Chicken Cordon Bleu Pizza

When I was growing up my grandparents had an awesome RV that they used to travel around the country in.

When I was 4 years old one of my cousins and I went on a cross-country road trip with them in that awesome RV, from Washington state all the way to North Carolina.  Here’s what I remember from that trip:

• We stopped at a truck stop and I accidentally dropped the chocolate syrup (for making chocolate milk) down a manhole that had the cover pulled off.  And was subsequently blackballed on the chocolate milk drinking for the rest of the trip.
• We had fried chicken one night and my cousin told me she was going to eat the chicken bones so that her bones would be strong like Grandma’s.  And then she choked on the bone.
• We played cards every night after dinner.
• We got to sleep in the top bunk above the driver’s seat when we stopped driving for the day.

The end.

 

I mean, you’d think that one would remember driving across the entire country right?  Although I suppose at 4 years old I have an excuse of being too caught up in my own world to really be cognizant of seeing our great nation.  But that chocolate milk loss?  It was a doozy!

 

This pizza really has nothing to do with that road trip other than the fact that many many years later my Grandma made us chicken cordon bleu at a campground in New Mexico and I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  Perfectly cooked chicken?  Check.  Ham?  Check.  Cheese?  Check.  Cream sauce that you want to drink?  CHECK.

 

I don’t know what made me think of it the other day, but I thought about that fabulous chicken cordon bleu and decided to alter it to fit my pizza-loving mood.  The sauce alone is good enough to drink eat by itself, but when it’s slathered on a crust with chicken, ham and cheese?  OHMIGOSH.  Feed me!

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU PIZZA

• 1 pizza crust (you can make your own or use a store-bought crust)
• 3/4 cup shredded or cubed chicken
• 1/4 cup chopped ham
• 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• pinch nutmeg

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan and sprinkle the flour over it.  Stir together for about 30 seconds to let the flour cook out, then slowly stream in the milk while stirring frequently.  Once the milk and butter/flour mixture is incorporated, add the salt, pepper, nutmeg and mustard.  Stir to combine and let simmer until thickened.  Remove from heat and let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

 

To make the pizza, spread about half of the sauce on the crust.  Sprinkle with Swiss cheese and evenly spread the ham and chicken on top.  Bake for 10-15 minutes at 450 until the top is brown and bubbly and the crust is done.  Remove from heat and let it sit for about 5 minutes before cutting!