Chicken Cordon Bleu is my favorite recipe for entertaining dinner guests. Instead of spending time rolling and stuffing, this EASY chicken cordon bleu recipe has layers of chicken, ham, cheese, and breadcrumbs, and then it’s covered with this delicious white wine dijon sauce. Get ready to learn how to make the easy version of this classic dish (with the BEST chicken cordon bleu sauce ever).
Chicken Cordon Bleu
This easy chicken cordon bleu recipe is my absolute favorite. It’s simple, it’s delicious, and it’s the perfect dinner for any occasion!
Making a simple version of this traditional dish means you can prepare a nice dinner any night of the week. Skip the more time-consuming steps and stick to the basics: cover chicken with ham and cheese, bake, and you’re done!
And my favorite part of this recipe has to be the chicken cordon bleu sauce! I made a creamy white wine dijon sauce, which is just out of this world. It helps bake so much flavor right into this dish.
Why You’ll Love this Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe:
- EASY: This is the easiest version of this classic dish you’ll ever make. Skip the tedious steps and get straight to eating!
- DELICIOUS SAUCE: This is the BEST sauce. It’s so creamy, rich, and delicious. It’s hard to resist!
- EVERYDAY DINNER: This recipe looks classy, but it’s simple enough to make any night of the week! Serve it for a romantic dinner at home, or for a weekly family dinner.
Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu Sauce
This Chicken Cordon Bleu Sauce is everything I want it to be and more. I’m lucky if I can make this recipe without diving into the sauce head first. It’s nothing short of divine!
So what’s in the sauce?
- Dijon Mustard
- White Wine (use a dry wine)
- Chicken Broth
- Butter
- Heavy Cream
- All-Purpose Flour
- Thyme
- Salt & Pepper
You can almost taste it just by reading the ingredients list. Creamy, rich, and unbelievably delicious! It’s a similar sauce to what we used on our Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs and I loved it then just as much as I do now.
This may be the easier version of this dish, but it’s still pretty and dressy if you want it to be. It’s the ultimate recipe to make for dinner guests. I love that it still has all the class of the traditional recipe, but secretly it’s so much simpler to make!
How to Make Chicken Cordon Bleu (the easy way!)
Be sure to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!
- Preheat oven, prepare a baking dish, and make the breadcrumb topping.
- Combine ingredients to make the chicken cordon bleu sauce on the stove. Cook until it reaches a gravy-like consistency, then remove from heat and set aside.
- Prepare chicken breast and place them in the baking dish.
- Brush them with the sauce, cover with ham, and sprinkle with cheese. Then pour the broth/wine mixture around it.
- Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle with breadcrumbs, then continue baking (uncovered) until fully cooked.
- Serve with plenty more of that sauce, and enjoy!
Traditionally, this dish uses Swiss cheese. For this recipe, you can use Swiss or Gruyere.
Use an instant read thermometer to check the internal temp of the chicken after baking. Insert it into the middle/thickest part of the breast. It should reach 160F before removing it from the oven.
While it’s not necessary to make the chicken thin enough for rolling, I do recommend pounding it down to about 1 inch (if they are thicker).
If you’d like to make this dish to freeze, I recommend freezing it unbaked. So follow the instructions right up until baking, then wrap and freeze for 2 months. Thaw before baking.
Serving Suggestions
You can serve so many sides with this easy chicken cordon bleu recipe, you almost can’t go wrong! But I love to serve it with Herb Roasted Potatoes, Roasted Parmesan Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts with Pear and Blue Cheese, or even with some pasta or rice to add in some grains.
Make sure you drizzle that dijon sauce over everything on your plate! It will make any veggies or rice extra tasty.
Tips!
- Tuck butter pieces between the chicken breasts and around the edge of the dish. They’ll melt as it bakes, and help to as moisture and richness to the chicken.
- Loosely cover the baking dish for the first 15 minutes of cooking, then finish it off uncovered. If the chicken is browning fast, you can cover it for the last half too.
- The sauce and breadcrumbs can be made ahead of time, and stored until ready to use.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Where did Chicken Cordon Bleu get it’s name?
The French term “Cordon Bleu” translates roughly to “Blue Ribbon”. The term was applied to dishes cooked to a high standard. So basically this BLUE RIBBON CHICKEN is the best recipe ever. I know you’ll agree.
What makes this chicken cordon bleu easier?
This easy chicken cordon bleu recipe is a much simpler version of the traditional recipe. Typically, you’d need to pound the chicken to thin it out, roll it with ham and cheese, and then bread and fry it. There’s no pounding, rolling, or stuffing here! It’s much easier AND it’s also healthier (since we’re baking it in the oven instead of frying).
