Chicken Kyiv

A boneless chicken breast wrapped around cold garlic-herb butter, breaded and fried until the butter melts into a rich sauce inside.

Chicken Kyiv, named for Ukraine's capital, became internationally famous through Soviet-era Intourist restaurants that served it to foreign visitors as a showcase dish, though its precise origins are debated, with some tracing similar butter-stuffed cutlets to earlier French and Russian court cooking. Regardless of its exact roots, it became closely associated with Kyiv and Ukrainian cuisine through the 20th century and was widely exported, becoming a fixture on restaurant and supermarket menus across the UK and elsewhere from the 1970s onward, often in a simplified, mass-produced form.

The garlic-herb butter must be well chilled or frozen solid before being wrapped tightly inside the chicken breast, so it stays intact through breading and frying and only melts once cut into. The chicken must be sealed completely to prevent leaking.