Chicken Kiev - tasty and moist

Finally, I got spare time to post here with my very first food entry. Today's post/recipe is about "Chicken Kiev."

Chicken Kiev is a well known dish made up of boneless chicken breast pounded and rolled with garlic, butter and herbs then breaded/coated and cooked either by frying or baking.

At first I thought Chicken Kiev is a Ukrainian food, but when I did some research/reading online I just learned that it actually originated in Russia, therefore it is a Russian food.

In relation to the new knowledge I learned I felt ashamed to myself for being nonsense. You see, the picture above is my very first picture/first time experience to make this food as I was not really so sure if I would like the taste. It's not only about the taste as to why I hold myself from cooking this, the other reason is the nonsense part, as the name suggests, I am not real comfortable about it since I had this feeling that it reminds me of my husband's ex-girl. Sheeshh, hope my hubby won't read this, LOL! So in lieu of this food, I always make "Chicken Cordon Blue" instead.

So on the night before dinner of 1/19/2010, I finally decided to try the recipe for Chicken Kiev as I browsed through my recipe book. My reason, I got tired making Chicken Cordon Blue! I realized that if I cook Chicken Kiev, it will actually make my cooking lighter and quicker (sounds so good right?).

I was not disappointed to how I did it, as expected it made my work easier! But the part that I do love most was the fact that Chicken Kiev tasted real good! OH boy! My husband and my picky daughter ate a lot when I served it for dinner. It was soft and the inside was so moist and juicy too because of the butter, and the coating was perfect.

Anyway here's the recipe of Chicken Kiev:

You need:

1/2 cup softened butter
1 glove garlic crushed or minced
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (I substitute dried parsley since I did not have the fresh one on hand)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon rind
6 small chicken breasts
1/2 cup plain flour
3 cups dry breadcrumbs (add more as you need)
2 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp milk
oil for frying
salt
pepper

optional seasonings for the flour and breadcrumbs:
salt
black ground pepper
paprika/chili
red cayenne

How to cook:

* In a bowl mix together the butter, garlic, parsley, lemon juice and lemon rind then refrigerate.

*Place each chicken in a wax paper and pound well. You can use a meat mallet or a rolling pin to flatten. Remove from the paper and season with salt and pepper.

*Remove seasoned butter from refrigerator and divide it into 6 portions. Place one portion in the center of each chicken breast. Fold in the edges of the chicken breasts and roll up to completely enclose. Secure each breast with a wooden toothpick as needed.

*Place the flour and breadcrumbs in a separate plate. Then season if you desire.

*Beat the egg including the milk in a bowl.

*Toss chicken in the seasoned flour, dip in the egg mixture and then coat well with the seasoned breadcrumbs. Chill the chicken on a wax paper-lined tray in the fridge for one hour.

*In a deep fryer, heat oil to 365 degrees F. Carefully lower breasts into hot oil. Fry for 5 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and cooked through. Drain on paper towel and serve with sour cream.

Setting up a goal

It's 2:07 AM, January 19, 2010...it's too early in the morning as a fact, but I see it as too late in the evening considering I haven't sleep yet since yesterday, yes I mean the day before this day. It's pretty usual for me already since I'm such a night-owl type of person or maybe I'm just really suffering from insomnia (I'm in denial for the latter's reason of course).

Well, I came up with the decision to why not make a new blog! Where's this coming from? On Sunday morning we finally got (I mean, "I finally") the movie Julie & Julia through Netflix. I've been waiting for it to come because I really wanted to watch it. I've only watched the trailer of the movie and I loved it right away, setting aside the fact that I have read good reviews about the movie. So when my husband told me during our dinner that we got the said movie on the mail that day I exclaimed gratefulness and thrill, maybe add up curiosity too as I'm wondering if my expectation won't fail me that the said movie is really a great one. My husband then asked me what is the movie about, then I right away thought "he's not gonna like it!", so I told him that we can watch a different movie if he likes and I'll just watch Julie & Julia by myself later because it's a chick flick movie. But my dear husband still agreed to watch with me...curiosity aroused him because he seems to know to who is Julia Child?

During the course of the movie, my husband was throwing me all this idea to maybe I should do the same thing, make a blog of my cooking since according to him my cooking is very good (I want great not just very good!). I just laughed about it because I know I can not make it! He did not stop though and still tried to motivate me, he likes the idea that I'll be cooking like a storm with such good foods, but of course I still refused his ideas. It's not that I'm new to blogging, it is because I am not confident of my cooking and I am not sure if I can really keep up the blog from making new entries about different recipes. Sad, but that's the reality of what I am having such a low self-esteem.

The movie ended up great, my husband liked it! And to tell you honestly, that movie uplifted my spirit that night... silently, on my mind, there it screaming that it's really a pretty good idea to put my cooking into writings such as blogging. "Hmm.... why not?" But this just remained a thought for that night!

A day passed and that idea just never realized not until this time though, I finally just said to myself, "Hey! What's wrong with starting it right now? You are sitting your ass in the couch in front with the laptop then might as well just use it into something that might transform and inspire you! Setting a goal for you to have something to do won't hurt you!" So yes, this is how it started, that is why you are reading this entry up to the last word...

Thank you for reading and expect for me to post something new after this one.