Gun to my head my favorite sandwich of all time is chicken cordon bleu.
Highlighting the above scenario serves two purposes – one, to tell you just how much I enjoy the sandwich, and two, to remove the possibility of the above scenario ever occurring.
(How, you ask? Well, in the event that a villain is threatening me with a bullet to the dome if I don’t tell him my favorite sandwich, that would mean that for some reason I’ve been withholding that information…so now that I’m putting that information out to the public, the aforementioned villain will already have access to this answer – if he reads my blog, of course – and therefore will have no reason to wave a Colt .45 in my face, in which case, by writing about it I’m also preventing it from happening. Smart, right?)
If you’re still with me, the reason I’m writing about this sandwich today is because despite growing up loving the chicken cordon bleu, nearly every restaurant/sub shop I’ve ever been too since the ones I frequented in high school in New Jersey have been making it wrong (or at least differently)…
The cordon bleu sandwich that 95% of places serve is likely what you’re familiar with (and by no means is a poor sandwich).
It’s the sandwich with breaded chicken, ham, melted Swiss cheese and a honey mustard sauce.
When done right, that in itself is a damn fine sandwich.
HOWEVER…
That’s not the cordon bleu sandwich I grew up with.
After recently ordering a cordon bleu and getting the chicken/ham/swiss variety, I finally did some research and discovered this piece of critical information:
The vintage cordon bleu refers to a sandwich with prosciutto and Gruyere cheese between two lightly breaded chicken breasts.
Now THAT’S the sandwich I grew up eating…
Still, it’s not like I can make my local sandwich shops revert to the CCB of my youth… But at least now I know what I’m craving and I can (and will) make it myself.
And mystery solved.
(If it wasn’t a mystery for you I totally understand… I probably spend too much time thinking about sandwiches anyway.)
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