Improvising in the Kitchen

Thursday night I made one of my favorite meals for dinner. Chicken Cordon Bleu. Mmmm...chicken, ham, melty cheese...does it get any better? I have to say, I'm a little proud of this meal. I watched my mom make it for years, so I don't have a recipe for it and I know mine isn't as good as hers. She always used diluted cream of chicken soup for her sauce on top of the chicken so that's how I've always done mine. Well, by accident, my Chicken Cordon Bleu got an upgrade. I like to cook my chicken without the sauce so while the chicken was in the oven I went for the cream of chicken soup to make the sauce. That soup is a staple in my kitchen and guess what? No soup! Uh oh. Plan B: make a chicken gravy with some chicken broth (another of my kitchen staples). No chicken broth! What do I do now? Chicken Cordon Bleu has to have sauce, that's how I've always eaten it. Plan C: What do I have? So I made a roux (equal parts flour & butter) added some milk and fat free half & half, added some chicken broth made from some bouillon granules I had and then a little bit of spicy mustard for a kick. It was delicious! I had Nate taste it and he said he was impressed...success! I doubt I'll go back to the cream of chicken sauce. And we even go to enjoy the meal before Grant's reaction to his shots went downhill.

Yummy! We had it with rice and fresh green beans sauted in olive oil. It was just a box rice dish but it was good. And I even put a little bit of the sauce on the beans. Sometimes I think I shouldn't make things like this because it really makes me look lazy when all I make are BLTs and tater tots.