Chicken Cordon Bleu Rollups

January 25, 2021 By Stephanie 32 Comments

My family has been making some variation of Chicken Cordon Bleu Rollups for generations now. In my recipe, thin-sliced chicken breasts are stuffed and rolled up with ham and Swiss cheese, then dredged in egg whites and seasoned breadcrumbs. The rollups are baked until golden brown, and then topped with an easy to assemble gravy. This makes for a super easy mid-week meal, but is impressive and delicious enough to serve to guests.

What is Chicken Cordon Bleu?

“Cordon Bleu” is a term generally used to describe a dish that has meat wrapped around cheese, and then breaded and fried. According to Wikipedia, “There are many variations of the recipe, all of which involve a cutlet, cheese, and meat. A popular way to prepare chicken cordon bleu is to butterfly cut a chicken breast, place a thin slice of ham inside, along with a thin slice of a soft, easily melted cheese such as swiss. The chicken breast is then rolled into a roulade, coated in bread crumbs and then deep fried. Other variations exist with the chicken baked rather than fried.”

The version my family makes always involves ham and swiss, and is typically baked. It makes for such an easy meal to prepare and cook, and baking really reduces any mess and cleanup.

My version of this dish also includes gravy. For this, I take the easy way out, and I use a gravy packet that I mix with water! Hey, I have no shame in this. It comes together in minutes, and works perfectly here.

What you’ll need to make Chicken Cordon Bleu

With just a few simple ingredients, you can make this dish yourself.

Just note, depending on the variety of ham or cheese you use, the macros and WW points might vary. So, if you make this yourself, just make sure to use the values from the specific brands you are using.

Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe:

thin sliced chicken breast
ham
Swiss cheese
egg whites
Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
olive oil spray
gravy mix, like this one

How to make Chicken Cordon Bleu Rollups

Preparing your work station

First, take your thin sliced chicken breast out of the package. I typically buy a 1 1/2 lb package, and there are six pieces in the package. At this point, I like to assemble the other ingredients so that I have everything at my finger tips.

I like to lay a piece of wax paper down on my counter and work on that. It gives me a large, protective work station that helps keep my kitchen sanitary, and makes for an easy clean up.

To prepare the rollups, take out six pieces of ham and six pieces of chicken from their packaging. This is important, so that as you are making your rollups, you aren’t touching raw chicken and then contaminating the rest of the ham or cheese package.

While you’re at it, also lay out some toothpicks. These will be used to secure the rollups. Again, you don’t want to have to keep reaching back into the toothpick container with yucky chicken hands.

Making the rollups

Now that your station is set up, you can start making your rollups. Start by laying a slice of ham across one of your chicken pieces. Then, top it with a slice of cheese. You can fold the ham or cheese accordingly, so that it fits inside the chicken breast and isn’t spilling over the sides.

After you’ve laid the ham and cheese on the chicken, roll the chicken breast up tightly to form a rollup. Then, secure with a toothpick through the middle. You can also use toothpicks on the ends to make sure all the cheese doesn’t ooze out while cooking.

Once all of your rollups are made, we can get to breading them. Set up your breading station by pouring the egg whites in one bowl, and the breadcrumbs in another (just like if you were to make chicken cutlets).

Dip each rollup into the egg whites, followed by the breadcrumbs.

Grab a sheet pan, and if you have one, place a wire rack across it. Spray the sheet pan and the wire rack with olive oil spray, and arrange your chicken rollups on the rack.

If you don’t have a wire rack, you can omit this part, and just use a sheet pan. I like using a wire rack because it allows for some space under the rollups, which allows air to circulate and allows them to get really crispy.

Spray the tops of the rollups with olive oil spray. Bake the rollups at 375F for about 45 minutes. Depending on the thickness of your chicken, your cook time may vary. I like to use a meat thermometer to make sure the chicken is fully cooked before removing it from the oven.

Making the gravy and serving

As I mentioned earlier… the gravy is from a packet. Hey, we can all use some help where we can get it. I am not ashamed to admit that I use packaged gravy mix for this recipe! It’s easy and it’s delicious; all you need to add is water.

This is the gravy I use for this recipe; I really like the onion gravy and the mushroom gravy, but any brown gravy will work great here. We are just looking for something yummy to dip the chicken in!

To make this gravy, all you have to do is mix it with water and bring it a boil so that it thickens. I do this as the chicken cooks. When the chicken is done, all you have to do is pour the gravy on top, and you’re all set.

When the chicken is ready, it will look like this:

Just drizzle the gravy on top before serving, and if you’re feeling extra fancy, add some fresh basil.

I like to serve this dish with a vegetable and a potato. Typically, roasted potatoes work well here, because the oven is already on, so you can cook them at the same time as the chicken. Can’t beat that!