Swiss cheese Archives - The Midnight Baker

Swiss Dijon Chicken

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 23:00:39 +0000

Swiss Dijon chicken is so tasty, it’ll become a family favorite.

Great Taste–Simple Ingredients

I know I say this a lot, but dishes that tend to have the very best flavor are dishes that have few and simple ingredients.

This Swiss Dijon chicken is another one of those meals. I’m also willing to bet that you have most, if not all, ingredients on hand. Three are staples for me; boneless skinless chicken breasts, honey and Dijon mustard. I always have fresh thyme on hand because I grow it in my hydroponic garden. However, if you only have the stuff in the jar, it’s just as good. Generally, you use half the amount of dried herb for the amount of fresh. For example, if the recipe calls for one teaspoon of fresh, you’d use a half teaspoon of dried.

Swiss Cheese

I’m all about using what you have rather than buying something special for a recipe. However, for this recipe I’m going to recommend buying Swiss cheese. That’s part of the charm with this chicken since the other flavors pair so well with Swiss cheese.

Another thing I’m big on when it comes to cheese is shredding your own. There is a difference in taste and texture. The pre-shredded kind is treated with compounds that prevent it from sticking together. I’ve noticed that re-shredded also doesn’t melt quite as well as freshly grated off-the-block cheese. If time is an issue, then by all means the pre-shredded is acceptable. I even used it in this because I had half a bag on hand.

A Word About Herbs

I love thyme and I always have fresh because I grow it year round. It pairs nicely with chicken so that’s another plus.

However, if you’re not crazy about it, by all means use the herb(s) you like! That’s the whole point because I always look upon a recipe as a guide. It’s not absolute so adapt it to your taste and build on it.

If you don’t have any fresh herbs available, then the kind you buy in the spice aisle will do. The rule of thumb here is to use half the amount called for for fresh.

The Recipe

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Swiss Dijon Chicken

A sheet pan chicken recipe that's easy and delicious

Prep Time10

Cook Time35

Course: Main, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: dijon chicken breasts, easy chicken breast recipes, sheetpan chicken recipes

Servings: 4

Calories: 340kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup Swiss cheese shredded
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Sauce:
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/3 cup honey
2 tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves don't use stems

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425F/220C. Spray a baking sheet (one with sides) with non-stick spray.
Mix sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
Mix the salt and pepper and sprinkle over chicken breasts. Place chicken breast on prepared pan and cover it with the sauce. Then distribute cheese over t=he chicken breasts.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the chicken tests done--juices run clear and/or it is 165F/75C.

Nutrition

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Bacon Swiss Cheese Chicken

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 23:00:06 +0000

Bacon swiss cheese chicken is so easy to make and delicious too. It’s sure to become a family favorite.

Yummy Flavors

Great ingredients are the secret to this chicken’s fabulous flavor.

The swiss cheese adds a nuttiness to this meal. And what can I say about bacon? Well, an awful lot! You don’t need much bacon to impart it’s fine flavor. In fact, this recipe only uses three slices.

These ingredients work so well with chicken. Since chicken breast is rather bland, you need to use great seasonings or additional highly-flavored ingredients to showcase it.

Browning Is Another Key

I always considered browning to be one of the key factors that flavor a dish. It’s often overlooked, and with food that’s on the bland side, it’s pretty necessary for flavor.

In this recipe, the chicken is browned in some bacon drippings. The drippings also add a lot of flavor.

The onion and mushrooms are browned in the drippings as well. You don’t need much bacon drippings–a little goes a long way.

Deglaze That Pan

Deglazing a pan serves two purposes.

Scraping up all those lovely browned bits that are in the pan and incorporating them into any liquid used in the recipe adds tons of flavor.

Deglazing also cleans the skillet of anything that stuck in the pan. This is a boon especially if you are using pans that don’t have a non-stick coating. That’s the secret to cleaning a stainless steel skillet. Even if you are not making a sauce, deglazing the pan with about 1/2 cup of hot water while the pan is still on direct heat makes clean up a breeze.

