What To Serve With Chicken Kiev

Right, we are just going to come straight out and say it. Chicken Kiev might be our favorite ever dish. What’s not to love? Juicy chicken stuffed with herby garlic butter and a crispy breaded coating. While chicken kiev might be the star of the show, it will need a good supporting cast. If you are wondering what to serve with chicken Kiev, have a check of our list below. There are some tasty ideas to suit every mood and season.

Sides for Chicken Kiev | 19 Tasty Ideas

1. Pea and Potato Crush

Chicken Kiev is pretty darn tasty, and you really want those flavors to shine! What we are getting at is that it may be worth considering a side that is relatively mild in flavor but is still pretty filling. The answer? Why not give pea and potato crush a whirl? It is basically a one-pot dish that can be whipped up in a matter of minutes. 

To make it, just boil some small new potatoes in salted water until they are tender. Add a couple of handfuls of fresh or frozen peas. Once they are cooked to your liking, drain, add a substantial cube of butter and a pinch of pepper before mashing the entire lot together. The trick with this recipe is to leave a few chunks whole. Serve your pea and potato crush with a chicken Kiev sliced at an angle and placed on top for the ultimate presentation.

2. Rocket Salad

How would you like something fresh, light, and peppery. Rocket is really easy to get hold of and prepare. You can jazz it up in a few ways. The garlic butter that oozes out of a kiev can get a bit salty, so you’ll want something that tastes a little refreshing. Here’s a great idea for a dressing. Simply mix a tablespoon of lemon juice with equal amounts of olive oil and a little dash of sugar. Shake the lot and drizzle it over a few rocket leaves. This actually looks really classy and lets your Kiev be the star of the show.

3. Minted Peas

The golden breadcrumbs on top of the Kiev need a little contrast. We find that a splash of green works really well on the plate. We love minty peas. They take all of five minutes to make, and they are super tasty. To make them boil fresh or frozen peas and then drain them. Add a spoonful of salted butter and a large spoonful of store-bought mint sauce. Give it all a good stir and serve while they are still steaming and hot. Delicious.

4. Lemon Wild Rice

Let us go back to a citrus theme, as it works so well with both garlic and chicken. Lemon wild rice tastes great and is really filling too. To make it cook your wild rice according to the packet instructions… But add a twist. We add a splash of lemon juice and also grate in the zest of the lemon. As the rice cooks in the pan, the zesty flavor infuses with the rice. It also gives it a really nice yellow tinge. The smells coming from the kitchen while you cook this one are absolutely divine!

5. Baked Potato

While some cooks like to fry their chicken Kiev, we find it much easier to combine the breadcrumbs with oil and bake them. We found it just as tasty, but it cuts down on the calories significantly. While you have the oven on, why not make life easy and use this opportunity to bang in a quick baked potato? The beauty of baked potatoes is that you can go to town on the fillings. A basic filling of cream cheese with chicken Kievs is super, as is the addition of blue cheese, chili, and crispy bacon (which happens to be our favorite choice at the moment)

6. Hasselback Potato

Hasselback potatoes are a little similar to a baked potato, except each mouthful comes with a little portion of crispy skin. To make them, parboil a few small potatoes and allow them to cool. Once they are cold enough to handle, cut even lines in the back of each potato, stopping before you go all the way through. Give them a little squeeze to spread the cracks, and then fill with a topping of your choice before baking in a hot oven for around 40 minutes. Because of their grooves, hasselbacks have a greater surface area which means you can pack them full of delicious flavors.

7. Potato Dauphinoise

Let stay with potatoes for the time being. If you are going to all the effort of making a crisp and tasty chicken Kiev, then you aren’t going to want your plate ruined with poor presentation or a sub-standard side dish. Dauphinoise potatoes are very easy to make and look fabulous on the plate. Just layer slices of potato and onion in a deep baking dish, and then top with a layer of heavy cream and some garlic slices. Oh, and don’t forget the salt and pepper. Stick the entire lot in a hot oven until the top is brown and bubbling. Allow them to cool slightly and then cut into thick squares before serving. 

Ok, there’s a lot of garlic there, but unless you are a vampire or have a job interview the next day, this is one of the best on our list!

8. Lighthouse Potatoes

If dauphinoise potatoes seem like too much effort, give these a try instead. They are a little more rustic looking, but who cares? If you aren’t familiar, lighthouse potatoes are creamy and delicious. We boil cubes of tomato in chicken stock before adding cream and cream cheese. We stick them in the oven after we have topped them with a layer of breadcrumbs. Don’t tell anyone, but we always make too much so we can serve them as a meal in their own right the next day.

