Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs

Published: Feb 10, 2015 · Modified: Jun 13, 2022 · by Renée B. · This post may contain affiliate links.

Easy, economical, healthy, and company-worthy, these Cordon Bleu Meatballs will satisfy all your savory cravings! Each meatball is stuffed with ham and Swiss cheese and baked, then finished with a creamy white wine sauce. An instant family favorite!

Many meatballs in a bowl, with a sauce poured over and garnished with fresh parsley.

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What's the Story Behind this Recipe?
What Goes into this Recipe
How to Make this Recipe
FAQs & Expert Tips
Related Recipes
Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs

What's the Story Behind this Recipe?

Some time ago, I had the opportunity to review The SkinnyTaste Cookbook, the début cookbook of Gina Homolka.

Gina is the personable and creative author behind Skinnytaste, a wildly successful, award-winning food blog. One of the best recipes in the book is her Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs. From the first time we made them, it has been an oft-requested family favorite.

Not only will this meatball recipe satisfy your savory cravings, but the technique for making them will spark your creative juices, and can be applied to making any number of other stuffed meatball flavor combinations.

Our thanks to Gina's publishers for generously allowing us to adapt and share this recipe in conjunction with our review of The Skinnytaste Cookbook. Note that all of the recipe instructions have been rewritten, and minor changes have been made to the original recipe ingredients, amounts, and methods.

What Goes into this Recipe

Cordon blue meatball ingredients: parmesan, bread crumbs, ground chicken, ham, Swiss, egg, parsley, garlic, oregano, basil, salt.

Meatball Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

★ Ground Chicken: Use a good quality ground chicken. (We recommend Iserno brand plain ground ground chicken.)

Just so you know, not all ground chicken is the same quality. We made this with some off-brand chicken once, and they were too moist before baking, and too dry after.

Lean ground pork is also an option.

★ Swiss cheese: The original recipe calls for reduced-fat Swiss cheese. We have found that, while it does shave the overall calorie count a bit, the trade-off is that the meatball centers are less gooey and more bouncy than we prefer. If calories are not your priority, we recommend using regular Swiss cheese. (We also increased the amount of cheese by almost a third.)

In her version, Gina suggests cutting the cheese into cubes. I find that grating the cheese encourages it to melt more readily during baking.

★ Bread crumbs: The original recipe suggests using dry Italian bread crumbs. We prefer using fresh bread crumbs and adding additional dry herbs, and the recipe here reflects that. Either way works.

★ Ham: Use lean, thinly sliced deli ham. We like using a honey ham. Saltier hams (like Black Forest) make the overall flavor lean too far to the salty side.

★ Parmesan: Asiago, Romano, or a combination of any of the three cheeses work just fine.

Dijon sauce ingredients: flour, white wine, milk, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, parsley, butter, and salt & pepper.

Dijon Sauce Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

★ Flour: As usual, when it comes to sauces, you can use all-purpose flour; however, we recommend using Wondra.

Wondra, or instant flour, dissolves more quickly than all-purpose flour, and mixes into both hot and cold liquids easily. This makes it particularly useful for making smooth, creamy, lump-free sauces.

★ White wine: If you aren't a wine-drinker, try using white grape juice, or just a little more chicken broth.

★ Milk: The original recipe calls for 1% milk; however, any milk or alternative milk will work. (We have tried Almond milk, coconut-almond milk, and whole milk thus far.)

★ Chicken broth: Use a good quality canned or boxed chicken broth. You can also use homemade chicken stock; however, if it is very hearty, you will want to water it down a little.

Don't have any chicken broth? Sub in one teaspoon of Better than Bouillon or a bouillon cube. Dissolve the bouillon in one cup of hot water and proceed.

How to Make this Recipe

Stuffed Meatballs

Preheat oven to 400°F | 205°C. Line a heavy baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine ground chicken, bread crumbs, parmesan, parsley, egg, garlic, and salt.

Meatball mix ingredients mixed in glass bowl.

Mix thoroughly, and then divide into 12 equal portions. (See "Meatball Hack")

2-panel collage illustrating how to divide meat mixture into 12 portions, pizza-style.

Roll each 1/12 portion of the ground chicken mixture into a ball. Set aside.

I usually put the formed meatballs in the fridge for about 15 minutes to make the mixture set a little better before trying to fill them.

While the meatballs are chilling, make the centers.

After making this recipe a number of times, I've found that it is easiest to make the ham and cheese centers in the following way:

Divide the cheese into equal 12 portions.
Form the cheese portions into little balls. Slightly wet your hands when you do this to encourage the grated cheese to stick together easier.
Cut the deli ham into ribbons roughly 1-inch wide. Divide into 12 portions.
Wrap the ham strips around the cheese balls.

meatballs and ham & cheese centers formed.

Place a ham-covered cheese ball on one side of a prepared meatball, and form the meat mixture around it so that the ham-n-cheese is now in the middle of the meatball.

