CHICKEN CORDON BLEU-WICH CASSEROLE

Can't take much credit for this one.  It was inspired by two great cooks.  One is Maria Emmerich, whose bread I used. You can find her recipe for the bread here. The other is Chef John, from foodwishes.com.  And this is my adaptation of his recipe for Chicken Cordon bleu-wiches, which looked just too, too yummy to not be made low carb and gluten free for those of us who must or choose to be so.  As rich as this was it was surprisingly low in calories and only 6 grams of useable carbs per serving!  

The hard part was coming up with a roux that I could use that was wheat free and would not lend too many carbs to the mix.  I used arrowroot starch/flour which worked wonderfully.  1 tbsp. has 6 g. carbs, and I used half the amount of how much the recipe called for in flour and it worked well.  Overall in the entire recipe it does not add that many extra carbs.  The taste was phenomenal!  My hubby even liked it! Very picky guy, and not a low carber.  He likes all the wheat and all the sugar in his stuff.  

Now you can do this Chef John's way and make individual open face sandwiches, and I think Maria's bread is excellent for this!  I've been wanting to try her bread and this was the perfect time to do so. It worked really well in this.  I made one long loaf and sliced it to about 1-inch slices to fit the bottom of my pan.  But you can butter each slice and spread it on each one as Chef John did if you please.  I wanted to make the whole thing together into a casserole.  But I am going to for sure make some more of this for sandwiches!  And I'm thinking Cordon Bleu pizza?  Just make your favorite low carb pizza crust, or use Maria's bread recipe and spread out into a pizza pan and spread this over the top.  I think it would be great how ever you choose to do it! 

So here is my adaptation of Chef John's recipe for us gluten free low carbers.

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU-WICH CASSEROLE, LC, GF                      

1 loaf Maria's Healthified Sub Bread: http://mariahealth.blogspot.com/2012/07/toasted-sub-sandwich-and-panini.html

                        Chicken Cordon-Bleu Mixture

4 tablespoons  butter

1 cup  ham -- diced

1/2 cup  onion -- diced (or 1 cup)

1/4 teaspoon  dried thyme

2 tablespoons  arrowroot powder

1 cup  almond milk, unsweetened, OR other low carb milk

6 ounces  shredded Swiss cheese -- (or gruyere, or Italian blend)

1 1/2 teaspoons  dijon mustard

1/8 teaspoon  nutmeg

2 cups  cooked chicken -- diced

   dash  cayenne pepper

   black pepper -- to taste

2 tablespoons  crumbs from Maria's sub bread

Earlier in the day, prepare the bread, following Maria's instructions.  http://mariahealth.blogspot.com/2012/07/toasted-sub-sandwich-and-panini.html 

Preheat oven to 425F.  In medium saute pan, add butter and melt.  Add ham and onions (I sauteed my onions seperately and sprinkled them on half of the dish at the end, since I have a son who does not like onions).  Cook on medium heat about 5 minutes.  Sprinkle in dried thyme.  Add arrowroot powder and stir and cook on med. low heat for about 3 min.  Turn off heat.  Slowly add the milk a little at a time and stir.  Turn heat back on to medium and cook and stir for about 1 to 2 minutes or until nicely thickened.  Add cheese, reserving about 1/4 cup to sprinkle on top.  Stir together until cheese melts, and add mustard, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and diced chicken.  

In bottom of a 9 x 13-inch, or 7 x 11-inch baking pan spread with butter or extra virgin olive oil.  Slice bread into slices to fit the bottom of pan.  Spread chicken cordon-bleu mixture on top of slices.  Sprinkle with black pepper and remaining cheese.  Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.  Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until slightly browned on top and bubbly.  Let sit outside oven for 10 minutes before serving.  

                                    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

8 Servings/Per Serving: 373 Calories; 24g Fat (56.9% calories from fat); 25g Protein; 16g Carbohydrate; 10g Dietary Fiber; 6 g net carbs