Image source: https://www.reluctantgourmet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/g_chicken_thigh_recipe.jpg
In todays Elements of Entre Production class at Baltimores culinary arts school, we have to prepare lunch for 35 diners in the next classroom. Their class deals with elements of dinner service, and our class provides the food. Were the chefs, they are the servers.
An authentic Chicken Kiev recipe actually calls for the boneless breast to be stuffed with a heavily herbed compound butter. This is where the discussion begins among tomorrows chefs. We conclude that we dont want the butter to melt and leave a hollow cavity in the middle of our chicken.
We decide we need a binding agent to keep the stuffing together, and agree on a variation of the Russian stuffed chicken. Perhaps were headed more into Italian cooking territory, but our interpretation of Chicken Kiev will be stuffed with spinach and cheese to hold the stuffing together.
When we consider that this dish is normally breaded, it poses a possible complication. In what method should we cook stuffed chicken breasts to assure that the filling doesnt fall out during dinner service?
My culinary arts school class is very familiar with pan frying, as it was last weeks lesson. However, pan frying uses a lot of oil, could possible burn the bread coating before cooking the chicken, and means that our dish needs to be cooked in batches. This could be a headache if we were serving 150, 300 or 500 people.
We want to make production as problem-free as possible. The final decision to use a roasting method to cook the chicken is a good one because this type of cooking will allow us to compose the item in one large single batch and place them on sheet pans for the oven. We dont have to mess with oil and we can cook them all at once.
After a simple saut of spinach and onion, we add some sharp white cheese to create our stuffing. The chicken breasts are pounded thin, and filled with equal amounts of the cooled spinach mixture.
We dont need any string or toothpicks to keep the stuffing in place, because well use the natural cooking process to do that for us. Dont you hate when you find a cooked toothpick in your food? Its unnecessary. Coagulation of Proteins means that the chicken breast will stiffen and shrink, actually grabbing the stuffing and holding it in place for us.
Culinary Arts School Chicken Kiev Recipe:
Feeds 6
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
12 ounces fresh spinach leaves
cup diced onion
1 cup shredded white cheese (Asiago, Cheddar, or Goat or Brie)
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup All Purpose flour
2 cups Panko bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten with 1 Tbsp Water
1) Saute diced onion in hot olive oil until translucent.
2) Add fresh spinach and saute until totally wilted
3) Remove to a strainer and let cool.
4) Pound chicken breasts with smooth-sided meat mallet to thin consistency
5) Squeeze all excess moisture from cooled spinach mixture
6) Add cheese to spinach
7) Place 2 Tbsp cup of spinach/cheese mixture on each chicken breast
8) Fold all sides of the chicken over the spinach mixture and place seam-side down on a platter
9) Bread each stuffed chicken by dredging in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs.
Be careful to keep the stuffed breast together and not lose any stuffing. Be gentle.
10) Place each breaded stuffed chicken seam-side down on a baking sheet pan
11) Roast chicken at 350F to a finished internal temperature of 165F.
12) Let cool and slice on the bias for a nice plate presentation.
When our improvised Chicken Kiev recipe emerges from the oven, its brown and crispy on the outside and moist on the inside thanks to our spinach stuffing bound with cheese. This is a basic cooking method that you can use in your household; you dont have to be in culinary arts school to cook like tomorrows chefs.
See Chef Todds live Chicken Kiev recipe video
