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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Chicken Kiev with a Twist

I haven't made chicken breasts in a while and normally I'll marinate them and either grill them or chunk them up for tempura. But I wanted to stuff them this time. I had to think about this and search high and low for a recipe, as most stuffed chicken uses cheese, which Hubbs doesn't like.

I remember seeing The Martha make Chicken Kiev once and thought it looked interesting. I liked the idea of the hidden pat of herbed butter infusing the chicken with it's flavor while also keeping the meat moist. The only thing I didn't like was the deep frying. Yes, me. I KNOW! But I don't really like fried chicken breast, go figure.

This recipe is taken from bits and pieces of a few recipes I read - because not one single recipe tripped my trigger, if ya know what I mean. I also decided to give it a bit of a twist by lightly dredging the rolled breasts in ranch dressing in lieu of beaten eggs and also to use Panko instead of traditional bread crumbs. And finally, I decided to try to bake them instead of deep frying.

This is a keeper for sure. The breasts were extremely moist and super flavorful due to the herbed butter and ranch dressing. The Panko baked up crunchy and took on a nice golden color. By placing the breasts on a rack over the baking dish, they did not cook in their own juices so the bottoms were just as crunchy as the tops. My only faux pas was forgetting to add the lemon juice to the herbed butter. Next time I'll do that as I think the lemon will brighten the flavors of the chives and parsley nicely. Oh yeah.. and might I suggest, when you make this recipe do NOT use the pretty colored tooth pics to help seal the rolls. As you'll see in the picture, although they did work in keeping the butter inside the rolls, they left a loverly dot of blue dye on the chicken. How attractive is that? heee! I served these with smashed sweet potatoes and steamed green beans.

Chicken Kiev
Chicken Kiev with a Twist

4 chicken breasts, pounded to about an 1/8th inch thick
4 TBS butter, softened
1 TBS. fresh, snipped chives
1 TBS. fresh, chopped parsley
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 cups Panko crumbs
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. paprika (I used sweet spanish paprika)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 TBS. fresh, chopped parsley
1 c. ranch dressing

Preheat oven to 375ยบ F.

In a small bowl, combine the softened butter, chives, parsley, lemon juice and garlic powder. Transfer to a small piece of plastic wrap and shape into a small log. Place in freezer while working on the breasts.

In a shallow dish or bowl, combine the Panko with the garlic powder, paprika, salt and parsley - mix well with your finger tips.

In another shallow dish or bowl add the ranch dressing.

Take the butter out of the freezer (it should have been in there for at least 10 minutes, allowing it to harden - but would be better if you made the butter ahead of time so that the flavors could meld even more.) Cut into either 4 disks width wise or 4 slices length wise. I went with the long slices.

Season pounded breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Lay 1 breast flat in front of you and place a slice of the herbed butter in the middle of the breast. Roll the edge closest to you towards the other end, bringing up the sides half way through the roll. Use toothpics to secure.

Dredge the rolls lightly through the ranch dressing and then through the bread crumbs. Place the rolls on a rack that has been placed in a baking dish. I used a small rack over a 8" square baking dish as I only baked 2 rolls and froze the other 2 for a quickie dinner another night. Continue on in this fashion for the rest of the chicken breasts.

Bake them in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the juices run clear when poked with the tip of a knife.

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Comments on "Chicken Kiev with a Twist"

 

Blogger Ilva said ... (10/25/2006 9:06 AM) : 

Lisa, this sounds gorgeously good! mmmm...nice fusion of several recipes into an original creation! Brava!

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (10/25/2006 1:48 PM) : 

I love Chicken Kiev. Especially when you cut into it and the butter squirts out! Mmmmm.

 

Blogger Acme Instant Food said ... (10/25/2006 2:08 PM) : 

Isn't panko the best invention since tequila?

 

Blogger Laura Rebecca said ... (10/25/2006 2:54 PM) : 

That sounds really, really good. I have to try this soon, Lis!

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (10/25/2006 7:45 PM) : 

Gorgeous and tasty, love that you baked it instead of deep-frying, less guilt associated with this delish dish!

 

Blogger Meeta K. Wolff said ... (10/26/2006 2:50 AM) : 

Lisa, I love Chicken Kiev, but was never too sure if I ever made it haome I would do it exactly the same way as often eaten. There was always things I wanted to change. YOu've created a recipe that could just about kick it here too. Love it. It really sounds perfect.

 

Blogger Gattina Cheung said ... (10/26/2006 4:39 AM) : 

I always think chicken breast too dry, but see how juicy your kiev is... my mouth is watering!

 

Blogger Lis said ... (10/26/2006 6:16 AM) : 

Ilva - Thank you so much! I'm glad my changes worked out nicely

peabody - I know! hehe

Kev - Panko is good.. but I don't know if it can quite compare to tequila. Ohhh howI loves me my tequila shooters! :D

LR - Please do.. and let me know what you think =)

Ellie muh luv - hehe well, there's still a lot of guilt with it as it's stuffed with butter (ya'll) but I like to think the lean breast meat equals out the butter and ranch dressing, yes? har!

Meeta - Thank you sweetie =)

Gattina - That's exactly why I don't like fried chicken breast - it's always too dry in my opinion. I don't know if it was the butter inside or the dredging of ranch on the outside or a combo of both but these breasts were incredibly moist. Yummy!

 

Blogger Callipygia said ... (10/26/2006 7:19 PM) : 

I always see Ranch dressing as a guilty pleasure (doritos!)- what a great idea and with the buttah. O my.

 

Blogger jasmine said ... (10/26/2006 9:07 PM) : 

How wonderful. I haven't had chicken Kieve in ages...


j

 

Blogger emily said ... (10/26/2006 10:15 PM) : 

Lisa - that's really gorgeous (even with the blue dot)! I like the panko coating . . there's a really great epicurious recipe for chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and oven baked (if you're ever looking for more stuffed chicken recipes); I'd try the panko there next time I make it. Great idea!

 

Blogger Tracie P. said ... (10/27/2006 5:23 PM) : 

OOOOOWEEEE! deep fraahhd with buttir...yum

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (10/27/2006 7:49 PM) : 

Oh! It looks so good. The filling is all oozy and yummy!

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (10/31/2006 10:42 AM) : 

oh....wow. Now this is a recipe I think I will be trying soon! I love the idea of using ranch dressing. It sounds so sneaky but so good.

And it looks so moist. I want to dig in right now!

 

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