Chicken Kiev

This gem from the BHG caught my eye the first time I cracked the book. It did not disappoint. I was especially thrilled to use our new meat mallet Steph picked up a few days ago. Essentially, you start with chicken breast halves, pound them flat, then lay butter, parsley, garlic and green onion on top. Wrap up the flattened chicken, bread it, then cook. Now I always seem to have issues when cooking with chicken breast halves. I get the impression that the chicken breast halves used in recipes is much smaller than the chicken breast halves I buy in the store. So, I used two chicken breast halves, cut them in half and pounded those. Otherwise, we would have ended up with flattened chicken the size of pillowcases.

That said, I think the resulting flattened chicken we had was a little too small. When it came time to wrap the ingredients (see step 2 below), the final result wasn't as nice in the picture in the book. They, of course, had four perfectly wrapped masterpieces. They looked like breaded twinkies. Mine looked like this.

Those are some sad looking twinkies. Not a huge deal though, this isn't Hell's Kitchen. It was harder to seal the ends of mine, so some of the butter leaked out while cooking. This is ok, since the recipe tells you to spoon drippings over the chicken after baking anyway.

So when all was said and done, this is what we had. Credit goes to Steph for the perfect photos!

We really enjoyed the dish! If we could change anything, we would increase the amount of green onion, parsley and garlic in each one. Also, we might add some cheese in there (parmesan, monterrey jack?). Otherwise, it was delightful. Connor really liked it too. He ate almost a full one. Then he ate a hot dog. Then a peanut butter sandwich. The boy is an eater.

Makes 4 servings

1 tbsp chopped green onion
1 tbsp snipped fresh parsley
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 of 1/4 lb stick of butter
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (see rant above)
salt and black pepper
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil

1) In a small bowl, combine green onion, parsley, and garlic. Cut half-stick of butter lengthwise into four sticks. In another bowl, stir together egg and water. Place flour in another bowl. Place bread crumbs in yet another bowl.

2) Pound chicken in between two pieces of plastic wrap until about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Divide green onion mixture equally among pieces. Place butter stick in each one. Fold in side edges, then roll up from bottom edge (see rant above).

3) Coat rolls with flour. Dip in egg mixture. Coat with crumbs. Dip in egg mixture again, then coat with crumbs. Coat ends well. Place chicken in 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Cover; chill for 1-24 hours.

4) Preheat oven to 400. In large skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter over medium-high heat. Add oil. Add chicken rolls, seam side down (see picture below). Cook about 5 minutes, turning to brown all sides (see picture below). Return rolls to baking dish. Bake uncovered for 15-18 minutes until chicken is no longer pink. Spoon any drippings over rolls.