Chicken
Chicken Kiev
Chicken breasts filled with garlic butter and coated in crispy golden breadcrumbs. This is a '70s favourite that's well worth revisiting. Serve with mashed potato to soak up the herb butter and a punchy salad to counteract the richness of the sauce. Its best if the Kievs have plenty of resting time before cooking, or the coating tends to fall off.
Ingredients
main
- 2 chicken breasts
for the herb butter
- 60g butter (room temperature)
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ lemon - grated zest and juice
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- ¼ tsp Dijon mustard
- sprinkling of chopped chives
for the crumb
- plain flour
- 1 egg
- 100g breadcrumbs
Method
main
-
Step 1
Peel off the skin and remove the loose piece of under fillet. Put the two breasts in the freezer for ten minutes to firm up.
-
Step 2
Meanwhile,
make the herb butter
-
Step 1
Combine the butter with all the other ingredients, season well and then roll up in cling film into a chipolata shaped sausage, freeze to firm up (this can be done well in advance).
-
Step 2
Using a thin knife, make a hole at the thin end of the breasts and push until you almost reach the other end to create a long pocket. Push in a slice of your hard butter.
Crumb each breast
-
Step 1
by coating first in flour, dipping in egg and finally dipping in breadcrumbs. Repeat to ensure a good coating of breadcrumbs to keep your butter from oozing out when hot. Refrigerate crumbed breasts for an hour. Although normally cooking chicken straight from the fridge is frowned upon, in this case it is necessary to stop your butter from running off.
-
Step 2
Preheat oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Gently brush each breast with sunflower oil and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Allow to rest. Slice diagonally into 1-2cm slices.
