My brother came to stay with
us at Easter so I wanted to make a few special meals. The butcher's
in the next village got taken over last year and they have been doing
some really great hamper deals. One of them had different cuts of
meat all in five portions which was very handy when meal planning for
our extra guest. When it came to cooking the chicken breasts I
decided I wanted to do some type of chicken Kiev dish. My problem
with this plan was that I don't own a deep fat fryer and filling a
pan with boiling oil didn't appeal to my safety conscious self. As a
student I spent three years living in halls with no ovens and I still
have memories of smoke billowing out of the communal kitchens due to
unattended chip pans. Instead I went for the easier option of an oven
bake. Granted you don't the butter oozing out but it does keep the
chicken breasts beautifully moist and filled with garlic flavour.
On 19th April it
is National Garlic Day
so this is a perfect dish to make to celebrate this flavorsome bulb.
What do mean you didn't already have the date in your diary?! The
breadcrumbs I used were from a bag I had put in my freezer. Any
leftover crusts or sad looking slices of bread are whizzed up by my
hand blender and frozen for later use. You don't need to defrost them
in advance just mix the herbs in. On the subject of herbs the ones I
used were based on the fresh herbs I had to hand but use what you
like.
Serves 5
Equipment: Cling
film, oven-proof dish
Ingredients
4oz (125g) Unsalted butter
2 Garlic cloves, crushed
5 Chicken breasts, skinless
and boneless
½
tsp (2.5ml) Fresh parsley, torn
7oz
(200g) Breadcrumbs
1
tbsp (15ml) Fresh chives, snipped
1
tbsp (15ml) Fresh basil, torn
Black
pepper
Method
1.
Soften the butter slightly so you can mash the garlic and parsley
into it.
2.
Roll into a sausage shape, cover with cling film and then chill until
hardened.
3.
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas
mark 4.
4.
Lay the chicken breast flat. Cut the butter into five equal portions
and place one in each breast then fold over.
5.
Turn each chicken breast over and place in an oven-proof dish.
6.
Mix together the breadcrumbs, chives, basil and black pepper and
spoon over the chicken breasts.
7.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Thanks for this recipe, one of our daughters is always asking me to make chicken kiev and I never have, but this looks straight forward and delicious, it will be on the menu tonight, thanks again and have a great weekend :)
ReplyDeleteOoh I love Chicken Kiev. I haven't had one for ages so I might have to have a go at making one again soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining #FoodYearLinkup and happy national garlic day :-)
Can you believe I have never had chicken Kiev? I must rectify that! Thanks for linking to #CookBlogShare
ReplyDeleteMmm a super way to use up leftover bread! I could quite happily tuck into this any day of the year! Thank you for sharing with the No Waste Food Challenge! :)
ReplyDelete