Chicken Kiev

WARNING: the compound butter made in this video might be the best thing I’ve ever made.

Anchovies, dill, garlic, and lemon. IN BUTTER. What’s not to love?

PLUS, we’re basically making chicken cutlets and the butter GETS ROLLED IN THE CHICKEN before being breaded, fried, and baked.

I love this recipe.

I made extra butter and use it almost daily on my toast. I encourage you to do the same.

Ok, but back to chicken Kiev.

Though named for the capital of Ukraine, the dish almost certainly didn’t originate from there, nor is it a traditional Ukrainian dish at all. It’s very French in its techniques and ingredients, and similar to chicken Cordon Bleu (should I do a video of that sometime, too?). I mean, I’ll be honest, who doesn’t love a piece of chicken stuffed with cheese or meat or butter that’s been breaded and fried?

There are a few tips I’d like to offer so that you might cook this and be successful. The first is that you’re going to want softened butter in order to make compound butter. I don’t own a microwave, so I take mine out the day before (although, it’s so cold in my apartment right now that it didn’t really get THAT soft). If it’s a sunny day, I like to put the butter on a plate and soften it in the sun. Cute, right?

The second tip is that after you make the compound butter, you’re going to want to freeze it or chill it until it’s hard again and, once you roll and bread the chicken, you’ll want to freeze it again slightly before frying. This just helps to kind of hold it all together and to ensure that the butter doesn’t ooooooze out while you’re frying and baking it.

I also recommend putting the fried Kievs on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet while you’re baking it. Since we’re taking the time to fry and crisp the outside / breadcrumbs, we want it to stay crisp. Baking the chicken Kiev in this way helps to ensure that is exactly what happens.

And lastly! Don’t be scared if you ripped the chicken while you were bashing it out. I did. You’ll see that in the video. I was a tad nervous that that piece of chicken would be ruined and that the butter would ooze or it would fall apart. But it didn’t! It was fine!

I breaded the chicken twice and it really kind of holds itself together. Plus, once it starts frying, all of the protein in the chicken (and egg in the breading process) helps to reseal it, and everything stays cool and calm and together.

And delicious.

Ok, enough blabbering from me. GO WATCH THE VIDEO! MAKE THE RECIPE! LMK WHAT YOU THINK!

And if anything, just make this compound butter and eat it on some toast. You’ll thank me later.