In most of restaurants with Ukrainian cuisine there is an unavoidable item in the menu called kotleta po-kyivsky (Kiev cutlet) or simply chicken Kiev. The mystery of the dish is that nobody knows who and when invented it, and probably each country claims to have cooked it for the first time. Although history indicates several authors of chicken Kiev recipe, there must have been a reason to have named it after Kiev. Who knows, maybe because nevertheless this mysterious cutlet was invented here?
As it was said, this dish is available in many different places, even in supermarkets — frozen version, of course. The most typical way to try it is visiting one of the restaurants of the chain called Puzata Khata. It is also the cheapest option. But there’s also the most delicious one — cooking chicken Kiev yourself. Let’s see how it is cooked.
Of course everybody has his own best recipe of chicken Kiev, but before we also get one for ourselves, lets first cook the most standard one. So what we need is the following: 4 chicken fillets; 100g of butter; 2 eggs; light breadcrumps; sault, pepper, parsley, dill and excellent humour! And about 40 minutes of time.
Firstly, whisk the eggs with some salt and pepper using mixer if you need one. Secondly, cut the fillets into rectangles and beat them a little (not too much). In the middle of the rectangle put a piece of cold butter and some chopped parsley with the dill. Then gently wrap the filling in the fillet and deep it in the eggs. After that deep it in the breadcrumps. And repeat it again — eggs and breadcrumps again. There are people who in addition like to use milk and flour, but we will try it another day.
In some chicken Kiev recipes you may find a suggestion to put the cutlet into a freezer for about 15 minutes before deeping in the eggs, but this is not necessary if we wrap the filling reliably. Just keep in mind that the butter should be really cold.
For the frying we need a pan with high walls and lots of oil since our cutlet should be covered with oil completely. The process takes around 7 minutes.
So when we cut the ready cutlet in a half we will see three layers — crispy outside layer, then goes the meat and in the heart of the dish there’s parsley with melted butter. Chicken Kiev tastes the best when served with mashed potatoes. After trying cooking it several times, you will discover your own chicken Kiev recipe, so enjoy your meal and don’t forget to share this secret recipe with your friends!
