Clodagh McKenna's summer herbed chicken Kiev with cheddar crumb

A fresh chicken breast filled with beautiful fresh herbs, garlic and

good-quality butter, dipped in fresh breadcrumbs and cheddar and fried in clean oil is sensational. Biting into a cheesy crumb with a gorgeous crispy texture, then into juicy meat oozing in melting herb garlic butter, is so delicious and nothing like the frozen Eighties version that chicken Kiev has become associated with.

Wild garlic is delicious instead or as an addition to the herbs in the filling. The wild garlic season is now upon us and woodlands are blanketed with this beautiful wild leaf. Last weekend I was in West Cork in Ireland — I go there every year during May and have a wild garlic forage. There is a wild garlic forest that runs along the sea outside a fishing village called Courtmacsherry. The smell when entering the forest always gives me the greatest thrill. I lie down in the wild garlic forest blanket, looking up at the trees and take a moment to inhale the smells, dreaming of what I would create with it. I pick as much as I can carry and make it into a big pot of pesto to take back to London.

For supper I cook seabass wrapped in the leaves of the wild garlic with whipped wild garlic butter melting over it. I am a wild garlic fanatic, and I want you to be too. Get out there at the weekend for a forage and add it to this Kiev. Happy foraging.

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 35 minutes

Serve with: Broglia Gavi di Gavi DOCG, £10.49 from Waitrose

Ingredients (serves 4)

75g butter, softened

2 tbsp parsley, marjoram, thyme and rosemary, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

4 organic chicken breast fillets

75g plain flour

2 eggs, whisked

100g Dubliner cheddar cheese, finely grated

75g fine breadcrumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C.

2. In a bowl mix fresh herbs, crushed garlic and softened butter, and season with sea salt and black pepper. Mix well. Spoon the garlic butter into a baking sheet, roll up into a shape of a cylinder and place in the freezer for 10 minutes.

3. Place the chicken breast fillets between two sheets of clingfilm. Hit them with a rolling pin until they are even in size and about 1cm thick.

4. Remove the herbed garlic butter from the freezer and thinly slice. Divide the butter between the flattened chicken fillets, place the slices of the butter on one side of the chicken breast fillet, and fold the non-buttered side on top. Press down with the edges of the chicken and pinch with your fingers. Cover with clingfilm and put in a fridge for 30 minutes.

5. Place a frying pan over a medium/high heat and add enough vegetable oil to fill 2cms. Put the flour on a plate and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Use another plate for the whisked eggs and lastly mix together the breadcrumbs and cheddar cheese on another plate. Remove the chicken from the fridge, dip in the seasoned flour, egg and the cheese crumbs. Fry for two minutes on each side, or until golden. Transfer to the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes.