Do you remember back in the 1980's when everyone was making Chicken Kiev when entertaining. It was considered to be the height of sophistication! I remember making it a few times when we had guests over.
As delicious as it was, it was a LOT of work! Pounding out the chicken, rolling it around garlic butter, breading it and then deep frying it. (We are not going to talk about calories, because this is party fare. 😁)
It is important to note that fresh herbs are best for this. They will look and taste the best. Be judicious with the salt if you are using salted butter. The amount of Tabasco sauce you use depends on how spicy you like your food.
It didn't take long for the food industry to catch on and now Chicken Kiev is pretty common place. You can buy frozen versions of it quite easily and you only need to bake them in the oven.
Most are quite unexciting and none quite come close to the divine taste of Chicken Kiev made from scratch. They are usually made from pre-formed chicken and whether they use real butter in them is questionable. The only plus with them is that they are convenient.
This recipe I am sharing with you today comes by way of Annie Bell, from her book entitled Gorgeous Suppers. Every recipe in the book is gorgeous.
Chicken breasts are cut into thin escalopes, seasoned and then dipped in olive oil and fresh bread crumbs before pan frying them until golden brown. They are served hot and fresh from the pan with slices of a moreish herb and garlic Kiev butter melting on top.
Not quite as satisfying as the original, where you cut into the chicken and that garlic butter gushes out, but still satisfying nonetheless.
Of course the chicken is delicious in its own right and would be fabulous served on its own with simple lemon wedges to squeeze over top. A tiny bit less indulgent, but with fresh clean flavors. Either way this is fabulous.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE CHICKEN ESCALOPES WITH KIEV BUTTER
Simple ingredients put together in a simple and yet delicious way.
For the chicken:
- 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (Make sure they are a nice size as you will be serving two people from each one.)
- fine sea salt and fine black pepper to taste
- 3 1/2 ounces (100g) fine fresh white bread crumbs (about 2 thick slices)
- extra virgin olive oil (for coating and for pan frying)
For the Kiev butter:
- 3 1/2 ounces (100g) butter, softened
- 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
- the zest and juice of one lemon (A smallish one)
- dash of Tabasco sauce
- fine sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
- 3 TBS finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
- 2 TBS finely chopped fresh chives
- 1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN ESCALOPES WITH KIEV BUTTER
You are probably wondering what an escalope is. It is merely something which has been cut into thinner slices. You see it with scalloped potatoes and meats/poultry.
Chicken cut in this way cooks very quickly and stays nice and moist. It is also a great way to make a few pieces of chicken go much further.
If you are making your own bread crumbs, make them first. Just tear your bread into pieces and blitz it in a food processor until you have fine bread crumbs. I used about 2 thick slices. I cut the crusts off and gave them to the birds.
Once you have them crumbed, pop the crumbs into a shallow bowl.
Once you have made your crumbs you can make the butter. That way it can be chilling in the refrigerator while you bread and cook the chicken.
Don't be tempted to chop the herbs in the food processor. You will get a much nicer finish by doing them by hand, which is what I do. You want them nice and fine. It is a mindless chore which I enjoy doing.
Place the butter, garlic, lemon zest, juice, tabasco and some seasoning in the bowl of a food processor and blitz at high speed until nice and creamy and everything is mixed well in. Add the chopped herbs and whiz again briefly to incorporate the herbs.
Place onto a strip of plastic wrap and shape into a rough cylinder, then wrap it up tightly, twisting both ends of the plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator to chill.
Cut each chicken breast through the middle horizontally to form two thin escalopes. (I remove the tendon on the bottom side first.) Season them well on both sides with salt and pepper.
Place the bread crumbs into a shallow bowl. Place a couple TBS of olive oil into another bowl. Dip the chicken pieces first into the oil and then into the breadcrumbs, pressing them in to make them stick. Place onto a plate.
Repeat until your chicken has all been breaded. Let stand for 10 minutes.
Heat a couple TBS of olive oil in a large heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Add your chicken pieces in batches, presentation side first, and fry until golden brown on both sides. This should only take a few minutes per side.
Slice the butter into thin pats and place a couple onto each chicken escallop, letting it melt. Serve immediately.
If your butter doesn't melt right away, you could pop it briefly under a hot grill just to speed up the process. It won't take long.
And that's it. It is simple really. The chicken is moist and tender, with a beautifully crisp coating. The butter is flavored beautifully with the herbs, garlic and lemon. There are probably more herbs in the butter than there is butter, so don't worry about it being overly rich, as it is not. Its just the right amount.
I served it with some steamed fresh broccoli and some chips that I warmed up, leftover from a takeaway the night before. (I know. I waste nothing.) This made for a delightfully simple supper that was most enjoyable.
Whilst this would make for a great family meal, I would not hesitate to serve it to company. It is that delicious! Enjoy!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
I am truly mad about muffins. I adore muffins, especially muffins that are not like cake. When I eat a muffin I don't want a piece of cake, or muffins that are like eating cake. Overly sweet . . .
I want a muffin as it is supposed to be. Slightly raised with rounded pebbly tops. The insides filled with nice holes. Perfect for spreading with a tiny pat of butter.
