Whacking the Chicken

Chicken Kiev was the first “gourmet” dish that I made. Looking back at it, I’m not sure it was overly gourmet, but as a 15 year old, I certainly thought so. I cannot recall what prompted me to take that particular dish, but I opened up one of my dad’s Bon Appetit magazine and used their recipe.

The first order of business – pound out the chicken. I skinned and deboned four chicken breasts (could you even buy boneless, skinless breasts back then???) and laid them out on wax paper. I reached into our utensil drawer and pulled out a wooden meat mallet. This was a 2-3” wooden cube with a handle. One end of the cube was flat to pound and the opposite side had a series of dulled spikes to tenderize meats. I positioned the flat edge against the first breast, pulled back and slammed it down. WHACK! The breast started to flatten. More hits and eventually it was ready for the butter. On to the next breast.

Somewhere on the third breast, I pulled back my arm to start another hit and when I brought the mallet down, all that was there was the handle. The head had gone flying across the room behind me. Ooops. I finished with a rolling pin.

What a great dish.

It really is a pretty basic dish.

Flattening out the chicken. There is no risk that this will fly apart!

As my chicken was pretty big, I used a 1/4 stick of butter cut lengthwise.

There are several keys to good Chicken Kiev. The first is ensuring a full covering of the breading. Make sure the egg wash coats all of the chicken before you drop it in the crumbs.

The next key rolling it tight and tucking in all sides. If there is any opening, the butter will all melt out into the pan. It does help to wrap it tight and refrigerate it. The cold butter helps to hold the chicken together during the early part of cooking.

Lastly, make sure the oil is not too hot. You want the chicken to end up golden and not brown. My oil was a little too hot.

Buttery chicken…..so flavorful.

Chicken Kiev

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp parsley, snipped
• 2 tbsp chopped green onions
• 1/4 lb butter

Directions:

Pound out chicken to 1/8 inch thick. Cut butter into quarters and lay one in the center of each piece of chicken. Even divide onions and parsley between breasts. Roll each up into a log and secure with toothpicks. Mix eggs and water. Roll each log in flour, dip in egg mixture and cover with bread crumbs. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°. Fry in oil on all sides until browned and bake at 375°  for five minutes.

*** REMINDER ***

If you have an interest in participating in DICED! A Ranting Chef competition, the deadline is midnight on February 28, 2013. For full details about the competition, see the original post by clicking here.

Feb 24th is National Tortilla Chip Day

In honor of today’s food holiday, please revisit the following recipes that use or feature this ingredient:

Beef Nacho Casserole, Black Bean and Avocado Salsa, Grilled corn salad with black beans and rice