Chicken Kiev
Ingredients
- Herb Butter:
- 113 g butter (unsalted) (8 T, softened)
- 1 T minced shallot
- 1 T minced fresh parsley
- 1/2 t minced fresh tarragon
- 1 T lemon juice (fresh)
- 3/8 t Salt (Table)
- 1/8 t freshly ground black pepper
- Chicken
- 60 g bread (white, cut into 3/4" cubes, to crumb)
- Salt (Table)
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 T vegetable oil
- 4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless, about 7 to 8 ounces each, tenderloins removed)
- 1/2 c Flour (Plain)
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- 1 t Dijon mustard
Method
For the Herb Butter: Mix butter, shallot, herbs, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in medium bowl with rubber spatula until thoroughly combined. Form into 3-inch square on plastic wrap; wrap tightly and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
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 cubes (you should have about 3 1/2 cups crumbs). Add 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon 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 (you should have about 1 cup bread crumbs).
Prepare cutlets, Unwrap butter and cut into 4 rectangular pieces. Place chicken breast cut side up on work surface; pound thin, making the edges thinner than the middle. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Place 1 piece of butter in center of bottom half of breast. 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.
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 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper; season bread crumbs with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon 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.
Bake until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of chicken (from top) registers 160 degrees, 40 to 45 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes on wire rack before serving.
Notes
From source:
Step-by-Step: Troubleshooting Chicken Kiev
PROBLEM: Homogenized crust is reminiscent of a corndog.
SOLUTION: We had better results with coarse (not ultra-fine) crumbs and baking, not deep-frying.
PROBLEM: Compound butter leaks.
SOLUTION: Pounding the chicken thin (and thinner at the edges) and refrigerating to let the seams set produced butter-tight Kievs.
PROBLEM: Pan-fried coating browns unevenly, and sides remain pale.
SOLUTION: Browning the bread crumbs before coating and baking the chicken yielded a uniform crust.
Recipe Notes: Unbaked, breaded chicken Kievs can be refrigerated overnight and baked the next day or frozen for up to one month. To cook frozen chicken Kievs, increase the baking time to 50-55 minutes (do not thaw chicken).
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SJ Note 17 Sept 2011: This was really tasty - the meat was nice and moist, not dry like chicken breast can easily get. The breadcrumbs were tasty, even though I don't usually like breadcrumbs. The recipe didn't actually say to pound the chicken thin originally, but it talked about it in the notes (above), and I sure didn't see any other way to do it. If you keep the cut side up, then less of the chicken stays on the cutting board after pounding. I found I had a great deal of waste of breadcrumbs, flour, and egg, so I've cut that down a great deal in this copy. Otherwise, the taste was great, and we'll definitely have this again!