Today I thought I would share what are ten of my favorite muffin recipes. Oh, there are many more muffin recipes than this here on the blog, but these are all real winning recipes that I thought you might enjoy!
Also do look out for all my handy tips for making the best muffins every time at the bottom of this post!
These are the PERFECT breakfast muffins. Quick and easy to make. Delicious. I highly recommend.
Simple and filled with fibre. You can use ordinary Special K cereal, or you can be a bit more extravagant and use one of the varieties which contain fruit. This recipe makes half a dozen fabulous muffins.
ULTIMATE BUTTERMILK BRAN MUFFINS
Buttermilk Bran Muffins. I think my favorite type of muffin of all the types of muffins you can get today are plain old fashioned Bran Muffins. There is nothing pretentious about them. They are simple and they are delicious.
This recipe I am sharing today for Buttermilk Bran Muffins is especially delicious, yielding a muffin that is super moist and delicious, with a well rounded bakery style top. You cannot go wrong with one of these!
These moist and delicious muffins are filled with not one, not two, but three different berries. Blueberries, raspberries and diced strawberries.
It is also a small batch recipe and makes just 9 delicious muffins.
I am a hug fan of gingerbread anything. I think gingerbread is probably one of my favourite things to bake and eat!
They are moist and delicious with a lovely crumb and beautiful ginger/cinnamon flavour. The recipe makes a full batch of 12 fabulous muffins!
This is a small batch of one of my favorite muffin recipes. These re moist and filled with the goodness of carrot, apple, coconut, pineapple, toasted nuts and whole and regular wheat flours.
The recipe makes 6 largish muffins.
There is nothing like having a great muffin batter in the refrigerator, mixed and ready to bake. This is an adaptation of a very old recipe and has been pleasing women and their families for many years.
This was the muffin recipe that I had to bake for my female employer every day that I worked at the Manor. She liked them baked in mini muffin tins and would eat three of them every single morning. They are delicious.
Prepare yourself to fall in love with this small batch muffin recipe with makes six gorgeously delicious muffins.
They embody all the flavours of your favourite cinnamon rolls, except they are muffins, not a yeast bread. I am of the school that cinnamon flavoured anything is good. It doesn't really matter too much what it is and these are OMG good!
If you are looking for instant gratification, Banana Muffins are the way to go. They mix together rather quickly and bake lickety split.
You can usually be enjoying one of them within a half an hour, start to finish, and this is my favourite recipe for them. Adding toasted nuts or chocolate chips are completely optional.
Buttery, moist and stogged full of orange from the outside in. These are winners all round!
I chose to studd mine with dried currants, but you may like raisins, or nuts, or blueberries, etc. You may even prefer the to be plain. One thing is for sure, you will enjoy these moist and delicious muffins.
Fresh orange flavors filled with an optional fruit and sweet glaze. You can't go wrong!
Somewhat healthy, aside from the sugar and golden syrup . . . with plenty of oats, sunflower seeds and chopped apple.
If you don't have light muscovado sugar, you can use soft light brown sugar, and in the place of golden syrup you can use light corn syrup, or even honey would work well. In one word, moreish.
Here are my hints and tips for making sure that your muffins turn out beautifully every time:
1. Mix wet and dry ingredients separately. To prevent the mix from being overworked, first mix the wet ingredients together in one bowl and mix the dry ingredients in another. Make a well in the dry ingredients, carefully pour in the wet ingredients, then stir the mix a couple of times to roughly combine.
2. Don't over mix your muffins. The most important rule of muffin making is to not over stir the mix. What you really want is to just moisten the ingredients. Do not stir or beat the batter until it is smooth and lump free. You want the final mix to be lumpy, and thick with a few floury streaks.
3. Add your flavors last. While spices should be added with all the other dry ingredients, additions like fruit and nuts should be added last. Give the batter one more light-handed stir once you've added them in just to combine.
4. Line the pans. You can choose to either grease the muffin tin or line it with paper liners. If you choose to forgo the liners, make sure you grease the base and sides of the cups with oil spray or a little melted butter. If you're not going to eat the muffins for a while, do use paper liners as these will keep the muffins fresher for longer.
5. Don't overfill your pans. Aim to fill the cups ¾ full to get muffins with nice round tops and to prevent them from spilling out over the top of the cups. Often if your tins are over filled the muffins will rise to the top and then collapse on themselves.
6. For extra interest, add a flavorful sprinkle on top. Once the muffin cups are all filled, you can choose to sprinkle the tops with more fruit, nuts or a crumble topping, even sanding sugar or cinnamon sugar, for even more taste and or crunch. As the muffins rise these toppings will cook into the tops of the muffin.
7. Protect your baking pan. If there isn't enough batter to fill all the cups, half fill the empty ones with water. This will help the muffins bake evenly and will help to protect your pan from buckling.
8. Cooling them down. Once you remove the muffins from the oven, let them sit in their pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack. This is especially important for muffins that aren't in a paper liner, as it will help them from falling apart. However, remove them after five minutes otherwise you risk them going soggy as they cool in the pan.