Related: Potato Sides

9. Celeriac Mash

Celeriac is interesting. It adds a whole new dimension to mashed potatoes. It has a slightly bitter anise note that seems to go so well with chicken. It’s also a little sweet. To encourage this sweetness, we like to give ours a little glaze of olive oil and then bake it in the oven till the outer edges look ever so slightly charred. From there, it is just a case of chopping it into small cubes and incorporating it as a sort of hybrid puree.

10. Braised Fennel with White Wine

Braised fennel? Sweet! No, we aren’t talking in slang. We really mean it. Slow-braised fennel is quick to prepare and can be placed in the oven alongside your Kievs. We cut the fennel in half, add a pinch of seasoning and a liberal splash of wine (while drinking the rest of the bottle). Wrap the fennel in tin foil in a little parcel and leave it to do its thing. It’s effortless. If you want a superb presentation, retain the feathery ends of the fennel and use it as a garnish. 

11. Sweet Potato Wedges

Sweet potato wedges couldn’t be easier. Just cut a sweet potato into thick chunks. Parboil them for no longer than two minutes and then leave them to steam dry. This causes them to turn a little floury, perfect for soaking up the oil (which you will add to make them go all crispy in the oven). You can serve them ‘virgin’ or add a few interesting flavor elements such as Mexican spice, garlic powder, or even a hint of cumin!

12. Vichy Carrots

Three ingredients for the best carrots ever! Are you onboard? Carrots, butter, and sugar (oh and a little water), that’s it! Boil the carrots with just enough water to cover them along with the rest of the ingredients. Sweet and delicious!

13. Crusty Bread Rolls

Please don’t tell us that you will let all that delicious garlic butter go to waste? Listen, it is going to leak out, and you will need something to catch it. Our suggestion? Hows about a nice simple crusty lump of bread?

Bread rolls are easy to make if you’ve got the right ingredients and skills. Plan this dish ahead to have it all ready at the same time (to make bread rolls, you will need at least 4-5 hours free)

14. Mac and Cheese

We’ve all had those days where you get into the house, and you are hungry. If you could eat a horse, try making this instead. Mac and cheese can be assembled on the hob in no time using basic store cupboard ingredients. We like to finish it off by baking it for the last ten minutes alongside our chicken kievs, but this is entirely optional. 

You can add a few little extras to make your mac and cheese extra special. We tend to go for bacon as our standard ingredient of choice; however, a great twist on this all-time classic is to add a few florets of precooked broccoli… It’s a really good way to get the kids to eat their greens without them noticing.

Related: Mac and cheese sides

15. Bacon and Brussel Sprouts

There are few dishes that we could eat a whole bowl of without stopping.  This is a prime example. If you’d have asked us 30 years ago if we liked Brussel sprouts, we’d have said a firm no. But times change. The trick is to avoid boiling them, and oven roast them instead. Slice the sprouts thinly, add a few crunchy walnuts, along with a splash of oil, and bake for around 35 minutes. Finish the entire dish off with a few cubes of crispy cooked bacon. The other key to this recipe is to use plenty of black pepper. You need to try this. It’s unreal.

16. Baked Broccoli with Walnuts

While we are on the subject of greens being baked, take a look at this. You don’t want to bang your broccoli into the oven raw. Instead, give it a little attention. Parboil it first and allow it to steam dry. We coat ours in a mixture of butter and lemon juice while it is still warm. From there, throw it into the oven and cook until the ‘leaves’ of your little trees turn a little bit darker. Meanwhile, toast a small handful of walnuts in a pan before roughly chopping and sprinkling over your broccoli.

17. Fried Rice

If you are looking for some simple fayre that definitely won’t upstage the show’s main star, then panda express fried rice is a great option. There are a few key points if you are cooking unprepared rice. First, make sure that you use twice the weight of water that you have used in rice. Second, leave the lid on. Third, never stir rice while it is cooking. If you do so, you’ll end up with a really boring risotto that nobody will want to eat. 

Why use white rice? Isn’t it a bit boring? Hell no! You’ll find that it is great for soaking up any spillages of garlic butter. Garlicky, herby rice with a chicken kiev? Yum!

18. Lemon Wedges

Not a big eater? No problem. Here are the simplest of side dishes to serve with a chicken Kiev. Just a slice of lemon. That’s it! No tricks, no faff, no fuss! If you want to be all fancy, you could bake the lemon to soften and break it down into something slightly sweeter. It makes your kitchen smell amazing!

19. Buttery Green Beans

Green beans aren’t the most glamourous of foods, but the chicken Kiev will take care of that! Stick your beans in a pan of salted boiling water. Top tip… Don’t overboil them. You want them to retain just a little squeak and crunch. Add a dash of lemon juice, some pepper, and a little butter before serving alongside your Kiev.

Conclusion

You don’t have to think hard to know what to serve with chicken Kiev. It’s pretty tasty on its own, so as long as you don’t overdo it on the flavor, you’ll be good to go. Can you think of any more that we need to add to our list? Leave us a comment and let us know!