Recipes for Chicken Kiev Dinner and Baked Apple Dessert

Despite its Ukrainian name, chicken Kiev was first made by a French chef named Nicolas François Appert. This gentleman might best be known to you as the man who discovered the idea of canning, pickling and otherwise preserving food.

Chicken Kiev:

Ingredients:

3 boneless chicken breasts

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1 finely chopped fresh parsley(dried OK)

1 tbs Italian herbs

Coarse black pepper

1/4 cup flour

3 eggs, beaten and combined with 1 tbs water

1 cup dry bread crumbs

Method:

-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

-Blend together the pepper, herbs, parsley and mix into softened butter. Place butter into the freezer until very hard.

-Slice the chicken breasts in half horizontally and use a kitchen mallet to flatten the half breast pieces.

-Remove the butter from the freezer, and with a cleaver or knife with a very solid blade, cut 6 equal pieces of the seasoned butter. They will need to be a long shape of about 2 inches if possible. This isn't essential but does make it easy to load the breast meat.

-Take a piece of butter and place onto the end of each breast, and roll up. When rolling the chicken breasts, try to turn in the ends as if making a parcel. Freezing the butter first allows the egg and breadcrumbs to cook and seal the butter inside, although this does not always go to plan and you may need to spoon a little across the top when serving.

-Dip each rolled breast into flour, then straight into the egg mixture and finally into a bowl containing the breadcrumbs.

-Place into your pre heated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes in a covered baking pan. Uncover and bake for a further 15 minutes to allow the breadcrumbs to brown and crisp.

Serve with french bread and a crunchy salad of romaine lettuce and spinach leaves, olives, cherry tomatoes and grated Romano cheese. Dress with lemon or lime juice. The tart flavor of the juice will freshen your mouth from the oiliness of the melted garlic butter.

* The white wine to serve with this dish would be a White Burgundy or Dry Riesling.

Most people do not drink red wine with Chicken, but if you prefer to do so try Red Burgundy.

My personal favorite is Ribera del Duero.

Serves 6.

*A variation on using garlic butter, is to use brie and shrimp mixed together and placed into the freezer first to become hard. Add a pinch of garlic and some fresh chives.

Dessert:

Baked Apples.

-Choose 6 large Golden Delicious Apples or slightly sour Granny Smiths for this dessert, depending on your preference.

-Core the apples and stand them hole facing up on a dinner plate.

-Inside each hole, place 1/2 tsp of butter, 1 dried apricot half, a pinch of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of brown sugar and about 6 raisins.

-After adding the raisins, push them down into the holes gently with the back of a teaspoon and then add 1 tbs of milk into each of the holes.

-Into your microwave and on high for around 10 minutes until the sides of the apples are soft when pricked with a fork. It will depend on the power of your microwave, you will need to bake a test apple the previous day.

-Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Serves 6

*Kids love these baked apples and they are also a very filling after school snack instead of chips or candy.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Kiev