This chicken cordon bleu is just so easy, so tasty, and so perfect for weeknight dinners. And that delicious chicken cordon bleu sauce is so creamy, you’re going to love it!
More easy chicken dinner recipes to try
- Creamy Garlic Chicken with Bacon
- Baked Fried Chicken
- Caesar Chicken
- Chicken Pot Pie Casserole
- Chicken Parmesan
- Chicken Lombardy
If you make this recipe be sure to upload a photo in the comment section below or leave a rating. Enjoy! You can also jump to recipe.
Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe
Ingredients
For the Dijon Cream Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup semi-dry or dry white wine
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme sprigs or ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- S & P to taste
For the Breadcrumb Topping:
- 1½ cups fresh breadcrumbs panko can be used in a pinch
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
For the Chicken:
- 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
- 8-12 very thin slices of Ham
- 8 ounces shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese
- ¼ cup chicken stock or broth
- ¼ cup dry or semi-dry white wine
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F and spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray.
For the Dijon Cream Sauce:
- Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Add 2 tablespoons butter and cook until melted
- Add 2 tablespoons flour and whisk until smooth. Cook the butter/flour mixture until it becomes a little darker, 1-2 minutes.
- While whisking, add 1-cup chicken broth and continue whisking until smooth.
- Add ½ cup cream, ¼ cup wine, 2 teaspoons mustard and 2 teaspoons thyme. Whisk until smooth.
- Season the sauce with kosher salt & pepper.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat and cook just until sauce thickens to a gravy consistency. Remove from the heat.
- Divide the sauce into two bowls. One bowl should have ¼ cup of sauce.
- Pour the remainder into the other bowl and set aside for serving.
For the Breadcrumb Topping:
- In a medium bowl, toss 1½ cups fresh breadcrumbs with 3 tablespoons melted butter and ¼ teaspoon kosher salt. Set aside.
For the Chicken:
- If the breasts are thicker than ¾-1 inch thick, use a meat mallet/pounder and pound the breasts to an even ¾-1-inch thickness.
- Pat the breasts dry with a paper towel.
- Salt and pepper both sides of the breasts and place them in the prepared baking dish.
- Lightly brush the tops of the breasts with the Dijon Cream Sauce.
- Cover each breast with 2 slices of ham and sprinkle the cheese on top.
- In a small bowl, combine ¼ cup chicken broth, ¼ cup white wine and 1-teaspoon fresh thyme leaves. Pour the broth/wine mixture around the chicken and tuck the butter pieces between the chicken breasts and the inside edge of the dish.
- Loosely cover the chicken with foil and bake it in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle the chicken with the breadcrumb topping (You might not need all the breadcrumb topping.).
- Place the chicken back in the oven (uncovered) to cook another 10-20 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 160°F when stuck in the middle of one of the middle breasts.
- Serve the chicken with a side of hot Dijon Cream Sauce for dipping.
- Enjoy!
Last step! Don’t forget to show me a pic of what you made! Upload an image or tag me @thecookierookie on Instagram!
Nutrition Information
Fantastic flavors, we’ll save this one to make again. I would change prep time to more like 30 to 40 minutes. Making the sauce is part of the prep to get the chicken into the oven and that takes 15 minutes on top of preparing all the other ingredients.
Thank you for the feedback! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Becky! Can i leave out the wine or do i need to replace it with something else? Warm regards all the way from the Philippines!
Greetings from the Philippines! Your recipe looks delicious and easy to make but i have a question, if i am not using wine what can i use instead?
I followed the instructions to a tee and the chicken came out completely raw. The sauce is delicious. I’m putting the chicken in for another 20 minutes. Waiting to see how it comes out.
That’s so strange and I’m so sorry that happened!
There is no way that could’ve been completely raw! The step when you cook it an additional 20 minutes was most likely was not done. it was delicious and easy to prepare
This was EXCELLENT!
Thanks for trying it out Krista. So glad you liked it!
Hi there! I am excited to try this recipe out. I always mess up this recipe. This one looks like one I can manage. Hahaha. I don’t really cook with wine. Could you please tell me a good wine to buy? Thank you for this recipe. I will post and update when I make this. Thanks again!
hi there! i just want to start by saying that I really enjoy your RECIPES and they are almost always a hit with my picky eaters :) Anyway, could this be made ahead of time and stored in the REFRIGERATOR? would there be any changes to the cooking times?
I think it’d be fine for at least 1-2 days. I would wait to add the sauce so everything doesnt get soggy but otherwise all should be good. Thanks for the sweet words!