Getting Saucy

This sauce is creamy and full of great flavor.

As I said above, deglazing the pan with the stock adds a lot of flavor. It’s important to use a very good tasting stock. One of my favorites is College Inn Bold. Better Than Bouillon is another good one. If you want a low-sodium variety, then Kitchen Accomplice is a good stock to choose. It’s a concentrate and I find it has superb flavor, which is not the case most times with low-sodium products.

The sauce also gets great taste from reducing it. With this sauce, I reduced it about 25 per cent but I still wanted it thicker, so I used a bit of flour and water, but if you like a thinner sauce, then it’s not necessary to thicken.

Since you get a bit of sauce in this recipe, this chicken is wonderful served over pasta.

The Recipe

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Bacon Swiss Cheese Chicken

Bacon swiss cheese chicken is so easy to make and delicious too. It’s sure to become a family favorite.

Prep Time25

Cook Time30

Total Time55

Course: Chicken, skillet dinners

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bacon, chicken recipe, swiss cheese

Servings: 4

Calories: 462kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

4 medium boneless skinless chicken breast halves
3 slices bacon
4 slices swiss cheese
2 tbsp chopped onion
8 oz sliced -OR- button mushrooms fresh preferred
1 1/4 cups chicken stock/broth
1/2 cup cream
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

THICKENING

2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup water

Instructions

In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and place on a paper towel. Do not discard the bacon drippings. You should have about 2 tbs in the pan from the cooked bacon.
Brown chicken well on both sides over medium heat in the same pan in which you cooked the bacon. Remove from pan and set aside.
In the same pan, brown the onions and mushrooms (if you use canned, drain first).
Deglaze the pan with the chicken stock.
Add the chicken back to the pan, cover and reduce heat. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Remove the chicken from the pan and keep warm while making the sauce.
Add the cream and increase the heat to medium and reduce liquid 25%--this should take about 5-8 minutes. If you want a thicker sauce, mix the flour and water and add to the pan, stirring until liquid is thickened. Add any salt and pepper at this point.
Place the chicken back in the pan and place a slice of swiss cheese over each piece of chicken.
Fold the cheese slices if they are too long.
Cover and cook over low heat until cheese melts--about 5 minutes.
Crumble bacon over each chicken breast.

Nutrition

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Broccoli Swiss Cheese Casserole

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This broccoli swiss cheese casserole side dish is not only easy to prepare, but so delicious, they’ll come back for seconds.

This recipe came my way via Facebook friend Ginny W. We belong to a small recipe group and Ginny was raving about the couple of recipes she’d made from a new cookbook she just bought (a Gooseberry book called “Big Book of Country Baking” available at Amazon – Gooseberry Patch Big Book of Country Baking: Over 400 sweet & savory recipes for every meal of the day)

They’ll come back for seconds

Anyway, she had pics of hers and said about how easy and delicious this was. It looked positively yummy. And since I always have broccoli, because I love the stuff, and soup bases and CHEESE, I just had to make this since I wanted another broccoli-cheese casserole in addition to my Buttery Broccoli Cheese casserole

The original recipe calls for 1 cup of shredded swiss cheese, but I always go overboard and added double the amount. However, if you’re not as into cheese as me, then use the lower amount. It will still flavor the casserole nicely.

Full of cheese

I made up the amount of chopped broccoli (because I only had one brick pack of it) with a whole bag of broccoli florets (16 oz bag) that I roughly hand chopped. So if you don’t want to go the chopped route, using small florets would be a good substitute.

Broccoli Swiss Casserole

This was also the maiden voyage of the baking dish I used. Fans of mine know that I’m a devotee of a couple of brands of bakeware–some high-end, and some very affordable.

Temp-Tations Floral Lace in Light Blue

This is Temp-Tations Floral Lace in light blue. It was also my first set in this color–my “Temp-Tationista” friends know I’m pretty much a dark cobalt gal LOL, but I just loved this shade and wanted to add it to my collection. I wasn’t sorry–it’s stunning! You can see the Floral Lace line (and many others) at Temp-tations.com

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Broccoli Swiss Cheese Casserole

This broccoli swiss cheese casserole side dish is not only easy to prepare, but so delicious, they’ll come back for seconds.

