Baked Chicken Recipes

When looking through my baked chicken recipes, I came across one I hadn't made in a while. Chicken Kiev! Yummo! Came from Russia, right? Nope. Came from New York! Well, actually the name of it comes from New York. New York had many Soviet immigrants and the restaurants wanted their business, so they hoped to entice them with the name Chicken Kiev! Today, however, most restaurants in the Ukraine serve this buttery chicken delight!

The dish itself was actually created by a French chef by the name of Nicholas Appert in 1809. Chef Appert is also known as the "father of canning". When Napoleon offered a massive amount of money to anyone who came up with a way to preserve food - obviously for Napoleon's army - Chef Appert came up with a way to preserve food in bottles. But I digress... Back to Chicken Kiev. The dish is basically a pounded chicken breast rolled around a cold herb butter. The chicken is then rolled in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs and then deep fried. With so many people trying to eat a bit more healthy, fried food recipes are often set aside for healthier options. However, I've found that I can include Kiev in my BAKED chicken recipes and it tastes just as wonderful as the fried version. Would you like to try it?

CHICKEN KIEV FOR FOUR

First of all, make your herb butter.

1/4 cup softened butter
1 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoons chopped chives
1 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black or white pepper

Mix all of these ingredients well. Shape this mixture into a block on plastic wrap or waxed paper and freeze until fairly solid (about an hour or so).

Now on to the chicken.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup flour
1 egg, beaten well
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs or Panko or crushed cornflakes

Pound the chicken between two sheets of waxed paper. Now get your butter out of the freezer and cut it into four sticks close to the width of the chicken.

Place one stick on each chicken breast and fold the edges over the butter. Roll the chicken firmly around the butter stick, making sure to enclose all of the butter.

Now roll each bundle into the flour, the egg and the crumbs.
If you have time, place these in the frig for an hour to make sure the butter is hard.

Place the chicken bundles in a greased baking pan. Dot each one with a bit of extra butter to keep the outside moist. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Your guests will rave about the burst of the herbed butter as the first cut releases this buttery herb sauce onto the plate.

I hope you will enjoy one of my favorite baked chicken recipes! Bon Appetit!

If you would like more recipes like this one, visit me here!