the pragmatic chef™

Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu

Here's a shot of the finished bird. Normally, I would put this at the end just to torture you a bit, but it explains how I prepped the chicken for the grill. I discussed how to prep a chicken in this manner before, so I'll get right to the stuffing. After getting the chicken nice and flat, starting at the back of the chicken between the legs I loosened the skin, making sure to free up all around the legs and being careful to not lift the skin all the way off the front of the bird so that no cheese could escape.

Next, starting with about a 1/3 of a pound each of thick-sliced cheese and ham, I carefully tucked in layers of cheese, trying to keep it from bunching up, and being careful not to pierce the skin. I ended up with a double layer on top of the breast, thinking that gravity might let it flow down to fill any gaps, and also knowing that the extra cheese would keep the breast meat moist. After the cheese was in place, I layed the ham on top, wanting it closer to the skin than the cheese. My thinking was that it would serve to seal in the cheese a bit better, and preferring that it fry a bit as opposed to just steaming.

Once that was done, I could have tied up or stitched the skin closed, but out of curiosity I did nothing. As a result, the only cheese loss I had was at the back, but it was minimal and the ham did help keep the cheese in place, I think.

Seasoning? After a good bit of kosher salt and black pepper, as an experiment I rubbed the bottom of the bird generously with Survival Spice™, which I feel is the best thing for chicken since the egg, and seasoned the skin well with dried tarragon, nutmeg and rosemary.

I grilled this on indirect heat skin side down for about 40 minutes or so, then flipped it, holding the legs with a pair or tongs and gave it another 20-25 minutes with the skin side up. Normally, I would leave it skin-side down the whole time but I was curious to see if the ham had released any water (it had, a little), and I wanted to see if the cheese was leaking anywhere, figuring that I could clean up the skin before service if there was a cheesy lava flow that I couldn't see from above (there wasn't!).

It was really good- moist, with crispy skin and a nice balance of flavors. The classic Chicken Cordon Bleu is a stuffed breast that's breaded and fried, so I'm thinking I might try to incorporate some type of bread into the next version, and I think mustard needs to be involved. Stay tuned!

I also grilled some stuffed yellow squash, but that's another day.