Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Published January 23, 2022 • Updated February 28, 2026
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Deconstructing classic dishes and dumping everything into a casserole dish is my favorite way to get the same flavor without the work. I do it with my keto lasagna, my pizza casserole, my keto chicken broccoli casserole, and now this one.
Traditional cordon bleu involves pounding chicken flat, layering ham and Swiss inside, rolling it up, breading it, and either pan-frying or baking. I’ve done that version. It works. But for a weeknight dinner, I don’t want to spend 30 minutes assembling individual chicken rolls. This casserole gives you all the same flavors in about half the hands-on time.
The real star here is the sauce. I make it right in the same skillet after browning the chicken, scraping up all those flavor bits from the bottom. Heavy cream, white wine, chicken broth, and a good amount of Dijon mustard. Then I stir in Monterey Jack until it’s thick and smooth. I tested this once with yellow mustard and it was just flat. Dijon has that sharpness that cuts through the cream, and it’s what makes this taste like actual cordon bleu instead of just chicken in cheese sauce.
One reader (Priya) swapped the Monterey Jack for Gruyere and said her husband thought it tasted like something from a French restaurant. I get that. Gruyere brings a nuttier depth that pairs beautifully with Dijon. Monterey Jack melts cleaner, but either works.
The assembly is simple. Chicken and ham go into the baking dish, sauce poured over the top, Swiss cheese layered on, and into the oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes. I usually pull mine when the cheese is bubbling and just starting to get golden spots on top. If you want a little crunch, sprinkle pork panko mixed with parmesan over the Swiss before baking.
This also works well as a make-ahead meal (similar to how I prep my Caesar chicken). Cook the chicken, ham, and sauce, assemble everything in the dish, top with Swiss, cover tightly, and freeze. When you’re ready, thaw overnight in the fridge and bake as directed. I’ve done this three times now and the sauce reheats without breaking.
How to make chicken cordon bleu casserole
- Cook cubed chicken in a skillet until golden on all sides.
- Add cubed ham and cook for a minute to heat through.
- Make the white wine sauce by adding butter, cream, chicken broth, and white wine to the same skillet. Scrape up the brown bits from the bottom for extra flavor. Stir in Dijon mustard, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Add shredded Monterey Jack cheese and stir until thick and smooth.
- Pour sauce over chicken and ham in a baking dish. Top with Swiss cheese and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
Key ingredients in chicken cordon bleu
- Chicken – Use any cut you prefer: thighs, breasts, or tenderloins. Traditional cordon bleu calls for breasts because they’re easy to slice and pound thin, but since we’re making a casserole, it doesn’t matter.
- Ham – Cube your cooked ham and toss it in the skillet with the chicken. If your ham has a lot of moisture, cook it a bit longer so the casserole doesn’t get soupy. Great way to use up leftover holiday ham. Bacon works as a substitute too.
- Cream – Heavy cream gives this sauce its richness. Nut milk works if you’re cutting calories or dairy, but cream gets you closest to the classic flavor. Other recipes use cream cheese or sour cream, but a white wine cheese sauce made with heavy cream is the real deal.
- White wine – I used a Sauvignon Blanc, but Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay work too. If you don’t cook with alcohol, skip the wine and add 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice after the sauce is finished to brighten it up.
- Dijon mustard – A key component for a flavorful cordon bleu sauce. Stone ground mustard and yellow mustard work in a pinch.
- Cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes – These add a nice kick to the sauce. Optional, but I always include them.
- Cheese – Both Monterey Jack and Swiss cheese are used here. The Monterey Jack melts into the sauce beautifully, and Swiss is a must for that classic cordon bleu flavor.
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Ingredients
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast or thighs -
1 tablespoon avocado oil or olive oil
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8 oz cubed ham (precooked)
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2 tablespoons butter
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1/3 cup heavy cream
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1/4 cup chicken broth
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1/4 cup white wine
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1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
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2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
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1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
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1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
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1/4 teaspoon salt
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1/4 teaspoon black pepper
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1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
Step by Step Instructions
Step by Step Instructions
Preheat oven
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut chicken
Cut the chicken thighs or chicken breast into bite sized chunks.
