D: We were lazy this weekend, and other stuff has been keeping us busy (so much Dark Souls… so much…) [S: I met my new dragonboat team, and did a photoshoot for a friend] so we wanted something reasonably quick and easy. Chicken’s quick and easy! So we gave this Chicken Kiev recipe a shot. Nice and quick recipe, cheap as well. Figured it’d be something that’ll fit into a busy weekend.
[Serves 4]
Ingredients:
- 4 strips of bacon
- olive oil
- 4x150g skinless chicken breasts
- 3TBsp AP flour
- 2 large eggs
- 150g breadcrumbs (we needed around half of this)
- sunflour oil
- 2 large handfuls of baby spinnach
- 2 small or 1 large lemon
For the stuffing:
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/2 bunch of flat-leaf parsley (15g)
- 4 knobs of unsalted butter, room temperature (uuhhh like 4TBsp)
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
Mash:
- 800g Maris Piper or Yukon Gold potatoes
- 1 head of broccoli
- 1 knob of unsalted butter
The Step-by-Step:
- Fry the bacon in a pan on medium heat, or bake in the oven until crispy.
- Peel the garlic and finely chop
- Finely chop the parsley
- Mix into softened butter with the cayenne
- Put in the fridge until firm
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- To stuff the chicken, turn the breast over, pull the loose flap back, and cut opposite to the flap, into the thick meat of the breast, creating a slit
- Cut the butter into 4 pieces
- Push one piece into the chicken
- Crumble in one of the pieces of bacon
- Fold back, and seal the chicken, repeat for the remaining
Breading Station:
- Heat 3/4in oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat
- Beat the eggs in a shallow bowl
- Pour the flour into another bowl
- Place the breadcrumbs into… yet another bowl or on a plate
- Dredge the chicken in flour
- Dredge in egg, let excess drip off
- Bread in beadcrumbs
Mashed Vegetables:
- Boil a pot of salted water
- Chop potatoes and broccoli
- Boil potatoes for ~ 5 minutes
- Add broccoli to the boiling water
- Boil for another 8 minutes, potatoes should be fork tender
- Drain, let steam dry, and mash
- Fry each breast for a minute or two until golden
- Bake for 10 minutes or until 165F in centre
- Divide the mash between the plates
- Slice and place a breast on top of each
- Lightly dress the spinach with oil and lemon juice and sprinkle over top of the dishes
All done! Super simple, and very delicious. Much more juicy than I had kind of expected. Making the pocket to stuff is a bit of a pain, especially having not really done Cordon Bleu and the like, so not really my thing, but it wasn’t too bad, it stayed together fine. Will definitely be using it as an emergency recipe if we need something tasty and kind of fancy if someone is coming over on shorter notice for dinner. Maybe not the mashed, but at the very least the chicken. [S: that chicken was so juicy. Mmmmm buttery juicy goodness. David might not have liked the mash that much, but I am ok with. To me, it’s the training wheels to the full on only cauliflower mash. Great dish, and I loved it.]