Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

As I mentioned the last time I posted, I recently had a baby.  I'm still doing my freezer meals.  After all it's the easiest way to stay on top of feeding my family.  But since I currently have a needy, helpless and unpredictable little person to take care of those freezer meals need to be easy in every sense.  They need to be easy to put together before freezing since I have little time and energy for cooking right now.  They need to be easy to cook or reheat on the night that I'm serving the meal since the baby is most likely to be fussy right when it's time to start making dinner.  They even need to be easy to eat since I will most likely be eating the meal one handed while the other snuggles a tiny baby who doesn't want to be put down.  Oh and they need to be delicious.  Fortunately this casserole meets all of these requirements.

Adapted from: Joy Filled Eats
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: DL


Serves 6

2 1/4 lbs chicken breasts
6 oz ham, diced
6 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 oz lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz butter, melted

1. Simmer the chicken breasts until fully cooked.  Shred the breasts either by hand or in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment.  Let cool.
2. Whip the cream cheese using a mixer until smooth and creamy.  Add the mustard, lemon juice and salt and mix to combine.  Gradually pour in the melted butter and mix to combine, scrapping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
3. Combine the cream cheese mixture, ham and shredded chicken.

To freeze:

Divide the mixture into the desired number of pans, bags or containers and freeze.  I freeze mine in vacuum seal bags to save on freezer space, but you can freeze directly in foil pans if you prefer.

To serve:

Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.  If you froze it in something other than a pan, transfer the mixture to a pan.  Cover the top of the casserole with slices of Swiss cheese and cover with tin foil.  Bake at 350 degrees until it's hot all the way through, about 30 minutes.  Remove the foil and allow the cheese on top to brown.  Serve with bread and a vegetable.  We had broccoli.