I Can’t Stop Thinking About: The Carlisle Castle’s Chonky Chicken Kyiv

We need to talk about Kyiv-en.

No, I don’t mean the 2011 psychological thriller starring Tilda Swinton. Nor the original text, Lionel Shriver’s 2003 breakout novel. I mean the current menu special at The Carlisle Castle in Newtown. We need to talk about Kyiv-en because you’ve only got two more weeks to try this Steeden-shaped serve of chicken before it leaves the building indefinitely.

So gird your loins, I’m about to gush like a river of herb butter escaping the juicy interior of a thicc fried chook.

I did not grow up eating chicken Kyiv in European hotels, where it was the dish du jour among elites in the post-war era. Oh no. I grew up eating schnitzel’s self-saucing cousin (an invention of Russian origin inspired by haute French cuisine, later renamed and popularised in Ukraine) from a cardboard box in western Sydney.

The Kyivs of my childhood had the unmistakable flavour and vibe of mass-manufactured poultry, and were often criminally stingy with the butter. The Carlisle’s bird, on the other hand, is a thing of rustic, handmade beauty.

The chefs brine 200-gram fillets of organic, free-range chicken breast supplied by Meaty’s Butcher in Stanmore, then pipe each one with butter blitzed with confit garlic, chives and thyme. The breasts are chilled in the fridge, then egg washed and rolled in panko and fine breadcrumbs. An eight-minute dip in the deep fryer and a quick fire in the oven later, they’re served on a bed of creamy colcannon mash surrounded by a moat of pomodoro.

As you hack into the golden crust with a steak knife – and you will need one – the sight of liquefied butter cascading out and pooling into crevices of creamy, cabbage-studded potato is … erm … explicit. This dish is straight up nostalgia porn after all, aimed at millennials like me who grew up on a steady diet of freezer food and the original Star Wars trilogy.

I’m not alone. According to exec chef Cam Votano, the pub presently churns out 50 orders a day – and sells out long before the dinner crowd arrives at 7pm. “In my experience here and at The Bat and Ball, it’s the most unassuming dishes that generate the most interest. I did not expect this much love for the Kyiv.

“People are used to seeing a Kyiv in a box. But when you’re actually making it from scratch, and trying to maintain a standard, there’s a four-to-five-hour process behind those 50 serves. Then the actual meal only lasts 10 minutes,” he says, laughing. “But that’s why we’re chefs. It’s a labour of love all the way.”

Though The Carlisle’s Kyiv is only sticking around for another couple of weeks, Votano says it’s the standard we can expect from the pub’s specials going forward. But will we ever see Kyiv-en again? “Absolutely.”

@carlislecastlehotel

Broadsheet’s I Can’t Stop Thinking About series recognises the dishes that drive us crazy, in the best way possible. Read about an “untouchable” maple syrup pudding, a savoury pancake unlike any other, a “seafood odyssey” of a lunch and more.