Give Chicken Cordon Bleu A Handheld Upgrade With A Tortilla Wrap

For anyone who isn't familiar with French tacos, the dish is sort of a cross between a panini and a burrito. The fillings are wrapped inside a tortilla, which is then pressed on a grill — and it's quite different from the handheld Mexican tacos that you're used to. The street food is a somewhat recent development, dating back to just the late 1990s or early 2000s in Rhône-Alpes, France. French tacos typically contain meat, french fries, and a creamy, cheesy sauce made from gruyere.

We took a unique spin on the dish with our chicken cordon bleu-style French tacos. Essentially, it combines all the elements of a classic chicken cordon bleu and gives them the French taco treatment for a handheld upgrade. And who doesn't love a food that's portable? Along with making it handheld, our recipe also incorporates fries and a gruyere sauce to stick to the French taco necessities. 

But for an even more simplified approach, you can make a version of this dish as the type of taco that you're used to. All you have to do is fill a small tortilla with all the fixings of a chicken cordon bleu, including the chicken and ham (and optional fries) along with a generous drizzle of the cheese sauce. Then wrap it up and dig in. 

One easy way to customize chicken cordon bleu French tacos is the sauce. For example, many French taco iterations include Algerian sauce, which is a spicy mayo-based condiment containing harissa, tomato paste, red onion, garlic, and a few other ingredients. You could also replace this with something like chipotle mayo for a similar flavor combination. Additionally, get creative and adjust the traditional gruyere cheese sauce to your liking — you could even opt for a queso instead.

You can also play around with the type of fries that you include, if you want to stray away from the crinkle cut variety that is typically used. Perhaps you go for shoestring fries or even sweet potato fries. Finally, make sure you customize the meat fillings. Maybe you're not a fan of ham, so you switch to turkey (or leave it out altogether). If you want to make the dish vegetarian, a breaded and fried tofu steak would be a good option. Even something like gooey mozzarella sticks would work in place of the chicken — as long as you don't mind this dish extra cheesy.