9. Freeze extras for later. Muffins freeze beautifully, so if you can't enjoy them all on the day they're baked, wrap them in plastic wrap tightly, and put them in the freezer for later. They will keep for about 3 months and reheat wonderfully in the microwave for about 30 seconds on high from frozen.
NOTE: If there is a particular muffin recipe that you are looking for that you don't see here, drop me a comment/query down in the comments section and I will dig it up for you!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
I had a quantity of leftover roast pork that I wanted to use up the other day and so I was looking for ways to use it. I wanted to make something different that my usual hash or pot pie.
One thing which I have made in the past has been this fabulous Amish Savory Pork Pie. I had enough that day to send a casserole to a family in need as well as make a small one for myself. Pork, gravy, dumplings . . . never a bad thing!!
Another time I used the leftovers to make this wonderful Pork and Apple Pie. It was really delicious too.
Sliced roast pork and gravy, combined with apples, underneath a savory short crust lid. There is nothing about that which doesn't taste good! Pork and apples are such beautiful partners.
I have always wanted to try the Cuban Sandwich however. The Cuban Sandwich or Cubano Sandwich is a delicious pressed panini type of sandwich.
It is basically layers of cheese, roast pork, ham, pickles, garlic butter, and mustard, pressed between the softness of a sweet Cuban bread.
Any photos I have ever seen of them have sent my taste buds into tingling in overtime! I have never visited Cuba but I know plenty of people who have and they have all loved the food there.
Apparently this Cubano sandwich comes in quite a few varieties, all dependent on regional differences. Some places use ham in it, some salami. I am not sure if any of the versions I saw online were actually true Cubano's, but all looked very tasty.
I will say up front that I did not have any Cuban bread in my house. Nor have I ever seen Cuban bread in any of our shops.
Apparently it is a soft white bread with a sort of crisp crust like a French loaf, but it is supposed to be slightly sweet.
No, I did not have anything even remotely resembling Cuban Bread, but I did have Ciabatta flat rolls and I had some soft white dinner rolls that I had bought thinking to make sliders with them.
Necessity being the mother of invention I decided to make a version of the sandwich using both breads and then taste test them against each other to see which one worked the best.
The first up was the ciabatta flat roll. I layered up everything on it, schmearing the outside with a bit more butter and pressing it in my Cuisinart griddler.
I got the outside all toasty brown and crisp, making sure that the insides were well heated through and the cheese was melted.
The dinner rolls were fairly small and four of them grouped together were about the size of a Kaiser type of roll. I decided to use four of them and keep them attached.
I layered up everything on the inside as with the other roll, buttered the outside and then also pressed/toasted that in my Cuisinart Griddler, again until everything was toasty golden brown and the insides were heated through and the cheese melted.
Authentic or not, I was in it come hell or high water! I had nothing to lose!
As you can see I got a nice press from both kinds of bread. Both toasted well to a golden brown, creating sandwiches that were easily edible.
I hate it when a sandwich is so thick that I cannot get my mouth around it. I like to be able to eat them easily and without too much mess involved. That's why I am not overly fond of wrap sandwiches.
Its not easy to keep their fillings intact.
The one with the dinner rolls was nice. The bread not too hard to bite into or too chewy. Once pressed there was a perfect ratio of bread to filling. But having said that I also enjoyed the one in the ciabatta roll, although it was definitely chewy and a bit harder to bite into.
I had cut my roast pork as thin as possible for both sandwiches and I used sliced black forest ham. The only sour pickles I had were garlic dills and so I cut them very thinly as well.
I didn't have any regular American mustard and so I used Dijon. It was not as vinegary as American mustard. For my garlic butter I used a homemade version, simply mixing softened butter, garlic and some dried parsley.
The rebel in me had wanted to use some pickled hot peppers I had in the refrigerator, but I wasn't sure that would be totally authentic and I wanted to try to be as true to the original as possible.
I think I got pretty darned close.
Of the two, I have to say, I enjoyed the one done on the soft dinner rolls the most. It was the easiest to eat and not as difficult to chew. I think ciabatta bread is definitely too chew for this type of a sandwich.
So, what exactly do you need to make a Cubano Sandwich?
- a softish kind of French style bread/rolls (Cuban bread if you can find it.
- thinly sliced roast pork, or shredded roast pork
- thinly sliced roast ham, I used black forest
- thinly sliced sour pickles, I used dill
- American or Dijon mustard
- garlic butter, homemade or store bought
- sliced swiss cheese
- softened butter for spreading on the outside
Cut your rolls/bread in the middle horizontally. Schmear each cut side with garlic butter and then toast the cut sides on the panini grill until golden brown.
Layer as follows: Bottom of the loaf, mustard, sliced cheese, sliced pork, more cheese, pickles, ham, and more cheese, then the top of the loaf. Brush the outsides with some softened butter.
Cook in panini press until golden brown and heated through, the cheese melted nicely. cut into serving sized sandwiches and serve immediately.
Not a recipe per se, but very easy to follow and to do!! I really enjoyed this easy and yet hearty sandwich!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
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