We’re interrupting our usual schedule of kids’ activities, parenting inspiration, and family-friendly food to bring you 31 days of Kids Kitchen Recipes and Activities.

Today, Orlena from Snotty Noses is sharing her recipe for an easy pork vindaloo so we thought we’d share our own kid-prepared supper: prosciutto and paremsan pan-fried chicken – a sort of inside-out chicken cordon bleu!

This easy healthy recipe is inspired by one of Ella’s favourite Jamie Oliver stunts. He rented out a football stadium and thought several people how to cook a simple parma-ham on chicken recipe and then encouraged them to teach that recipe to others, until the entire stadium filled up with people learning, eating, and teaching this delicious recipe. (I wasn’t able to find a video of it, but if will update if anyone out there is able to locate a copy!)

When Ella said she wanted to try making this recipe, we improvised based on what we remembered from the show, but I’ve since found a copy of the recipe in Jamie’s Food Revolution cookbook. The only ingredient we were missing was lemon – which I’d say isn’t bad!

Start off by tenderizing and flattening your chicken into a fillet. In the show, Jamie encouraged participants to use the bottom of their frying pans but we used a meat mallet – yes, the same meat mallet we used to paint with for our construction provocation and to smash cotton balls for our baked cotton ball art… We really should have separate mallets for cooking and for art.

Meanwhile, heat up your pan over medium heat, and add the smallest amount of olive oil that you can get away with.

Next, grate a generous amount of Parmesan cheese and sprinkle it onto the chicken. (I taught the kids how to grate cheese by having them practice grating soap.)

Season to taste with salt, pepper, and thyme — we used Jamie Oliver’s Thyme Lemon and Bay Salt blend. A bit of paprika would have also worked well for me, but I’m a huge paprika fan.

And here is my little ham draping the prosciutto overtop of the cheese-covered chicken. If you can’t find prosciutto, you can substitute with a good quality sliced ham.

We love using our ceramic frying pan as it requires no oil or butter to be nonstick, while avoiding the chemicals that can be found in other nonstick frying pans. We used a bit of olive oil for flavour with this recipe.

Pan-fry the chicken with the ham-side down first, until that gets a nice golden brown to it and the cheese is fully melted. Flip the chicken and fry until cooked through, about 3 minutes each side. Because you’ve tenderized and flattened the chicken before cooking, pan frying will be sufficient and you will not have to transfer the chicken breast to the oven to cook through.

I enjoyed my portion with a tomato-basil salad and a simple homemade tomato balsamic dressing, while the kids enjoyed theirs with some watermelon, crudites, and spinach dip.

The parmesan & prosciutto wrapped chicken takes less than 10 minutes from start to finish and has the perfect salty, umami flavour profile.

As part of the 31 days of Kids Kitchen activities, Orlena is sharing her experience of cooking pork vindaloo with her kids.

Check out the rest of our 31 Days of Kids Kitchen Series here.

Check out our other Chicken Recipes: