Chicken Kiev

Continuing with my experiments on deep frying, this time scarily alone, I wanted to try that 80s kiddies classic. Chicken Kiev. I've no idea why I wanted to try this. I wasn't ever that big a fan of chicken kiev but there you have it. I wanted a wholesome hearty dinner and this is what I came up with. 

I made it up out of my head. I made a herb and garlic butter. Then made a hole in the chicken breast and stuffed the butter into it. I heated my oil. Scary. It was oil I had used before and it was much noisier being heated up the second time round. It was really quite intimidating! Anyway, I breaded the chicken dipping it first in seasoned flour then egg and lastly breadcrumbs and put it in the pan. I had no idea how long it would take and as I'm a bit scared of uncooked chicken and my deep frying capabilities I finished it off in the oven which was busy roasting my potatoes. I served it with roast potatoes and good old broccoli and it was very tasty. And it looked pretty impressive too. The breadcrumbs were a great success and it was a lovely golden colour. Not bad!

As I sat down to eat it I decided to look up some recipes to see what I had done wrong. A lot of them suggested making a compound butter then rolling it and refrigerating it before slicing off the desired amount and stuffing it in the chicken. I presume this keeps it colder for longer and then it doesn't all melt away in the cooking completely as mine did. Mine was decidedly lacking in that fairly essential to any self-respecting chicken kiev pool of melted butter.

Another common element was flattening out the breast with a tenderizer then placing the patty of butter on the flattened meat and rolling the meat around it, instead of just inserting the butter in a pocket as I did. 

Minor details but could improve the end result. So here's my recipe:

2 chicken breasts
100g flour (seasoned)
1 egg
1 cup of breadcrumbs
2 tbsp butter
1 clove of garlic (finely chopped)
herbs (finely chopped)
seasoning
oil for frying 
  

1. make the compound butter with the garlic and herbs
2. roll in baking parchment to form a tube of butter and refrigerate
3. place cling film over the chicken and flatten out with a mallet
4. cut a round of butter about 1 cm thick
5. place this in the middle of the chicken breast, fold in the ends and then roll the chicken breast so the butter is completely enclosed
6. season the breasts
7. dip the breast first in seasoned flour, patting off any excess, then egg and finally breadcrumbs
8. shallow fry in a frying pan until golden then transfer to the oven and bake at gas mark 6 for 20 mins
9. alternatively, deep fry until golden and cooked - about 15-20 mins

The best thing about this dinner was eating the leftovers the next day in a chicken ceasar salad. Yum!