This is Chicken Kiev. Chicken wrapped around seasoned butter and dipped in breadcrumbs to create one of the most delicious things you will ever eat. But not all chicken kiev is created equal. Some is made with an inferior butter mixture that tastes like gross and oozes. Some is soggy. Some is overcooked. Not this chicken kiev. This is a recipe from Cooks Illustrated an extremely pretentious, and awesome, magazine for people who cook. Their extensively tested recipes are not only delicious but also scientific! Hooray science! So anyway, Cooks Illustrated is the reason that this chicken kiev is delicious and not rubbery or tasteless.
First things first, we have to make some butter filling stuff. Ingredients: Butter, Lemon, Tarragon, Parsley, Shallot, Salt, Pepper
There's really not much to the butter filling, it's mostly juicing lemons and chopping herbs. This is the part where we show you how to juice a lemon with a spoon. I suppose you could use bottled lemon juice, but Cook's Illustrated told me to use the juice of a lemon, so that is what I will do.
This is where we show you all about chopping tarragon. My advice is, do it with a knife. Chop the parsley too, while you're at it.
Also chop the shallot. Hoorah for mini-onions! (This picture is sideways because of laziness. But you get the idea.)
Now put all those things you just chopped/juiced plus some butter in a bowl and mix it all together. I suggest a kitchen-aid or some similar device, but you know, whatever, wooden spoons are cool too.
Once everything has been mixed together make it into a square on a piece or wax or parchment paper. Now stick it in the refrigerator and get to work on the chicken part of the chicken!
Ingredients: Bread, Chicken, Flour, Eggs, Dijon Mustard, Oil
So, this part is a lot easier if you have a food processor, but we don't. So if you have a food processor, process the bread until it is tiny little crumbs. If you don't, use a knife. It takes a while, but whatever. Now put the bread on a cookie sheet with some oil and stick it in the oven for a bit. After the breads stint in the oven, it will be all bread crumby and delicious.
Now here is where you butterfly the chicken. This is a really horrible picture of butterflying chicken, but you will just have to make do. You are basically cutting the chicken in half to make it skinnier. So cut through the skinny part.
It should look something like this when you're finished.
Now pound that sucker! Pound it good! (Suggestion: Don't pound right on the counter. The counter will dent and you will be sad.)
Now take that butter out of the refrigerator and cut it into four pieces (because we are making four chicken breasts)
Salt and pepper each chicken.
Put butter in the middle of each chicken and fold it over, to make sort of a raw chicken and butter taco.
Whisk the eggs and mustard together to make an egg wash. This will be the second thing you dip the chicken in.
This is what our bread crumbs looked like after their stint in the oven. Pretty gorgeous, no?
Dip your raw chicken taco first into some seasoned flour (seasoned with salt and pepper)
Then into the egg wash
Then into the bread crumbs.
Now put them on a wire rack over a baking sheet and stick them in the oven until it is no longer a raw chicken and butter taco, but chicken kiev! Hoorah!
When you cut them open, don't expect an oozy gush of butter, there is not that much. There is just enough butter to make this chicken taste like heaven. The chicken is juicy, the butter is lemony and delicious. This chicken is worth ten times the effort it took to make. So treat yourself to a chicken-y bliss and make chicken kiev today.
Chicken Kiev (from Cooks Illustrated)
Herb Butter
8 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp minced shallot
1 tbsp minced fresh parsley leaves
1/2 tsp minced fresh tarragon leaves
1 tbsp juice from 1 lemon
3/8 tsp table salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
Chicken
4-5 slices white sandwich bread, cut into 3/4 in cubes
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 c flour
3 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1. For the herb butter: Mix all butter ingredients in medium bowl with rubber spatula until thoroughly combined. Form into a 3-inch square on plastic wrap; wrap tightly and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
2. For the chicken: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 300 degrees. Add half of bread cubes to food processor and pulse until cubes are coarsely ground, about sixteen 1-second pulses. Transfer crumbs to large bowl and repeat with remaining bread. Add 1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper to bread crumbs. Add oil and toss until crumbs are evenly coated. Spread crumbs on rimmed baking sheet and bake until golden brown and dry, about 25 minutes, stirring twice during baking time. Let cool to room temperature.
3. Butterfly chicken breasts and pound until 1/4 inch thin. Unwrap butter and cut into 4 rectangular pieces. Place chicken breast cut side up on work surface. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Place 1 piece of butter in center of bottom half of chicken. Roll bottom edge of chicken over butter, then fold in sides and continue rolling to form neat, tight package, pressing on seam to seal. Repeat with remaining butter and chicken. Refrigerate chicken, uncovered, to allow edges to seal, about 1 hour.
4. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Place flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in separate pie plates or shallow dishes. Season flour with 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper; season bread crumbs with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Add mustard to eggs and whisk to combine. Dredge 1 chicken breast in flour, shaking off excess, then coat with egg mixture, allowing excess to drip off. Coat all sides of chicken breast with bread crumbs, pressing gently so that crumbs adhere. Place on wire rack set over rimmed baking sheet. Repeat flouring and breading of remaining chicken breasts.
5. Bake until 160 degrees, 40 to 45 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes on wire rack before serving.
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