Cookery School Cook Book - Chicken Kiev with Tenderstem Broccoli :)

Everyone knows you cant judge a book by its cover and all cooks know you cant judge a receipe book by only trying out ONE recipe.....hence this is not an overall view of the book and I will be updating with more receipes as we try them out :)

We thought we would start with something that everyone in the family likes - Chicken Kiev. Granted we usually go for the ready made ones which end up with no filling left inside, just a cavernous hole with a 'hmm was there actually EVER any garlic in there?' feeling!
The idea of using fresh chicken breast and making the filling myself was not daunting as I have made stuffed chicken breasts before - however, I have never deep fried them!! This made me a little nervous as to whether they would leak completely and wreck the deep fat fryer or whether they would actually get cooked all the way through.....salmonella isnt a big wish in a house of 7!!

The smell of the garlic filling in this recipe was divine and I swear, if I thought I would have gotten away with it, it would have been fried up and eaten by itself - hey ho, i think that shows my love of garlic as much as it does of this filling! lol As much as I love the lemon and olive oil drizzle for the broccolli the boys refused to eat it at all - I think it was just too much of a grown up taste if that makes sense?! Personally it took me a long time to 'enjoy' olive oil as a dressing so I didnt expect the boys to tuck straight in, will keep working at them though ;)

Who knew photographing chicken would make you blush!! Honestly, there are some pictures i just cant show you! Needless to say the chicken breasts need to be cut so that you remove the little additional breast from the back (you know the bit that is extra - this is used to close up the filling section) Then you need to cut each breast in two and make a large pocket making sure you dont cut all the way through the tissue... (no pic) and fill this with the garlic paste made earlier...(no pic)...place the extra breast piece you cut earlier over the filling pocket and this will seal when you cover in flour etc in a moment. (yay decent pic!!)
Place in the fridge for 20mins to keep shape.
Place the flour, egg and breadcrumbs into seperate bowls...
Dip the chicken pieces first in the flower, then the egg
and finally into the breadcrumbs until fully coated.
Do this for each breast piece - now ready to deep fry.
The oil and lemon can be mixed while the broccoli is lightly boiling - it is tenderstem so you can use all of the stem on this kind and it doesnt take too long to cook either which is a bonus.
Plate up with broccoli first, drizzle of lemon and oil dressing then top with the fresh deep fried Chicken Kiev....
Enjoy, Overall this was a hit and I would make it again but without the lemon dressing for the boys. xxx

Ingredients list: (Makes 4)

Garlic butter
120g unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp chopped parsley
3tbsp white breadcrumbs
salt and pepper

Chicken Kiev
Vegetable/sunflower oil for deep frying
2 chicken breasts
50g plain flour
2 eggs, beaten
100g white breadcrumbs

Tenderstem Broccoli
200g tenderstem broccoli
juice of 1 lemon
2tbsp olive oil