Food
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner
“Is there anything you’ve missed that I haven’t made in awhile? Or anything you’ve really had a taste for?” I asked.
“Chicken kiev. My mom used to make them and I loved them,” Joe replied.
And so, off I went on a kiev-making mission. Truthfully, I loved them when I was little, but I hadn’t thought about them in ages—well, except when they came up in culinary school. We didn’t make them in class, but they were in one of our textbooks, and were discussed since they’re kind of well-known.
Fundamentally, they’re very easy—it’s basically just an herbed compound butter stuffed into a chicken breast which is then three-step breaded and lightly pan-fried. Those are the basics, of course; your variations lie in your seasoning and bread-crumb-selection prowess. Not to mention your selection of pan-frying fat.
Mine turned out quite nicely, and he liked them quite a lot. And then confided in me that these weren’t the kievs he was looking for.