The Laughing Cow Chicken Cordon Bleu

[thistlechaser]

Another cooking post! Two in a row! Wonder of wonders.

I have a heck of a lot of Laughing Cow cheese. I don't eat it much anymore, since I now use high fiber cereal for snacks, so I poked around the net to see if maybe I could use it in cooking.

Meet the Laughing Cow Chicken Cordon Bleu.

Alas, I have no breadcrumbs, nor anything to tie/close/stick the roll closed. Usually changing a recipe would mean certain doom, but in this case it still worked out.

I cut the breast thin (would have been butterflying it if I had done it right), and stuck the cheese and ham on top. I was worried it would just melt and be a big mess, but oddly the laughing cow stayed in a triangle shape. o.O The ham got very cooked/dry, balanced on top of the cheese wedge.

Even with those issues, it tasted oddly good. I used the garlic flavor cheese, which had been too harsh for me to eat on a cracker, but it was great on the chicken. Only odd thing was the texture -- it was like eating boneless skinless chicken breast slathered with cream cheese. While that is strange, it's an improvement on plain boneless skinless chicken, to be honest.

My oven roasted tomatoes (this recipe) were a fail, but I think it was the recipe's fault. I think 450 might have been too high? The oil that got on the tray burned and filled my apartment with smoke, and after 25 minutes I gave up on the effort instead of risking burning my apartment down. (Likely not a real risk, I didn't use much oil, but it was smoking badly.) The one little caramelized bite I got was outstanding (SO SWEET), but the rest of them were a wet, soppy mess.

Also, next time I'd scoop out the seeds and insides, that might help it cook better.

There will be a next time. Tomatoes are good for you. If I can find a way to eat them, I will!

Comments

[segoryder.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm reading an erotic novel.. but food style.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! I wish it were that good. :)

[segoryder.livejournal.com]

Tomato juices ran down her quivering lip..

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Well now!

Though I'm happy to report that my lip does not quiver.

[segoryder.livejournal.com]

LOL

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Besides the normal cooking stuff, Koreans also use tomatoes as a fruit. Hubby was shocked the first time he saw a cherry tomato on top of a cake piece(kind of like Americans would use a cherry). We would also get cherry tomatoes on top of shaved ice desserts, or just cut up into pieces and dusted with sugar. Adding sugar to tomatoes would probably negate any health benefits!

I miss tomatoes. My boys are both allergic to fresh tomatoes, so I never keep any in the house.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Well, tomatoes are technically a berry... :) We Americans just associate it was 'vegetable' because of Congressional decrees and tariff reasons. :P

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

As sweet as last night's tomato was, I could see it on a cake! Seems like it'd look nicer than a little cherry, too.

Too bad about the boys!

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Some thoughts:

1. Do you have an over thermometer, and are you sure your 450F oven was actually set at 450F?

I know a lot of ovens run hot (at least in my experience), and if it was actually hotter than 450F, that might have explained part of the smokiness.

2. Olive oil has a low smoke point--I'm kind of surprised the recipe called for it with such a hot oven.

3. The recipe only called to be cooked for 15-20 minutes: if you hit "after 25 minutes", then that was too long and could also explain the smoking problem.

4. The recipe also called for grape tomatoes, which are really small. Scooping the seeds out of them would be tedious and not productive. Are you sure you were using the right kind of tomatoes?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

No oven thermometer, and come to think of it, I think mine does run hot...

2. Olive oil has a low smoke point--I'm kind of surprised the recipe called for it with such a hot oven.

That's what I thought, too!

3. The recipe only called to be cooked for 15-20 minutes: if you hit "after 25 minutes", then that was too long and could also explain the smoking problem.

It actually started smoking maybe 10 minutes in, I know I took the battery out of the smoke alarm before hitting the 15 minute mark. I checked it at 15 and 20 minutes, then finally gave up at 25.

4. The recipe also called for grape tomatoes, which are really small. Scooping the seeds out of them would be tedious and not productive. Are you sure you were using the right kind of tomatoes?

Hmm. I used cherry, which would be one size up from grape. (I did see grape at the store, but the night before's chicken recipe called for cherry, so I got those instead.) That could be part of the issue, since it would take longer to cook...

I'm going to look around for a different recipe before I try this again.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Well, two things in relation to that:

1. If your oven isn't really well and good pre-heated, repeated opening and closing of the oven is going to let heat escape and prolong cooking time. Don't do it. :)

2. Yeah, using cherry instead of grape may have been a factor. Cherry tomatoes are slightly larger and tend to have more seeds/liquid in them. That ratio difference (surface area to water volume) may definitely have messed up the cooking, too.