"Chicken Cordon Bleu" (meat alert)

Well I decided it has been a very long while since I broke out the ol' crock pot for dinner. It's also been a while since the DH has had chicken. So enter Chicken Cordon Bleu, well sort of..


The recipe is pretty simple I stole it and of course varied it from allrecipes.com. I prepared just about everything this morning in about, oh 15 minutes for so. My non meat version however would not stand up to this preparation.


Ingredients:
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of chicken
2.5 cans water


3 Chicken breast (still slightly frozen)
Ham (cubes or slices)
5 or so slices of swiss cheese
tooth picks


Salt and pepper to taste


Method
Pour soup and water into the crock pot and stir to mix


Split the chicken in half (not all the way through)












Layer cheese and ham into the middle of the chicken and then "pin" shut using the tooth picks.

Place open side up into the crock pot and cook on low for 7-10 hours (I give such a variance since I always cook mine 10 hours due to work)




After a full day of cooking I will get home and pull out the chicken so it doesn't continue to cook and become over cooked. Depending on how much of the filling oozed out I will top the chicken with some additional sliced/cubed ham and melt a bit more swiss on top, covered with a bit of the soup mixture like a gravy. 


We served ours with parmesan rice (arborro rice with italian seasonings and parmesan) and a green salad.. Which I of COURSE forgot to photograph both the sides and my meatless version! 
The only thing it needed was salt and pepper and not much! I would omit a little of the water next time to make the soup more of a "gravy"...

To make this meat free. Use a chicken sub (such as Quorn, if using this use 2) some faux ham and of course a vegetarian or vegan mushroom soup. Layer the "chicken" with swiss and ham, pin shut, top with undiluted mushroom soup and bake until cheese has melted and the chicken product is fully cooked.