Chicken Kiev recipe is a Russian-origin dish made from chicken fillets rolled with bread and eggs. These can be fried or baked. In simple words, a chicken kiev is almost similar to that of a chicken cutlet. Butter, eggs, bread and chicken breast are the main ingredients used to make this super-hit main course dish.
While the taste is all classic and traditional, chicken kiev gives you a lot of room to try out different types of stuffing, as per your creativity.
How hard is it to make Chicken Kiev?
Before we proceed to tell you how to make the classic chicken kiev, here is a disclaimer. This dish is not suitable for beginners, because it is slightly complex to make it. Making a perfect chicken kiev can only be mastered by professional chefs that have lots of experience. If you want to taste the goodness of chicken, garlic and butter in their finest forms, preparing a chicken kiev is the best solution.
Some things to know about making the perfect chicken kiev recipe
- Many people have tried to make a healthy version of this dish by omitting the deep-frying part. They tried to directly bake the chicken breasts for about 45 minutes, after preheating the oven at 400F. While baked chicken kiev does taste very good, it doesn’t have the crispiness that makes the garlic butter flavors stand out.
- One of the major problems that you may face while cooking chicken kiev is the possibility of the butter leaking out while frying. In some traditional Russian kitchens, frozen butter is used to fill up the center of the chicken breasts. They are then inserted on cocktail sticks and kept in the freezer for about 3 hours, before they are fried in hot oil. Since the butter & spices have settled well inside the chicken kiev, the chances of leaking of butter are almost nil.
You can try out any of these methods and relish the beautiful flavors of garlic butter & other spices when you break open the perfect chicken kiev.
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Chicken Kiev Recipe
Let’s make this Classic Chicken Kiev, just follow the instructions and you’ll be amazed by the results. 🙂
Ingredients
- Garlic cloves – 2 (minced or crushed)
- Salt – as needed
- Freshly chopped parsley leaves – 2 tablespoons
- Unsalted butter – 6 tablespoons (be generous with the butter to make this dish taste yummy)
- Boneless and skinless chicken breasts – 4 pieces (about 8 ounces of total weight)
- All-purpose flour – 1 cup
- Freshly ground pepper – 2 teaspoons
- Eggs (beaten)-2
- Bread crumbs – 2 cups
- Cayenne pepper – 1 pinch
- Oil – as needed (for frying purposes)
Instructions
- Crush the garlic, salt and parsley coarsely with the help of a pestle and motor.
- Add butter to this crushed mixture and mix well until all the contents mix well.
- Use plastic wrap to cover this butter mixture. Leave the wrapped mixture in the fridge to settle down for about 15 minutes. By this time, the flavors of garlic and parsley would have been absorbed well by the butter.
- Use the salt and pepper spices to season the chicken breasts. Now stretch out the chicken breasts nicely. Then, apply about ¼ of the butter mixture in the center of each of the breasts.
- Keep folding the narrow ends of the chicken breast until you reach the butter mixture. Thus, you see that tight pockets are formed near the butter.
- Now bring the sides of the breast to the center, so that the entire shape turns into a ball. Do you want to know if you have folded the chicken breasts properly? Here is a tip. Check the top of the chicken breast. It should be soft & smooth. Now, check the bottom portion of the chicken breast. They will be gathered.
- Once you notice this pattern, wrap each of the chicken breasts tightly with the help of plastic wrap. Repeat the steps for all the breasts.
- You should keep all the wrapped chicken breasts on a plate, and then leave the plate in the freezer for about 30 minutes. This is the time given for the bottom, gathered portion of the chicken breasts to hold together firmly.
- Now, you have to take three bowls. In the first bowl, add the all-purpose flour and salt. Whisk the contents well. In the second bowl, beat the eggs nicely. Transfer the bread crumbs to the third bowl.
- After 15 minutes, take out the wrapped chicken breasts from the refrigerator.
- Roll the chicken breasts very gently into the first bowl (flour & salt mixture). Shake the pieces gently to remove additional flour. Now, dip the flour-coated chicken breasts into the second bowl of beaten eggs. Then press them nicely in the third bowl of bread crumb mixture. Repeat the steps until all the chicken breasts are coated with bread crumbs.
- Place these bread-coated chicken breasts on a plate. Cover the plate tightly with plastic wrap, and allow it to settle in the freezer for about 15 to 2o minutes.
- Heat some oil in a deep frying pan. Wait until the oil temperature reaches 350 degrees F. Simultaneously, preheat the oven to about 400 degrees F.
- Prepare the baking sheet ready by lining it with aluminum foils.
- When you take out the chicken breasts from the freezer, gently insert them one by one into the deep-frying pan and fry for a minute until both sides of the breasts turn golden brown.
- Take out only if both sides are slightly browned. Place the fried chicken breasts directly on the baking sheet. Garnish the meat with some salt & cayenne pepper.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven, and bake the chicken breasts for about 15 minutes. You can hear the sounds of the butter sizzling inside the breasts when they are being baked. With the meat thermometer, keep checking the internal temperature of the chicken kiev. Stop the baking timer, when the internal temperature reads 165 degrees F.
- Please take out the chicken kiev from the oven and transfer them to a serving plate. Wait for about 5 to 10 minutes, before you start relishing them.
