Escalopes

When I was growing up my mum was not the world's best cook and often dinners were of the ready made variety from the freezer*.  One of my favourite things that she put in front of us was chicken escalopes with cheese and ham covered in breadcrumbs.  They came out of  a packet and I dread to think how shockingly bad they were for you but this was the eighties before the food revolution and I didn't know any better.  Plus they really were very tasty.  Sometimes we would have a little variety and have turkey instead of chicken but the important thing was that it was a thin piece of meat covered in a slice of processed ham with some cheesy ooze all deep fried in breadcrumbs and then cooked in the oven.  Thanks to Tessa Kiros' awesome book Apples for Jam (which I am still going on about) I could recreate this little piece of nostalgia. I used chicken instead of beef as in the original recipe and cheddar rather than fontina which I cannot find anywhere.  Seriously, nowhere.  The original recipe was for four which I halved for two. The bechamel ingredients make more than is needed but it's hard to make much less.  


2 large chicken breasts
2 thin small slices of cheese
1 slice of ham, halved
Flour for dusting
1 egg, beaten
30-40g dry breadcrumbs
20g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil


Bechamel Sauce
20g butter
1 tablespoon plain flour
125ml milk


To make bechamel sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan.  Add the flour and then put back on the heat for a minute or so, stirring all the time.  Gradually add the milk, whisking as you go.  When all the milk is added you should have a thick, smooth sauce.  Add salt and pepper and cook this for about five minutes to get rid of the floury taste.  Leave to one side to cool slightly.  
Beat the chicken breast out between two pieces of cling film using a rolling pin to get a flat piece of meat about 2-3mm thick.  It needs to be thin in order to cook in time but too thin and you won't be able to use it. If in doubt, I would err on the side of thickness.  
Put a slice of cheese on one side of each chicken breast and the ham over the this.  Spread some of the bechamel over the slices of ham leaving an edge of ham free from sauce.  
Fold the other half of the chicken over the bechamel and press the edges together.  
Put the flour on a wide plate and season.  Here you need an assembly line with a plate of flour next to a plate with the beaten egg on and then finally a plate spread with the breadcrumbs.  You put the chicken onto each of these plates in turn making sure you have both sides covered in each coating.
Heat the butter and oil in a non stick frying pan until sizzling.  Add the escalopes and fry until they are deep golden.  Turn over and cook on the other side.


The escalopes shouldn't need long as the meat is only thin but if you are worried or they are starting to burn then finishing them off in the oven is no great sin.  The original recipe doesn't say this but it's what I did and the meat didn't suffer at all.


Serve immediately to greedy people regressing back into childhood.


*I should add my mother is now a brilliant cook who never had the time with a part time job and two demanding and fussy children to feed every day.  She didn't even pay me to say that.