Breaded chicken breast cutlets: juicy inside, crisp outside
One of the most common Polish weeknight dinners, done properly: breasts halved into thinner fillets, pounded gently to an even centimetre, salted a quarter of an hour ahead, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, fried briefly in oil with butter. The whole art is not to overcook: a breast is done at 74 °C inside, and every extra minute turns it to sawdust. With potatoes and cucumber salad.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Slicing and pounding 10 min
- Meat salting 15 min
- Breading 5 min
- Frying 15 min
Step by step
0 / 6 done
Halve the breasts into fillets
Lay each breast flat on the board and slice horizontally into two thinner fillets, holding it down with your palm. Two breasts give four cutlets. Put the potatoes on.
Ingredients: 600 g chicken breast · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper · ½ pcs lemon
TipA whole breast fillet is thick at one end and thin at the other: either the thick part stays raw or the thin part dries out. Halving solves both problems at once.
Horizontally, two fillets from each breast
Pound gently
Cover a fillet with cling film and pound it lightly, to an even 1 cm. No thinner: breast has almost no fat, and a thin cutlet dries out in a minute. The film protects the fibres from tearing.
Under film, to a centimetre, no thinner
Salt and wait
Salt the fillets on both sides, pepper, splash with lemon juice and leave 15 minutes. The salt starts to penetrate the meat and helps it hold water during frying; a cutlet salted just before the pan is salty only on the surface.
TipEven this quarter of an hour makes a clear difference, and longer salting more still: if you have time, salt in the morning and keep in the fridge until dinner.
Salt, pepper, lemon, a quarter hour
Bread the cutlets
Three plates: flour, beaten eggs, breadcrumbs. Dredge each fillet in flour and shake off the excess, dip in egg, coat in breadcrumbs, pressing with your palm. Bread just before frying, or the crumbs go soggy.
Ingredients: 60 g plain flour · 2 pcs eggs · 120 g breadcrumbs · 100 ml oil · 30 g butter
Flour, egg, crumbs, pressed on
Fry briefly in oil with butter
Heat the oil with the butter in a large pan over medium-high heat; a breadcrumb dropped in should sizzle at once. Fry in two batches of two, 3–4 minutes a side, until the coating is golden and the meat at the thickest point is white and springy (74 °C on a thermometer). Turn once. The frying takes about 15 minutes in all.
TipButter gives flavour and colour, oil raises the smoke point. Fat too cool means a coating soaked in oil; too hot means burnt crumbs and a raw centre.
Four minutes a side, turn once
Drain and serve
Rest the cutlets on paper towel for a minute. Drain the potatoes and sprinkle with dill. Peel and slice the cucumber thinly, mix with the sour cream, a pinch of salt and dill. Serve at once; the coating stays crisp for a quarter of an hour.
Ingredients: 800 g potatoes · ½ bunch dill · 1 pcs cucumber · 100 g sour cream, 18 %
A minute on paper, dill potatoes, cucumber salad
Before you start
With cheese and ham
A slice of ham and cheese on the pounded fillet, folded in half, edges pressed, then breaded: a homemade cordon bleu. Fry a minute longer per side.
In cornflakes
Crushed cornflakes instead of breadcrumbs: a thicker, crunchier coating that children usually like.
Dry cutlets
Pounded too thin or fried too long. Keep a centimetre of thickness, fry 4 minutes a side and check with a thermometer: 74 °C and not a degree more.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
