I received a gift in the mail from my friend Steven. A beautiful, handmade, wooden mallet for pounding/tenderizing meat. It’s a piece of art; I was almost afraid to use it!! I wasn’t planning to make a schnitzel this week, but when I received the mallet, I just wanted an excuse to use it right away!! Chicken schnitzel was the first recipe that popped into my mind!
Learn how to make Chicken Schnitzel at home. Beautifully crispy on the outside, yet tender on the inside. My recipe is quick, easy, and produces perfectly crispy crust and tender chicken on the inside. It's quick to make, and always a crowd-pleaser!
Put down a large piece of plastic wrap on your work surface. Put one piece of your chicken in the center of it. The chicken will end up taking up a lot more space, so make sure your plastic wrap is large enough!
Cover the chicken with a large piece of plastic wrap (just as large as the piece on the bottom)
With your mallet (or meat tenderizer, or heavy bottom skillet), pound out the chicken, until it’s less than 0.5cm (0.2″) thick. The trick is to make sure it’s the same thickness all across.
Don’t just pound down with the mallet, but try to pound down and out from the center of the chicken breast.
Put the pounded-out chicken in the bowl of cold water. The chicken will absorb some of the water, and then when you fry it up, that water evaporates. This will cause the crust to laminate, and give it that traditional Wienerschnitzel texture.
Repeat steps 1-4 for the other pieces of chicken.When all the chicken has been pounded out, you want it to sit in the water for at least 10 minutes. While the chicken is soaking, you can set up your breading station!! It's all about efficiency!
Set Up The Breading Station
Set up three shallow dishes (large enough to hold the pieces of chicken) in a row.
In the left-most dish, put the all-purpose flour.
In the center dish, beat together the egg, 2tsp of oil, salt, and pepper.
In the right-most dish, put the breadcrumbs.
You will also need a large platter to hold all the breaded chicken, all the way on the right (at the end of the station).
Bread The Chicken
Take the chicken out of the bowl of water, once they’ve been in there long enough. Pat them completely dry. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
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Dredge chicken through the flour, and shake off any excess.
Take the floured chicken, and dredge it through the egg
Last, put the chicken in the breadcrumbs, and make sure it’s fully covered. I always push it in a little bit, to make sure everything sticks.
Repeat for the other pieces of chicken.
Fry Your Schnitzel
Fill a large sautée pan with 2cm (≈ 6/8″) of oil and butter.
Over medium heat, heat the oil until it’s between 175ºC (350F) and 180ºC (360F).
Gently put your first piece of chicken in the pan. Keep the pan moving gently. Cook the chicken for 2 minutes
Flip the chicken over, and cook it for 3 minutes. Again, keep the pan in motion. This will prevent the chicken from sticking to the bottom of the pan, and will also keep basting the top of the chicken with hot oil.
Clean out any crumbs from the oil, bring it back to temperature, and repeat the steps for the remaining chicken.
