It’s a well known fact that bacon makes everything better. It’s even more well known that cheese makes everything better. Thus, if redhead math serves me correctly, putting bacon and cheese inside chicken makes it the best chicken ever.
Did you hear that? I think I heard your cardiologist whimpering. He’s upset that I took a perfectly good lean protein like chicken and dirtied it up with greasy bacon and fatty cheese. Alright doc, point well taken. I’m going to shove some spinach in there. Boom. Fighting free radicals.
Traditional Chicken Cordon Bleu is chicken stuffed with ham and cheese. I dislike ham, but I like bacon. I like cheeses of all kinds and I like spinach. And so, Chicken Cordon Vert was born.
I recommend using chicken cutlets for this recipe. The thinner the meat the easier it is to roll.
I used fresh spinach, because that’s what I had and I was too lazy to cook it first, but I bet if you cooked it or used frozen, thawed spinach, you could fit more into the chicken. The fresh leaves like to sneak out.
I wanted this to be Paleo friendly, so instead of rolling in traditional bread crumbs, I rolled in a mix of almond flour and toasted cauliflower crumbs.
Something about cutting into these and seeing the cheese oozing out over the bacon and chicken made me want to grunt like Tim Allen on Home Improvement. Must be the meat on meat… very manly. <insert immature giggle here>
This looks complicated and sounds fancy, but it’s neither, unless you want it to be. Buy expensive bacon, buy fancy cheese, buy toothpicks with little frillies on top. Go crazy. Chickens hugging pigs with cows watching crazy.
Chicken Cordon Vert
Adapted from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice
Ingredients
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon coarse or Dijon mustard
sea salt and fresh black pepper
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup panko crumbs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-OR-
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup cauliflower crumbs*
6 chicken cutlets, 1/4-inch thick
6 slices bacon
6 slices Swiss cheese
2 cups baby spinach (fresh)
toothpicks
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a large roasting pan.
Whisk the eggs, milk and mustard together in a shallow dish, season with salt and pepper. In a second shallow dish combine both bread crumbs and flour together (or the almond flour and cauliflower mix).
Season the chicken cutlets lightly on each side with salt and pepper. Place a slice each of swiss and bacon over top, then a small handful of spinach and roll up beginning from the smallest end of the chicken (some spinach might sneak out the sides, oh well). Secure with a toothpick or two. Repeat until they are all rolled up. Dredge one at a time by dipping into the egg and then into the bread crumbs using your hands to pat the crumbs on. Place in pan.
Bake about 25 minutes or until internal temp reaches 164-175 degrees. Remove from oven and allow to set 5 minutes before serving.
* For cauliflower crumbs, take half a head of cauliflower and cut into small florets. Place in food processor and pulse until pieces are size of rice. Cover a cookie sheet in aluminum foil and spray with non-stick spray. Spread cauliflower crumbs onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes, or until crumbs start to brown. WARNING, this was totally improvised and I may not have recalled what I did precisely, nor was I 100% happy with the end result which wasn’t altogether that crunchy, but it did make for a bread-like coating on the chicken when combined with the almond flour.
Adventures of a Hungry Redhead 
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