Kotleta po-kyivsky

The story

Kotleta po-kyivsky is a chicken breast rolled around cold herb butter, breaded and fried, so that the butter runs out when it is cut. Where it began is still argued over. French-style chicken cutlets came to the Russian Empire, of which Kyiv was then part, in the late 19th century, and Ukrainian writers credit Kyiv restaurateurs with filling them with herb butter. Local tradition names the Continental Hotel in Kyiv, built in 1897 and destroyed in 1941, as the place that made the dish its signature. An early printed reference, in a 1915 cookery digest, lists Kiev cutlets of chicken or veal with a bar of cold butter inside. The dish reached the United States early. In 1937 the Chicago Tribune described it at the Yar, a Russian-style restaurant in Chicago, and The New York Times printed a recipe in 1946. From the late 1940s or early 1950s it was standard fare in high-class Soviet restaurants. Since 2022 some supermarket chains have rebranded it with the Ukrainian spelling, Chicken Kyiv, and since 2018 a bronze miniature of the cutlet has stood on a street in central Kyiv. Ukrainian cooks serve it with mashed potatoes or fries and vegetables, and the melted butter becomes the sauce.