Pollo Sopresa

Pollo Sopresa was my favourite dish many many years ago at Mario & Francos,  it is better known today as Chicken Kiev which Marks & Spencer made popular with a rather dreadful frozen version that had lost a lot of what this dish is about and tasted of just garlic.

The tricky part of this dish is to get a good enough covering so the butter doesn't burst out. There are some tricks I have learnt which will overcome this problem to give you a perfect result every time.

Start by mixing softened butter with a tsb of Tarragon and a tbsp of chopped Parsley, crush into the butter mixture a clove of Garlic and using grease proof paper, roll this into a sausage and put in the Freezer for around an hour.

Take your Chicken breasts and between two sheets of cling film beat it out flat being careful not to pierce the skin about 1cm thick is perfect. Season with Salt and Ground Black Pepper and Grate a little Lemon Zest onto it.

Now take the butter from the freezer and put some of the butter herb roll into the middle of the chicken breast and roll it up so no butter is visible and secure with a cocktail stick. Place the rolled chicken breasts into the Freezer for an Hour.

Get a dish with, ordinary Breadcrumbs and Panco Japanese Breadcrumbs and mix together. now in a separate bowl put some plain Flour and another a beaten Egg.

Take the stuffed chicken breasts out of the freezer, they should be firm but not solidly frozen and here is the trick,  cover with a thin coating of Mayonnaise, then dip in the Flour, then the beaten Egg and then the Breadcrumbs.

Shallow fry in Oil or Deep Fat fry until the take on Colour, drain on Kitchen Towel and put in a preheated Oven at 200c for 20 minutes. A truly Outstanding dish