CREAMY CHICKEN CORDON BLEU CASSEROLE

Found this recipe on pinterest and I couldn't wait to try it. I'm not a ham person but, I thought it would be something my husband enjoyed. So, I get all the ingredients and with my husbands assistance, we attempted to make this dish.

First, let me say, for someone who is not experienced with cooking with multiple ingredients, this took much longer then expected. This was not an easy Monday night meal!! This would have definitely been better for Sunday dinner! The recipe said it was a 20 minute prep time, but I think it took us a little under 40 minutes. I don't know why, probably a few reasons! #1, we had a 2 year old trying to play at our feet and "help." and #2 we just really didn't know what we were doing #3 I didn't truly follow the instructions and didn't get exactly what the recipe called for!!

I think we'll try this recipe again even though it came out a disaster!!! We really really really messed up with the salt!!! Next time we will NOT be adding it at all!!! Ended up scraping off the crust topping because it was too salty.... Top was really just horribly salty, bottom was actually really good!!

One again excuse the non professional picture!! It probably doesn't give it justice because the Italian Panko Bread is GREEN!! Would really do this recipe again, and just make sure I have the plain panko!! 

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE CASSEROLE:

• 1 whole Cooked Chicken, Bones Removed, Meat Diced Or Shredded (rotisserie Chicken Is Excellent used $5 kroger one)
• ½ pounds Very Thinly Sliced Deli-style Honey Ham, Rough Chopped
• ¼ pounds Thin Sliced Baby Swiss Cheese 

FOR THE SAUCE:

• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• 4 Tablespoons Flour
• 3-¼ cups Milk (I Used 2% Milk)
• 2 Tablespoons Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice (Bought the lemon but things got hectic so I used the stuff out of the bottle)
• 1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
• 1-½ teaspoon Salt (not sure if this is necessary, I plan on taking it out next time)
• ½ teaspoons Smoked Paprika 
• ¼ teaspoons White Pepper 

 FOR THE TOPPING:

• 6 Tablespoons Butter
• 1-½ cup Panko Bread Crumbs (This is where I went wrong! I could not find just regular Panko bread crumbs! I have seen it before, so I knew that our Kroger has but this time the shelf was empty. So I got this fancy Italian seasoning panko crumbs. If you use this you will not need the seasoning salt!! I would personally just try and find the regular panko and stick to the recipe!! Meals get ruined when you aren't sure what you are doing and try and improvise!!)
• ¾ teaspoons Seasoning Salt
• 1-½ teaspoon Crushed Dried Parsley (didn't have any)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter a 9- x 13-inch baking dish. Set aside.

Put cooked shredded or diced chicken on the bottom of the baking dish. Rough chop the ham and scatter it over the top of the chicken. Lay the Swiss cheese on top of the ham.

For the sauce:
Melt the butter in a large sauce pot over medium heat. When butter is melted, quickly stir in the flour to form a smooth roux. Do not brown! Once the roux is smooth and bubbly, slowly pour in the cold milk while stirring briskly to make a smooth sauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens. Stir in the lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt, smoked paprika and white pepper. Bring sauce just back to a low boil and turn off heat. Pour sauce evenly over the casserole, being certain to get some of the sauce around the edges of the pan.

For the topping:
Melt the butter in the microwave in a medium sized microwaveable bowl. Heat it for 30 seconds at a time and stop once it’s melted. Take the bowl out of the microwave and stir in the panko bread crumbs, seasoning salt and crushed dried parsley. Sprinkle over the top of the casserole.

Bake casserole uncovered for 45 minutes until hot and bubbly throughout and topping has turned a light golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes prior to serving.

Original recipe from: 
http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2012/07/chicken-cordon-bleu-casserole/