Warning – this post contains some images of raw chicken, a bit further down in the post! My apologies but I wanted to show you the chicken pocket. ;)
Sometime in the later half of 2016 we did a run to Lenards at Warrawong to pick up our big order of chicken. We would usually order 12 mini roasts, a bunch of kievs and filos, and other assorted things. We would bring it all home, foodsave it, put it in the deep freeze, and cook it over the following three months.
When we arrived to pick up our order, they informed us they would be closing at the end of October. When I went online to check other locations, I discovered there was nothing nearby and the closest location would now be Menai in Sydney. We did run up in February or so and grab a bunch more chicken, but since then we did some experiments and created our own version of the Chicken Kiev.
Though our version is not a real chicken kiev by any stretch of the imagination. If you do want to make a “real” one, I suggest this video of the Jamie Oliver recipe.
Ours are not crumbed. My kiev does not contain any garlic at all. The Other Half gets a Jamie Oliver inspired bacon and garlic butter with cheese which I wrap in ham. My kievs are seaweed, wasabi, olives and feta cheese wrapped in ham.
How do I make the Bacon and Garlic butter filling? I cook the bacon in the oven first then chop it. I use ground garlic and minced garlic to cover all the garlic bases and I use proper butter but you can feel free to use any kind of margarine spread you like if you prefer. I put the ingredients into a bowl and mash them together. With the butter I do suggest taking it out of the fridge ahead of time and if it is particularly cold as it was on this day, you may need to pop it into the microwave for a short burst before attempting to mash it.
With the feta mix, you can use seaweed and wasabi of any kind. I like to use the Danish style feta as it holds together once you have mixed it, the Greek style is a bit more crumbly and difficult to work with for this recipe. I am lucky because I have a wasabi and seaweed powder which I have sourced from a local nut roasting company, so my powder mix also has macadamia nut oil. I chopped up some olives to add in, as well.
Then I lay out the mix onto a couple of pieces of ham, roll these up, and stuff this into the chicken pocket.
The other half gets some cheese added in because he likes it that way.
Probably the hardest part of this entire recipe is making the chicken pocket. If you do not cut enough of a pocket you can’t fit everything in. If you cut too much, you might create a hole where you do not want one. But once you have done it a few times, you become a bit more confident. On this day we made 18 kievs in total – we like to do this job in bulk.
The kievs were then paired up into foodsaver bags, vacuum sealed, and then placed in the freezer.
There is no reason to stick to any kind of kiev rules here, folks. I once had a chicken kiev which was filled with black cherries and Camembert. I’ve thought about doing strawberries, balsamic vinegar and feta, perhaps wrapped in spinach. The only limit is your imagination and what flavours would go well with chicken. I believe almost any flavour suits chicken. In summer I might try mango and avocado salsa of some kind.
Doing this job in bulk – which took us an hour and a half but we also cut up chicken strips during this time – means that we can eat kievs for the next 9 weeks and all I have to do is take them out, defrost them a little, pop them into the roaster, cook them for 42 minutes, and prepare some vegetables to go along with this great dinner. :)
I’ve done something like this is the past, but I haven’t had much ambition for cooking lately. When I used to make these I would use ham and swiss cheese. I’ve also used regular bread stuffing mixed with sausage.
It is super simple to make especially in a large batch like this, Dawn. This way if I really don’t feel like cooking I just throw these into the roaster and put on some vegies, even sometimes a big bowl of frozen peas in the microwave topped with some parmesan works for me. :)
You’re right about flavours, almost anything goes with chicken. I’ve never made my own kievs, I’ve had bought ones and I’ve had them in restaurants and they’re always disappointing. The chicken is always dry and there is never enough garlic butter in them. I could probably adapt my chicken schnitzel recipe, just cut a pocket in the chicken and fill it then continue, but lately I’m not at all enthusiastic about cooking. I’ll keep it in mind though.
I went off Lenards long before they closed. We used to pick up an order about once a month, the last one we ever picked up, several things were “off” and we never went back.
River – Our local Lenards franchisee was great and we never had any off chicken – that is a big part of the problem with franchises like this, there is not always that level of quality control.
If I could work out how to make the mini roasts myself I would do that, because I could make such great fillings without all the breadcrumbs usually found in there. Until I figure out how to do that, we’re sticking with kievs instead.
I cook my kievs in the roaster with butter underneath and a dash of white wine which prevents them drying out. :)