Monday, February 11, 2013

Valentines & Chicken

My hot hubby and I got a call a few weeks ago from someone in our church group. She was wondering if we would be in charge of our Ward (what we call our congregations) Valentines dinner. Of course, he said we would love to. Then he turned to me and asked "What have we gotten ourselves into?" Now, to clarify, we were in charge of making and serving all of the food. They were expecting 75 people. I jumped in head first.

We decided quickly that Valentines deserved a special dinner. After talking to my mom (the fount of all knowledge in my culinary brain), we decided to make Chicken Cordon Bleu. It would look pretty awesome and taste even better. So last Wednesday, I set out pounding 100 chicken breasts as thin as I could get them. The best part of this story is that I don't have a meat mallet. I was planning on taking my mom's when we went into Salt Lake City several weeks ago, but I had forgotten. My husband walked in from work to see me pounding on the chicken with our heaviest skillet. After he stopped laughing, he set to work helping me finish the prep work for the chicken.

Friday was the party and was a very busy day for me. I have never cooked food for 75 people before. It took most of the day to roll the chicken with the ham and cheese. A couple of hours before the party, I then took the chicken bundles and rolled them in melted butter and then in bread crumbs. Of course, I seasoned the breadcrumbs in garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Because I was making such a large quantity, I baked these bad boys on cookie sheets instead of baking dishes, but I would encourage a smaller baking dish for just your family. Bake these wonderful little cheesy bundles at 350 until the chicken is cooked through and the breaded bundles have turned a golden brown.

The nice thing about Chicken Cordon Bleu is that it looks a lot harder to make than it actually is. I've made it for my family several times. It takes very little prep work and is great. Until you make 100 of them. I've often told my husband that I would love to open a catering company. Now I would amend that to "Only if I could hire the employees to beat that chicken thin".

I was so pleased with how great the food turned out. It was a wonderful night. A lot of our church members put in a lot of work to decorate the gym and prepare entertainment for all of it. Plus, they even provided a nursery for my two little ones. It was so much fun to be with my hubby with good food and good friends. So now, for your Valentine, go home and make some tasty chicken. He will think you slaved away on it and fall in love with you all over again!

And next time, I'm taking pictures.