Is Chicken Kiev really from Kyiv?

You've almost certainly eaten one. Chicken Kyiv is a chicken fillet stuffed with garlic butter, breadcrumbed and then baked or fried, and when you cut into it the butter should run out onto the plate. It's one of the best known dishes in Ukrainian cuisine, sits alongside borshch and varenyky in the popularity stakes, and turns up on Russian and Polish menus too. In Poland the classic name for it is "côtelette de volaille".

Which is the first clue that the story you think you know might not be right.

Does the name really come from Kyiv?

You'd assume the dish is named after the capital of Ukraine. It isn't, or at least not in the way you'd expect. There's no documented proof either way, but plenty of Ukrainian chefs will tell you the original recipe came from France.

There are several competing accounts of how it travelled. In the late 1840s, wealthy Russians sent their chefs to France to learn French technique and bring back the best recipes, and that's one route. Another version credits the recipe to Marie-Antoine Carême, the French chef at the court of Alexander I. He only spent a few months a year in Russia, but that was enough to leave a mark on Russian cooking, and the invention has been pinned on those visits ever since. The problem with that story is simple: there's no mention of "côtelette de volaille" anywhere in Carême's own cookbooks.

"Côtelette de volaille" is a French term and it just means chicken cutlet. Some chefs argue the French originally used veal rather than poultry, because chicken was expensive at the time and treated as a delicacy that only the wealthy could afford, making it the substitute rather than the original. French and Ukrainian chefs mostly disagree and hold that chicken was always the main ingredient.

What we can date is the Ukrainian version you'd recognise today. It was created in the restaurant of the Continental hotel in Kyiv in 1918, and it's reasonable to assume it descended from "côtelette de volaille". It was cooked for the officers of Hetman Skoropadsky's command staff, and it took off from there.

So the name is genuinely local even if the technique probably isn't. Worth knowing: abroad you'll almost always see it written "Chicken Kiev", the old transliteration, which is why the frozen ones in your supermarket at home are spelled that way.

Traditional Chicken Kyiv Recipe

There are hundreds of versions online, but the classic one is the one worth cooking, so surprise your family or friends and make it properly. You'll need:

• Herbs
• Butter 150 gr
• Garlic
• Pepper and salt
• 2 chicken fillet
• 2 eggs
• Flour
• Breadcrumbs
• Olive oil

Put the herbs, garlic, pepper, salt and butter in a mixing bowl and mix them well, then wrap the herb butter in cling film and put it in the fridge to firm up. That's your filling. Add any extra spices or herbs you like as long as they work with the chicken, and it's worth adding cheese if you want it richer, since both the butter and the cheese melt inside and keep the meat juicy.

Slice the chicken fillet and beat it out until it's thin, being careful not to tear holes in it or the butter will leak out in the pan. Season it. Put the herb butter in the middle, fold the two opposite ends in, and roll it up from the bottom. Then flour it, dip it in beaten egg, and coat it in breadcrumbs.

Bake or fry it, but if you're frying make sure there's enough oil in the pan. Twenty to twenty-five minutes and it's done.

Where to Try It in Kyiv

You can buy Chicken Kyiv in the freezer aisle almost anywhere in the world, and it tastes nothing like the version you'll get in a Ukrainian restaurant. Since you're here, eat it properly.

Rebra & Kotlety

A gastro bar whose name literally means "ribs and cutlets", and locals will tell you it's the gastro capital of the city. They cook the traditional recipe alongside a number of their own, and there are so many variations that choosing is genuinely difficult - this is the only place you'll find Chicken Kyiv made with blue cheese, almond or apple. If you can't decide, order the set of mini cutlets and try several. Central, but well hidden: if you don't already know where it is you'll walk straight past it. It's small, modern and pleasant inside, and you should book if you're going on a Friday or Saturday.

Address: 8/13 Borisoglebskaya street

Khutorets na Dnipri

Khutorets on the Dnipro sits on the riverbank and it's the place Ukrainians head for first after a long stretch abroad, because it tastes like home. The menu covers the national dishes including Chicken Kyiv, and although it's been open almost 20 years it's stayed one of the best Ukrainian restaurants in the city, with a good menu and good service. The decor has changed several times over the last decade and it's now back to a traditional Ukrainian style. There are plenty of tables and you'll have no trouble getting one between Monday and Thursday, but Friday to Sunday is a different story.

Address: 10a Naberezhno-Kreshchatitskaya street

Chicken Kyiv restaurant

Yes, it's named after the dish. This one is worth going to for the room as much as the food: the post-Soviet design recreates mid-1980s Kyiv, and it gives everything you eat there a particular flavour. It's one of Dmitriy Borisov's places, and he's a well known Ukrainian restaurateur with a lot of restaurants in the city, so the standard is high. Beyond the Chicken Kyiv itself, order the banosh and the varenyky. The cutlet comes with mashed potato here as standard.

Address: 15/4 Khreshchatik street

Ostannya Barykada or The Last Barricade

The Last Barricade is another Borisov project, and it's a mix of gastronomy and art that pulls in people from different communities, generations and countries. The whole place is built around Ukraine and Ukrainian produce sourced from every part of the country. The design is European with Ukrainian elements worked through it. Come for the Chicken Kyiv, the freshly baked Ukrainian bread and a long list of dishes cooked to traditional recipes, and don't skip the bar, which has an excellent collection of Ukrainian wine and spirits. It works equally well for lunch with colleagues or dinner with friends. Book a table, because it's always full.

Address: 1 Maidan Nezavisimosti street

Barvy restaurant & bar

For less conventional Ukrainian cooking, try Barvy. It's modern Ukrainian food combining traditions and recipes from every region of the country, and it's won several awards including best bar in a restaurant. The space doubles as a venue for regular exhibitions by Ukrainian artists and sculptors, along with music, literary and fashion events, so there's usually something on.

Regulars rate the meat here, and the traditional Chicken Kyiv is a popular order with locals and visiting diners alike. Once a week they put on an exclusive dinner for 12 built around foodpairing, the science of combining dishes that share common ingredients, which is worth looking into if you're here long enough to book.

Address: 3 Mechnikova street

These are a few of the best traditional Ukrainian restaurants for Chicken Kyiv, and new places open in the city all the time, so ask around while you're here.

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