Cordon Bleu

Had the turkey not arrived for the Thanksgiving office luncheon, Plan B was to make chicken Cordon Bleu. I was just prepping the chicken breasts, Thursday morning, when I heard the turkey-breast package being dropped off outside my apartment's door just after 11 a.m.—literally the eleventh hour.* This weekend, I completed the Cordon Bleu prep of six breasts and ate them over two days: three on Saturday, and three on Sunday. (For the luncheon, it would've been two breasts per person... as God intended.)

I didn't have proper Emmenthaler (or Emmental), which we Yanks generically call "Swiss cheese." From Costco, I got the Spanish-cheese variety pack that I've enjoyed before, plus some thin-sliced deli ham. I had some pan-fried panko on reserve, so I set up a breading station and panné'd the flattened, rolled-up breasts in preparation for baking. The crust came out much lighter than I'd thought it would, but the chicken was perfectly edible after about 30 minutes in the oven.

I should've laid down parchment paper to keep the cheese from sticking.

two of the three victims I ate on Saturday—sorry for the lack of a cross-section

Today, I microwaved the remaining chicken breasts, and while that didn't help with the crispiness, the Cordon Bleu was fine. You can't go wrong with chicken, ham, and cheese. There's probably a way to slice or pound the chicken until super thin, then roll it up with ham and cheese like a protein taquito and serve it in a hot-dog bun with a nice cream sauce. Man, I should try that variant someday. Wouldn't even need to be breaded.

I briefly thought about saving the remaining three breasts to give to my officemates tomorrow, but another part of my brain said Nah. I'm going to be taking over the remaining deli ham, anyhow, and I plan to make either barbecue pulled-turkey sandwiches or a turkey pot pie with the remaining turkey meat. There's plenty that can be done with what I have left. But if I go the pot-pie route, I have to figure out where to get legitimate American or English peas. I saw some online suggestions for places like HomePlus. The nearest HomePlus branch to me is, I think, in the Jamshil area; I've been there a few times. I'll go on the hunt for peas tomorrow.

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*And for the record, I'm starting to really hate the styrofoam packaging that Coupang sometimes uses for perishable products. Styrofoam gets everywhere, like Anakin Skywalker's dreaded sand on Tatooine. It's extremely annoying.