CHICKEN KIEV

Try making a paste with olive oil rather than stuffing the chicken
with garlic butter in the usual way; that way you get nice moist
chicken and just as much flavour without so much grease. If you’d
rather have garlic butter though, mix the same amount of garlic,
onion salt and parsley with roughly 2 oz (50 g) of butter.
Use regular breadcrumbs instead of biscuit crumbs if you
prefer, or a mixture of both.
4 chicken breast fillets
2 cloves of garlic
2 tsp salt
2 tsp onion or celery salt
2 tsp parsley
11⁄2 tbsp olive oil
8 cream crackers
2–3 handfuls of cornflakes
1 egg
Splash of milk
Flour
Method
1. Remove the skin from the chicken, rinse and dry the meat
thoroughly and trim any little fatty bits. (If the fillets are very
large, cut them in half.) With a very sharp knife, slice through
the middle of each piece of chicken about 3⁄4 of the way through.
2. In a small bowl, crush the garlic and mix to a paste with the
salt, onion or celery salt, parsley and olive oil.
3. Whiz the crackers and cornflakes in a food processor, or put
the whole lot in a large food bag and crush with a rolling pin or
other heavy object, then tip the biscuit crumbs onto a dinner
plate or shallow tray. Put a couple of tablespoons of flour on
another plate and mix the beaten egg with a big splash of milk
in a fairly large, shallow bowl.
4. Warm about an inch (2 cm) of oil in a large pan and preheat the
oven to Gas Mark 6 (200ºC) while you spread the garlic paste
(or garlic butter) in the middle of each piece of chicken.
5. Dust the chicken pieces with a little flour then dip first in the
beaten egg mixture before covering completely in biscuit
crumbs.
6. As soon as the oil is hot enough – i.e. a small piece of bread
turns brown in about half a minute – put the chicken fillets in
the pan two or three at a time and fry for a few minutes until
crisp and golden.
7. Finish cooking the chicken in the oven for about 15 minutes,
depending on size, and serve with fried potatoes, or rice and
salad.