- Chicken (breasts or thighs)
Cook chicken
Add avocado oil to a skillet and heat over medium high heat. Working in batches, pan sear chicken until cooked evenly on all sides.
Add ham
Add ham to the skillet with the cooked chicken and cook for 1 minute to heat through. Remove all chicken and ham from skillet and set aside.
- Ham
Make white wine sauce
Lower heat on the skillet to medium heat. Melt butter in the skillet. Slowly whisk in heavy cream, chicken broth and wine into the melted butter. Scrape the bottom of the pan to break up the flavor bits stuck to the bottom. Let cook for 1-3 minutes. Don’t let boil. Slowly stir in shredded Monterey Jack cheese. Add one handful at a time and stir until melted.
- Heavy cream
- Chicken broth
- White wine
- Monterey Jack cheese (shredded)
Add flavor to the sauce
Stir in Dijon mustard, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Remove sauce from heat.
- Dijon mustard
- Red pepper flakes (optoinal)
- Cayenne pepper (optional)
- Salt
- Pepper
Assemble & bake
To a square or rectangle baking dish, add chicken and ham mixture to the bottom. Pour on white wine cheese sauce. Top with shredded Swiss cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
- Swiss cheese (shredded)
Nutrition disclaimer
The nutrition information provided is an estimate and is for informational purposes only. I am a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.); however, this content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or other qualified health provider before making any lifestyle changes or beginning a new nutrition program.
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Get My Macros + Recipes →Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make this casserole ahead of time and freeze it?
I've frozen this three times now and it holds up well. Cook the chicken, ham, and sauce first, then assemble everything in the baking dish and top with Swiss cheese. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and foil, then freeze. I store the pork panko topping separately so it doesn't get soggy. It keeps for about 3 months in my experience.
How do I reheat a frozen chicken cordon bleu casserole?
I thaw mine overnight in the fridge, then bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until it's bubbling. If I forget to thaw it, I bake from frozen at 350 for about 50-60 minutes, covered with foil for the first 30 minutes so the cheese doesn't burn. Let it sit on the counter for about 20 minutes before baking either way.
Can I use rotisserie chicken instead of raw chicken?
I do this all the time when I'm short on time. Just shred or cube the rotisserie chicken and skip the cooking step entirely. The sauce and assembly take about 10 minutes, so you can have this in the oven in under 15 minutes. The flavor is slightly different since you don't get those browned bits in the skillet, but it's still great.
What can I use instead of white wine?
I skip the wine sometimes and add 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice after the sauce is finished instead. It gives you that same brightness without the alcohol. Chicken broth can replace the liquid volume, but the lemon juice is what actually mimics what the wine does for the flavor.
How do I prevent the casserole from getting watery?
The biggest culprit in my experience is ham with a lot of moisture. I cook my ham cubes in the skillet for an extra minute or two until they start to brown slightly. That drives off the excess liquid before everything goes into the baking dish. Also, don't over-thin the sauce. It should coat the back of a spoon before you pour it over the chicken.
What size casserole dish do I need?
I use a square baking dish for this recipe, but any 8x11-inch or 9x13-inch rectangle dish works too. If you go with the larger 9x13, the casserole will be thinner and cook a few minutes faster. I prefer the square dish because it keeps the sauce deeper around the chicken.
What about bread crumbs on top?
I add pork panko mixed with parmesan cheese on top before baking when I want that extra crunch. It's my go-to keto breadcrumb substitute and it browns up nicely in the oven. Regular panko works too if you're not watching carbs. Either way, sprinkle it over the Swiss cheese right before the casserole goes in.
How do I decrease the calories in this dish?
The biggest calorie savers I've found: swap heavy cream for almond milk, use chicken breast instead of thighs, skip the wine and use lemon juice, and go lighter on the cheese in both the sauce and the topping. I've made a lighter version with almond milk and it's thinner but still tastes good.
