At Bistrot des Tournelles in Paris, chef Édouard Vermynck slices into his version of chicken cordon bleu, a tsunami of creamy yellow cheese flows out onto the plate and I wonder why this dish has been ignominiously relegated to the culinary dustbin. Chicken, cheese, ham, crisp breading, frying—what’s not to like?

Feeling a bit like trying to get my 8-year-old to listen to Nat King Cole, I watched Édouard breeze through the recipe hoping I would pick up some pointers on how to sell this recipe to home cooks. He pounded chicken cutlets, added one large slice of ham on top, shaped a big hunk of Comté cheese into a ball (almost 50 grams worth), wrapped the chicken/ham layer around it, dredged in cornstarch, eggs, flour and breadcrumbs, and browned each round in very hot, almost smoking oil and finished it in a 375°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Although the amount of cheese was truly Olympic, that first bite rang every culinary bell on my palate—crisp, creamy, salty, and hot.
Most food history is based on hearsay and chicken cordon bleu is no exception. The recipe probably dates back to the 1930s, either from France or Switzerland but has nothing whatever to do with Le Cordon Bleu cooking school.

Of more interest is that this recipe has roots in many places including Spain and South America; a slice of veal, chicken or beef is wrapped around ham and cheese to make a deep-fried sandwich. In Muslim countries, the ham is replaced with beef or lamb.

The first issue was the frying. Even though this is a shallow fry with just 2 cups of oil, we baked the cordon bleu instead. One step, not two. No mess. And the finished cordon bleu was also less greasy. This takes 40 minutes but it’s hands-­off cooking.

The frying, however, crisped up the outer layer of breadcrumbs so we opted to toast the breadcrumbs ahead of time; panko works much better than regular breadcrumbs which produce an unpleasant gritty texture. A couple tablespoons of oil mixed with the breadcrumbs helps them adhere to the chicken and also makes them crispier when baked.

Comté cheese is having its day in Paris, but Gruyère is just as good. We suggest lining the baking pan with parchment to avoid sticking. Purchase thinly sliced deli ham, which makes it easier to wrap the cheese.

The good news is that you can make this dish up to 24 hours ahead of time (hold in the fridge) and then bake just before serving.
One might associate this dish with a convention center dinner along with chicken Kyiv but, here at Milk Street, we love to resurrect dishes that deserve a second chance and chicken cordon bleu is now ready for its comeback tour.

JM Hirsch

J.M. Hirsch is a James Beard Award-winning food and travel writer and editorial director of Christopher Kimball's Milk Street. He is the former national food editor for The Associated Press and has written six books, including “Freezer Door Cocktails: 75 Cocktails That Are Ready When You Are.”