Serves 4 to 6

To help prevent the filling from leaking, use large, 8-ounce chicken breasts and thoroughly chill the stuffed breasts before breading. We like Black Forest ham here.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Our goal was a Foolproof Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe that would be worth making. We found cutting a pocket into the breast to be much more efficient than the traditional method of pounding and rolling. To get the same swirl effect achieved by rolling the chicken around the ham and cheese, we simply rolled the ham slices into cylinders around shredded cheese and tucked the cylinders into each chicken breast. Adding a healthy dose of Dijon mustard to the egg wash boosted the flavor of our Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe, as did ditching store-bought bread crumbs in favor of homemade.

Chicken breasts are diped in beaten eggs and cracker crumbs, then baked with butter. These breasts are really tender and moist. Excellent flavor.