This is probably the fourth time I've made it now. I keep coming back to that white wine Dijon sauce, there's something about how it coats the chicken that I haven't found in other casseroles. My only note after multiple rounds is that I've started pulling it out at 25 minutes instead of the full 30 (mine runs a little hot) and it comes out less dry that way. Worth knowing if you're having the same issue.
Mine runs steady so I hit closer to 28, but 25 makes sense for a hot oven. That sauce tightens up fast.
Made this four times in the last two months, and this last batch I finally used chicken thighs because that's all I had. I expected it to be a little off but the thighs pulled all that white wine Dijon sauce in and got so much more tender than when I use breast. Going thighs every time now, the original is already good but something about that swap made the whole thing richer.
Thighs carry that Dijon cream sauce in a way breast just can't. Four times and you waited until now to switch? I wouldn't go back either.
My mom made chicken cordon bleu for every birthday growing up. Thought going keto meant giving that up forever. One bite of this put me right back at her table.
My daughter picked out every piece of ham from her serving (she's on some kind of ham vendetta lately), ate all the chicken and sauce, and then came back for more. That white wine Dijon situation is doing something. Adding it to the rotation.
First time making this and honestly braced for the white wine sauce to go wrong. Came together fast and smelled amazing. Would deli ham work, or does the cubed precooked kind actually matter for how it cooks?
Either works. I'd just chop the deli ham into rough chunks or it kind of disappears into the sauce.
Doubted the Dijon in a white wine cream sauce and now I'm genuinely annoyed at every other casserole recipe I've made.
The Dijon in that sauce was the last thing I expected to work. Ruined me for plain cream sauces too.
One thing I noticed: blooming the Dijon in the butter for about 30 seconds before adding the cream made the sauce noticeably deeper and less sharp. Tried it both ways back to back. The bloom version won without question.
Haven't done it that way but I believe it. Dijon can get sharp in a cream sauce fast, especially with the white wine in there too.
Added a pinch of nutmeg to the cream sauce before it went in the oven, and it brought the Dijon and ham together in a way I wasn't expecting.
Nutmeg in cream sauces is so underused. That warmth against the Dijon makes complete sense. Trying it next batch.
My son kept saying it tasted familiar and spent half of dinner trying to figure out where he'd had it before. Landed on a restaurant we stopped going to a few years ago. It's the Dijon cream sauce, I think.
That's how you know the sauce worked. When it tastes like somewhere specific.
Chicken cordon bleu was firmly in my 'that's done' column once I went keto. That white wine Dijon sauce just quietly moved it back.
White wine ratio took me a few rounds to get right. That sauce is why I kept at it.
I've made cordon bleu three different ways, stuffed, rolled, that breaded sheet pan version everyone pins, and this casserole just wrecked all of them. The Dijon sauce with the white wine does something to the ham that I keep trying to articulate. Haven't touched my other versions since.
The ham soaks up that Dijon and wine in a way the breaded versions can't. No crust barrier between the sauce and meat.
Swapped the Monterey Jack for Gruyere and it actually tasted like cordon bleu. That nutty melt made all the difference.
Gruyere and Dijon together is the classic pairing. I went Monterey Jack for the melt but you lose some of that depth.
Brought this to a dinner party last weekend and two people who are not on keto spent the whole meal picking the Swiss cheese off the top and going back for more chicken. Nobody asked if it was low carb because it didn't taste like a compromise. The white wine Dijon sauce is doing something I can't explain.
That's the white wine. It lifts the whole sauce in a way broth alone doesn't. Non-keto guests going back for seconds is always the real bar for me.
Made a double batch Sunday and it's been holding up well all week. The white wine Dijon sauce doesn't break on reheat, which I can't say for most cream-based casseroles I've tried. 47g protein per serving has me planning another batch this weekend.
Yeah, that's the butter. Pure cream sauces break on reheat but this one holds. 47g is hard to argue with.
Dijon sauce is the star, but whoever's using just the optional red pepper flakes is selling themselves short. I doubled them and it hit completely different. Snow day staple now.
Snow day food needs heat. I add both the red pepper and the cayenne when it's just for me. The half teaspoon is conservative on purpose.