2-panel collage: flattened meat portion with ham and cheese center showing; Meatball formed around center and closed.

Transfer prepared meatballs to baking sheet and bake uncovered 18-22 minutes, or until no longer pink in center.

Dijon Sauce

Make the sauce while the meatballs are finishing in the oven.

In a small bowl, combine wine, broth, milk, and mustard. Set aside.

Melt one tablespoon butter in skillet over medium-low heat. Sprinkle in one tablespoon flour and whisk until it begins to smell slightly nutty; about a minute.

Add liquid mixture all at once and whisk constantly. When mixture begins to thicken, remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, salt and parsley.

When meatballs have finished in the oven, transfer to skillet and toss with prepared sauce; or simply pour it over the top.

Meatballs in a large bowl covered with sauce, with a small pitcher of sauce on the side.

FAQs & Expert Tips

No Flat Bottoms!

We found this cool meatball pan! It helps to keep meatballs from settling and getting flat on the bottom. It is definitely not a necessity, but it's a handy thing to have if meatballs are something you make often.

Easy Pizza Hack for Perfect Meatballs

Meatball mix divided into 12 portions, cut pizza-style.

How do you make meatballs all the same size?

You can use a kitchen scale, but I find that this "pizza method" works much easier.

Simply lay the meat mixture out on a flat surface and flatten slightly, then use a large knife or pizza cutter to make cuts from edge to edge through the center, as you might when cutting pizza.

One baked meatball cut through the center to show the ham and cheese inside. Other full meatballs in a bowl.

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4.84 from 6 votes

Chicken Cordon Bleu Meatballs

These Cordon Bleu Meatballs will satisfy all your savory cravings! Each meatball is stuffed with ham and Swiss cheese and baked, then finished with a creamy white wine sauce.

Adapted from The SkinnyTaste Cookbook by GIna Homolka.

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Course: Chicken, Main Dish

Cuisine: American

Diet: Low Fat

Prep Time:20

Cook Time:20

Total Time:40

Servings: servings

Calories: 373kcal

Author: Renee

Equipment

1 heavy skillet
1 Heavy Baking Sheet
1 meatball pan nice to have, but not necessary

Ingredients

US Customary - Metric

Meatballs

1½ pounds lean ground chicken Try Isernio 95% Lean
¾ cup fresh bread crumbs
⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 large egg
1 large clove garlic minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 ounces sliced deli ham
3 ounces Swiss cheese grated; or reduced-fat

Sauce

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
¼ cup white wine or additional chicken broth
1 cup chicken broth
½ cup milk 1%
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh parsley
¼ teaspoon white pepper or freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Meatballs

Preheat oven to 400°F | 205°C. Line a heavy baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, combine ground chicken, bread crumbs, parmesan, parsley, egg, garlic, dried oregano, dried basil, and salt.
Mix thoroughly, and then divide into 12 equal portions.
Roll each 1/12 portion of the ground chicken mixture into a ball. Set aside.
I usually put them in the fridge for about 15 minutes to make the mixture set a little better before trying to form it into balls.
While the meatballs are chilling, make the centers.
After making this recipe a number of times, I've found that it is easiest to make the ham and cheese centers in the following way:
A. Divide the cheese into equal 12 portions.
B. Form the cheese portions into little balls. Slightly wet your hands when you do this to encourage the grated cheese to stick together easier.
C. Cut the deli ham into ribbons roughly 1-inch wide. Divide into 12 portions.
D. Wrap the ham strips around the cheese balls.
Place a ham-covered cheese ball on one side of a prepared meatball, and form the meat mixture around it so that the ham-n-cheese is now in the middle of the meatball.
Transfer prepared meatballs to baking sheet and bake uncovered 18-22 minutes, or until no longer pink in center.

Dijon Sauce

Make the sauce while the meatballs are finishing in the oven.
In a small bowl, combine wine, broth, milk, and mustard. Set aside.
Melt one tablespoon butter in skillet over medium-low heat. Sprinkle in one tablespoon flour and whisk until it begins to smell slightly nutty, about a minute.
Add liquid mixture all at once and whisk constantly. When mixture begins to thicken, remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, salt and parsley.
When meatballs have finished in the oven, transfer to a skillet and toss with prepared sauce; or simply pour the sauce over the top.

Notes

How to make meatballs all the same size:

You can use a kitchen scale, but I find that this "pizza method" works much easier.

Simply lay the meat mixture out on a flat surface and flatten slightly, then use a large knife or pizza cutter to make cuts from edge to edge through the center, as you might when cutting pizza.

Nutrition

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.

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About Renée B.

Renée is self-taught home chef with a penchant for creating healthy(ish) comfort food recipes, and adapting vintage recipes for the 21st century cook. In her spare time, she writes unfinished novels and songs about cowboys.