Hi guys, I'm Laura Vitale, and on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen, I want to share with
you my take on a Chicken Kiev, it's so good, it's so crispy on the outside, mouth wateringly
juicy and flavorful on the inside, it is just to die for.
Let me take you over the ingredients - which there's not many of them - but I'm telling
you, all together, they are perfection.
Couple of eggs, a splash of milk, these are just some seasoned panko bread crumbs, plain
old panko bread crumbs will do, little bit of all-purpose flour, salt and pepper, and
here I have a mixture of scallions, parsley, lemon zest, a clove of garlic and some dried
dill - you can also use fresh.
I've got some six ounce chicken breasts here, and you'll need a little bit of vegetable
oil.
And that really is it, of course, you'll need some butter, but as you know, it needs to
be nice and cold and I have it in the fridge and I'll share with you what I'm going to
do in just a minute.
But, right away what I want to get going on - before I get my hands dirty by pounding
out the chicken, I really want to get my mixture here all chopped up.
Now you can do this by hand, but I'm taking a little bit of help from my mini chop here
and I"m adding everything in here.
And then I am just going to pulse this until the mixture is finely chopped, but it's not
into a paste, you just want this to be really finely chopped.
Okay, smells so good already, now I'm not going to do anything to this, I just want
to set this aside, I just wanted to get it ready before I got my hands dirty with the
chicken, but now that that's ready, I'm going to work on butterflying the chicken a little
bit.
Now, what you're going to do, you're going to take a chicken breast - now it's important
that it's a nice sized chicken breast, you don't want these to be thin because otherwise
you won't be able to butterfly them.
Make sure everything is nice and clean on a plastic cutting board is best and then you
kind of just open this up like a book.
You make like a little - you slice it kind of down the middle, you don't want to go all
the way through, use your knife just to kind of guide you.
Again, be gentle because you're not looking to go all the way through.
Like that!You see how that looks like a butterfly?
or like a book?
Like so, we didn't go all the way through.
Now, this hand is clean, my right hand is clean so I'm just going to take some plastic
wrap.
Here we go!
Like so.
And now, you need to pound this until it's nice and thin, but not so thin that it's basically
making holes in your chicken.
I'm going to use a small little saucepan, you can use a meat mallet, you could use a
rolling pin, you could use whatever you have, you just need to flatten this out nice and
thin.
You want it to be about a quarter of an inch thick, you don't want it to be too thick but
you don't want it to be too thin.
Just take your time, too don't rush it and make sure it's nice and even.
Okay, my chicken has been pounded, I just whisked together my eggs and milk with just
a little bit of salt and pepper.
I've got my flour that I just seasoned with a little bit of salt and pepper, I haven't
done anything to my breadcrumbs and now I have my butter - now as you can see, I just
took a stick of butter and I just cut out, like I guess little matchsticks, if you will.
And I'll show you what I like to do, now this is kind of my preferred method to do this
but you can do whatever your heart desires.
I'm going to take a few of my - I always want to call them Q-Tips but they are not - they
are toothpicks.
I'm going to just set them aside because I don't want to cross contaminate and put my
hand - my clean hands into the chicken and that, so I'm going to show you want I like
to do and then you can go from there.
Take a chicken breast, actually I like to turn it this way.
With your clean hand, a pinch of salt on the inside, then you take your little stick of
butter and you just dip this - you see what I'm doing?
I'm dipping the butter.
It won't stick perfectly but you're going to help it.
Like that.
Okay, and the herb mixture - going to put a few more herbs.
Like so.
And once this kind of cooks together, it melts and makes for the most delicious sauce.
Okay, and then all you do is you kind of wrap this up like a chicken cutlet, if you will.
Like that, see?
Just fold one side over.
Like so.
And make sure that you secure this well with some Q - ha, I don't know why my whole life,
I've been calling these Q-Tips, but they are clearly toothpicks, and just secure this really
well with your toothpicks, and also make sure you put a toothpick on each end, just to seal.
Make sure everything doesn't I guess, escape.
Like so.
Then it's really easy, like that.
Then it's really easy, you just - I have this completely wrong, as far as assembly goes,
but you know, that's just how I roll, then dip it in flour, and then your eggs.
And then finally, in the panko, and then I'm going to do the same thing to all of them,
get them ready to start cooking, I have my oven preheated to 375F because I'm going to
sear these on the stove top and finish cooking them in the oven.
So I'm going to do that, and then I'll show you what they look like when they're all done!
These are coated and ready, I've got a skillet here with some vegetable oil coming up to
a really nice hot temperature because I want to sear these, I want that crunch to be out
of this world.
And to do that, you need a good amount of vegetable oil to get it going.
If you were to just - if you were to just spray these with a little bit of nonstick
spray and throw them in the oven right now, they would still be delicious, but they're
not going to have that texture, that crunch that I'm looking for so I always like to start
them - skillet, put them on a baking sheet over top of a rack and then pop them in the
oven.
So I'm just going to take one at a time.
Yeah!
Look at that sizzle!
And these are only going to take, I would say, maybe 3 minutes on each side.
Probably going to do all four sides, and again, make sure you have a baking sheet ready with
a wire rack on top that can go straight into the oven because these are going to need to
finish up cooking in the oven.
I'm going to babysit these, let them get nice and golden brown and crispy and then we'll
move onto the next step!
These look fantastic!
Taking them out, look at the color of that!
Okay, now these are hardly cooked, now they need to cook fully on the inside which is
why I'm going to pop them into the oven that I have preheated at 375F and they'll be in
there for a good 20-25 minutes until the internal temperature comes up to 170F, and I'll show
you what they look like when they are done!
Let's see.
Oh yes!
Look at the juice!
You seeing it?
Perfection!
My mouth is salivating!
I"m so excited!
These baked for about 25 minutes total, and I mean, I can't wait, it just smells phenomenal.
That really is, absolutely mmm!
Mh hmm!
On point!
So good!
The fresh parsley, I can really get that dill flavor coming through from the dried, dill
that I added in there, garlic is not too overwhelming, it's juicy, it's flavorful, it is so crispy,
listen to the crunch.. hold on!
[crunch]
I mean, really!
Mmm mmm mmm!
That is money!
So delicious, there are so many different takes on this one, and of course this is just
my take on it, and by no means, is it authentic in any way, but it is absolutely delicious,
go to LauraintheKitchen.com and don't forget you can always use different herbs, different
spices, use things that you love and things that are familiar to you.
This just happens to be what I personally love and I hope that you do as well.
Thank you so much for hanging out with me today.
LauraintheKitchen.com has the recipe waiting for you and I'll see you next time!
Bye!