The actual cooking time for this particular recipe is around 10 minutes with about 10 more minutes required for preparation time Chicken Kiev is an old favorite ever so popular with culinary, gourmet and television foods show gurus the world over.

Ingredients

• 4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Halves
• 2 Large Whole Eggs
• 2¼ Cups of Japanese Bread Crumbs
• 8 Tablespoons of Unsalted Butter (about 1 stick)
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• 1 Teaspoon each of Water, Dried Parsley, Dried Tarragon and Ground Sea Salt
• ¼ Teaspoon of Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Vegetable Oil for Cooking
• A little extra ground salt and freshly ground black pepper for use in seasoning the chicken

Method

1. Bring butter to room temperature
2. Crush the garlic (a garlic press is ideal for doing this)
3. We are going to be pounding the chicken flat (the end result will be chicken breast pieces approximately 1/8 of an inch thick)

Filling

1. Add butter, parsley, tarragon, crushed garlic, 1 teaspoon of sea salt and ¼ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper into a mixing bowl and combine. It is most important that all of these ingredients are mixed thoroughly so that they evenly dispersed throughout the stuffing mixture.
2. Once the stuffing mixture has been thoroughly mixed place all of it onto a sheet of plastic wrap or waxed paper and then roll into a small diameter cylinder (3/4 inch diameter usually works well)
3. Now place the rolled stuffing mixture into the freezer
4. We will be adding some bread crumbs to the filling at the same time that we stuff and roll the chicken breasts so I will discuss the process then

Pounding the Chicken

We are going to pound the chicken flat (the end result will be chicken breast pieces approximately 1/8 of an inch thick.

1. Start by laying a piece of plastic wrap flat on your work surface
2. Now select one of your half chicken breast pieces and brush all sides lightly with water
3. Place the water-brushed chicken breast onto the plastic wrap. Cover with another piece of plastic wrap. Squirt some water onto the top of the top sheet of plastic wrap.
4. Continue this process until all of your chicken breast halves have been water brushed and placed between two sheets of plastic wrap of wax paper
5. The next step is to pound each of the chicken breast pieces in turn until they are about 1/8 of an inch thick
6. Season each flattened chicken breast with salt and pepper to taste

Stuffing and Rolling the Chicken

Preparing the Work Surface: Start by laying a fresh piece of plastic wrap or wax paper flat onto your work surface.

Stuffing the Chicken:  Put one flattened chicken breast onto the new sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper. Then unwrap the compound butter stuffing mix and place ¼ of it in the center of the flattened chicken breast piece. Add 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs on top of the stuffing mixture.

Rolling the Chicken Breast Pieces: Using the plastic wrap or wax paper will make folding in the ends of the flattened chicken pieces considerably easier so do this now. Then tightly roll the entire piece into a cylinder (log if you prefer) such that it completely encloses the stuffing mixture. Make sure that roll each chicken breast log very tightly. Repeat the stuffing and rolling procedures for each piece of chicken in turn until all pieces have been rolled.

Refrigerate: With all of the chicken stuffed and rolled place all of the rolled logs into a container and put into the refrigerator. Let stand in refrigerator for at least 2 hours before proceeding onto the next phase. Letting the stuffed and rolled chicken logs to stand overnight certainly does add to the way in which the flavors of the stuffing permeate throughout the chicken meat in each of the rolls.

Crumbing the Chicken

Because we are going to coat our chicken rolls with bread crumbs immediately prior to placing them into the frying pan for cooking it is best that we wait until we are nearly ready to go before preparing the necessary ingredients.

1. Crack both large eggs into a medium small mixing bowl. Then add 1 teaspoon of water and beat thoroughly
2. Select two shallow pie pans or long glass bowls/plates capable of comfortably accepting your flattened chicken pieces. We want to be able to lay flat each piece of chicken in them.
3. Next up put the egg and water mixture that we prepared earlier into one pan if the container that it is already in is not suitable for use in this process (i.e. you can’t lay the chicken pieces down flat in it).
4. Put 2 cups of bread crumbs into the other shallow pan/bowl/plate/tray and spread them out such that they cover a greater area than your flattened chicken pieces do
5. Once the cooking oil is up to temperature select a chicken roll and put it into the egg water mixture. Then gently roll it over a couple of times to ensure that its entire surface is covered in the egg mixture.
6. Immediately transfer the chicken roll to the bread crumb tray. Once again roll it over a couple of times to ensure that all sides have become coated in bread crumbs. Take care not to unravel it.

Cooking

1. Using a 12 inch sauté pan add some vegetable oil so that it covers the sauté pan about ½ of an inch deep. Bring the oil up to 375 degrees F over a medium high heat.
2. Gently place each crumbed chicken roll into the oil sealed side down. Cook each side of each roll until it becomes a lovely golden brown (approximately 5 minutes). Turn as required and continue cooking until all sides are golden brown.
3. Once cooked remove each chicken roll in turn and place it on a cooling rack with a drip tray underneath it to drain for about 7 minutes or so

To Serve

This recipe yields 4 adult-sized servings. Once the chicken rolls have been cooked and drained it is time to serve them up and let the feasting begin.

Bed of Rice: Suggested servings and accompaniments include placing each of the cooked Chicken Kiev rolls onto a bed of prepared steamed rice and a side serving of vegetables.

Stir-Fry Vegetables: Stir-fry vegetables go well when the Chicken Kiev is served on rice.

Traditional Vegetables: You might also wish to consider serving with other more traditional vegetables such as potatoes, peas, corn, carrots, capsicum and even a salad.

Tips

Batches – If you are using a small fry pan then it might be best to cook in batches as we don’t want to overcrowd the pan.

Drip Tray – Place a drip tray under your cooling rack to collect whatever drains off of the cooked chicken rolls.

Garlic Press – Note that a garlic press is the easiest way to crush and mince garlic but for those who do not have a garlic press handy the garlic can still be crushed/minced using the following manual method:

• First of all lay out a sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper
• Gently spray this sheet with a little water
• Peel the garlic and place it into the center of the plastic wrap/wax paper and fold over the plastic wrap/wax paper a couple of times
• Lay a tea towel flat onto your work bench and place the wrapped and skinned garlic cloves in the center. Now fold over the tea towel.
• Now for the fun part take a heavy object such as a kitchen pounder or even a hammer and pound the wrapped garlic cloves a few times. Unfold the tea towel to verify that the garlic is crushed to your satisfaction. If not simply recover the garlic and pound some more. Repeat until the garlic is crushed/minced to your complete satisfaction.