Chicken Cordon Blue Cups

Welcome to another Man Monday.

So, I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll explain again.  Sarah hates pork… bacon, ham, pork-sausage, little smokies, and pretty much anything else American.  *Zach whispers* Secretly I think she likes it, she just wants to hate something.  Well, it’s my eternal quest in life to get her to like it before my grave finds me first.

I’ve resorted to disguises.  Have you guys ever seen that spider that disguises itself as poop to keep predators from eating it?  If you haven’t, go look it up.  Well, my quest is kinda like that, except not at all… in fact it’s probably the opposite and actually has nothing to do with it.  I disguise pork in my food, so as to surreptitiously infiltrate Sarah’s defenses.  Bait and hook.  She eats it, says she loves it, and I triumphantly exclaim that THERE WAS PORK IN IT ALL ALONG!  Slowly, this subterfuge will eat away at Sarah’s armaments and eventually she will be screaming for honey glazed ham on Christmas.  You guys just wait.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Cups

Makes 12 cups (180 calories each, by the way, pretty sweet eh?)
Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb cooked (I do pan-fried) chicken, cubed
• 1/2 lb thick sliced deli ham, cubed
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 2 oz swiss cheese, shredded and divided into two even portions
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• pepper to taste
• 1 sheet puff pastry (in a box of two)

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375º
2. Combine all the ingredients except for the puff pastry in a saucepan.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Mix until the cream cheese and swiss cheese are well incorporated.
3. While the mixture is warming up, roll out your puff pastry sheet with a rolling pin.  Get it as thin as you can without wanting to curse and give up (less than 1/8th inch).  Cut out 12 circular crusts, about 4 inches in diameter.
4. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray.  Place each cup crust into the muffin tins, and flatten down the sides and bottom.
5. Place just less than 1/4 cup of mixture into each cup/crust/pastry/thing.  You don’t the cups to be full, otherwise you will have a steamy, goopy mess, instead of appetizing and clean cups.
6. Bake in the oven for approximately 18 minutes. Remove the cups from the oven and top each one with a little more of the shredded swiss cheese.  Return the tin to the oven and continue baking for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is nice and bubbly on top.  That’s it!