AKA: schnitzel, escalope, paillard, scaloppini, and cotoletta
Yield: 2-4 Servings
Pick a meat, any meat – boneless chicken breast, turkey cutlet, pork, veal, cube steak – this technique works with about anything, including fish (don’t pound the fish). Step by step photos below.
- 1lb of boneless meat, fish or poultry.
- 2TBS all-purpose flour
- 1cup milk
- 1large egg
- oil (canola, avocado or peanut)
- 1-3cups dried panko or fresh breadcrumbs or Shake-n-Bake for Pork copycat
- 2TBS butter
- Chopped fresh parsley – optional
Get your meeze together: Chefs use a French term, mis-en-place (everything in place) to refer to the setup. Basically it means get everything out and ready before you get your hands dirty or start cooking.
Place flour in medium bowl and season with ½ tsp salt and some fresh cracked pepper.
Beat milk, egg and oil in another bowl to blend.
Place breadcrumbs in third bowl. You can also season the crumbs with salt and pepper or other seasonings.
Prep the meat: If using meat or poultry you will want to pound it to a uniform thickness. Turkey cutlets often come uniformly sliced. Fish varies with type and cut. Some is even, some not.
Chicken breast tends to have a thick edge that tapers to fairly thin on the other edge. Lay the chicken on a poultry cutting board with the length perpendicular to you and the wide side opposite from your knife hand. Use a chef’s knife and make a horizontal slice starting where the chicken is half the thickness of the thickest side. Slice to within 3/8 to a half inch of the thick edge and fold the breast open like a book.
You can use the same technique for fish, to get a thinner uniform thickness.
The word meat is used throughout the rest of this recipe, but it means the meat, fish or poultry of your choice.
Use plastic wrap above and below the meat to keep the board and mallet from sticking. A gallon plastic bag works good for this. It also helps to sprinkle or spray the meat with a bit of water to reduce friction.
Pound the meat with a mallet or a small heavy pan from the center toward the edges. Use a sliding motion to help spread the meat to a uniform thickness. Thickness can vary with what you want or the recipe recommends, but a ¼ to 3/8 inch is typical, but let the recipe dictate. Try not to pound or tear a hole through the meat or the plastic. Freezer bags have an advantage here due to their thickness. You are going for uniform thickness on all the pieces so everything cooks for the same length of time.
• Season the meat on both sides with salt and pepper.
• Dredge in (or sprinkle on) the flour, shaking off excess.
• Dip and turn to coat in egg mixture.
• Dredge in breadcrumbs, pressing to adhere on both sides.
• Set on a plate or baking sheet. Can be prepared 6 hours ahead. Chill.
Some chefs recommend a minimum of ½ hour in the refrigerator to let the crumbs set and dry a bit. This can help the breading to stick to the food during cooking. Opinions vary on this, so try both ways over time and see which gives you best results.
Most chefs recommend the dry hand/wet hand or single handed approach to breading. Whatever you use, your hand or a utensil, it never goes backwards in the coating process. You’ll have messy glop by the time you are finished.
When ready to cook, melt some butter or oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. If you are using both butter and enough oil to come half way up the side of the cutlets, let the butter melt and the foaming to stop before adding the oil. Wait until the oil is hot (365ºF) before adding the cutlets. Drop a bit of flour, crumbs or the like in the oil near the edge. If it sizzles, the oil is hot enough. You can also touch the edge of the food into the oil. If it sizzles, the oil is hot. If not, then put it back on the plate until the oil gets hotter. You can sometimes see the oil shimmer a little or the butter start to brown slightly. Don’t let the butter get too brown unless your recipe is calling for brown butter, but that’s not what we’re doing here.
Add meat and cook until golden brown, About 2-5 minutes on the first side. The final time depends on what you are cooking and the thickness. Use tongs or a spatula to lift the edge and check. When ready, turn over and cook the other side. Again the time may vary and it also depends on whether your recipe is done at this point or there are additional cooking steps.
Transfer to warm plates (or a sheet pan in a 200ºF oven) and keep warm. The oven can add a slight bit of additional cooking, but that is not the goal here. You are just keeping the food hot until all of it is ready.
Serve with:
| Vegetable |
Starch |
| Green Beans |
Noodles |
| Broccoli |
German Potato Salad |
| Asparagus |
Spaetzle |
| Green Salad |
French Fried Potatoes |