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Total Time50

Course: side dishes, vegetarian dishes

Cuisine: American

Keyword: broccoli, broccoli casseroles, swiss cheese

Servings: 4

Calories: 424kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

3 10 oz. frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
1 small onion finely chopped
1 10.75 oz. cream of mushroom soup
1 egg
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1-2 cups shredded swiss cheese
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
2 tbsp butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray or grease a 1.5 quart baking dish.
Drain chopped broccoli well. Set aside.
In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg. Add the soup, onion and mayonnaise. Whisk together well.
Add the drained chopped broccoli and the cheese. Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish.
Mix the bread crumbs with the melted butter, mixing well to make sure they are all coated with butter. Sprinkle buttered crumbs on top of casserole.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until casserole is bubbly.
Serves 4.

Nutrition

So delicious, they’ll beg for more

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Creamy Onion Cheese Casserole

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Creamy Onion Cheese Casserole

Here’s another side dish that can double as a meal. This onion casserole is loaded with flavor, crunch and gobs of Swiss cheese!

I ended up with a little too many onions when a store had them on sale. Since they don’t seem to keep like they used to, I wanted to use them–at least quite a few of them.

So late one night I was net surfing and ran across an absolutely great-looking casserole from Forkable, who said this was a Thanksgiving tradition in their home.

Creamy, sweet and cheesy

This really looked SUPER plus I’d get to use some Italian bread I also bought that got pushed aside and almost forgotten.

I only made slight changes in their recipe. I tend to use undiluted or slightly diluted evaporated milk instead of plain milk in things I want to be extra creamy and since my bread was not fresh, I brushed the tops with some melted butter not only for added flavor, but for better browning.

Like grilled cheese with onion soup…YUM

Truthfully, I had to stop before I ate the whole casserole–that’s how good this is!!! It’s sort of a cross between a creamy and sweet onion soup and grilled cheese.

Adding some Italian seasoning to the onions and brushing the bread with garlic butter and using a nice sharp Provolone would make this like a garlic cheese bread casserole. I’m trying that one next.

Creamy Onion Cheese Casserole

This one’s a keeper.

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Creamy Onion Cheese Casserole

Here’s another side dish that can double as a meal. This onion casserole is loaded with flavor, crunch and gobs of Swiss cheese!

Prep Time20

Cook Time25

Total Time45

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cheese casserole, creamy onion cheese casserole, onion, side dishes

Servings: 6

Calories: 436kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

4 medium onions sliced
3 tbs butter
1 10.75 oz cream of chicken soup
2/3 cup evaporated milk or light cream
1/4 cup water
1 tsp soy sauce
6-8 slices about 1-inch thick French or Italian Bread
8 oz shredded Swiss cheese
1 tbs butter melted
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

*Cream of mushroom may be substituted to make the dish vegetarian.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large sauce pan or saute pan, melt the 3 tbs butter over medium-low heat. Add onions and saute until onions are limp and turn translucent (they will look pearly).
Place onions in an ungreased 1.5-2 quart shallow baking pan.
In the same pot used to saute the onions, add the soup, soy sauce, water and evaporated milk, adding the milk slowly, while stirring to avoid lumps. Heat through. Add any additional salt & pepper to taste at this point.
Pour soup mixture over onions in baking dish. Add 1/3 of the shredded cheese; stir and spread onion mixture evenly over bottom of the pan.
Top with the sliced bread. Brush tops of bread with the 1 tbs of melted butter.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-25 minutes or until bread is a nicely toasted golden brown.
Slightly press toasted bread slices down in the sauce, but do not let them get covered in the sauce! Top casserole with remaining cheese and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted and is beginning to bubble.
Makes 6-8 side-dish servings.

Nutrition

Perfect side or make it a meal

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