Easy chicken cordon bleu

This recipe is from the Food Nanny cookbook. It was simple enough, but I have made better cordon bleu before. This one had entirely too much butter. I cut the butter in half, and it was still swimming in a pool of butter when it came out of the oven. I can't see how that much butter was necessary if it was just going to pool at the bottom. I also cut the cheese in half. Her original recipe called for small boneless chicken breasts - I had large so I cut them in half, but then it wanted a full piece of swiss and a full tablespoon of butter in the roll. I just put 1/2 slice of cheese, and 1/2 Tablespoon butter. I also had super thin sliced ham so I used 2 pieces instead of 1. I'll write it how I made it. She also made homemade bread crumbs, but I was lazy last night so I just used pre-made. This is how I made it.


Ingredients

• bread crumbs - I didn't measure, I just sprinkled them on straight from the conatainer.
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 16 slices ham (mine were small and super thin, use only 8 if you have thicker or larger ham.)
• 8 slices swiss cheese
• 1 stick of butter (half or even 1/4 this would be better.)

Directions

1. Pound the chicken to 1/8 inch thick. Cut the breasts in half (Mine are always large and need this. Not sure where recipe books find their chicken breasts, but they are always smaller than what I find in the store. If using smaller breasts, use twice the chicken breasts.)
2. Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 9 X 13 inch baking dish.
3. Sprinkle each breast with salt. Add 2 slices ham, 1/2 slice cheese, 1/2 Tablespoon butter (go with 1/4 or 1/8 in the future) and a sprinkling of bread crumbs. Roll up the breasts tightly and tuck in the ends. Place them seam side down in teh prepared baking dish. (I thought these would need to be secured with a toothpick, but they were fine without it.) When you have all the breasts in the baking dish, top with 1/2 teaspoon butter (use less or omit next time) and 1/2 slice swiss cheese.
4. Bake 40-50 minutes, basting occasionally (Oops, never basted them) Cover the dish with foil when the chicken browns to prevent it from drying out. (It never really browned too much.) The chicken is done when it is tender and no longer pink - I just waited until it was 160 on the thermometer.