutes.

This is the final product. The chicken should be cooked all of the way through, and don’t be surprised if the cheese has cooked out for the most part. Don’t worry though, the cheese just cooked into the chicken. You’ll still taste it.

If I left anything out… let me know, but I think I covered everything. I’d HIGHLY recommend making this one. It’s probably one of my favorites in recent memory…