Magazine Mondays Chicken Kiev

Chicken Kiev is a Russian dish that is delicious!  I found this recipe in Gourmet magazine, April 1994. (I keep some magazines a long time.)  I've made Chicken Kiev before, but I found today that I really love this version.  I changed it a little.  I left out the garlic the recipe calls for and used just a little onion salt in place of the minced fresh chives, since our chives are under at least 1-1/2 feet of snow today.  I also fried the chicken instead of deep-frying as the recipe calls for.  Along with the chicken, I tried Delta Kitchen's Sesame Spatzle.  It is really good.  Check that site for the recipe.  I used just a little garlic and added the sesame seeds at the end with the parsley.  I think it would be good without any garlic, actually.

CHICKEN KIEV

1 stick butter, softened
1 Tblsp. minced fresh Italian parsley
a few shakes onion salt
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. grated fresh lemon zest
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large egg, beaten lightly with a little water
1 cup flour
1-1/2 cups fine dry bread crumbs
salt and pepper
vegetable oil for frying

Mash together butter, parsley, onion salt, lemon juice and zest and a little salt.  Form into "fingers" about 1/2 inch in diameter and wrap in plastic and chill about an hour.  Cut chicken breasts in half to make thinner pieces.  Cut those in half again to make a total of 8 pieces.  Place each between plastic wrap and pound thin with a meat pounder.  Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.  Cut sections of the chilled butter a little shorter than the width of the chicken and roll the meat up like a jelly roll around the butter.  Press the edges and seam to enclose the butter.  Dip rolled chicken in flour, beaten egg and bread crumbs.  Place all chicken pieces in a single layer on a plate and refrigerate to chill an hour.  Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in a skillet.  Brown the chicken on medium high until well browned on all sides.  Turn down the heat and cover the pan partially to allow the chicken to finish cooking all the way through. 

The original recipe calls for deep-frying instead of panfrying.  It also includes 1 tsp. minced garlic, mashed to a paste with 1/2 tsp. salt to be added to the butter when mixing.  Instead of the onion salt, the recipe calls for adding 1 Tblsp. minched fresh chives.

Simple green beans finished out this meal.