Chicken Cutlet Recipe

One of my favorites since childhood

Prep time: Approx. 45 min
Cook time: 3 Cutlets at a time in a pan. Frying time between 2 – 5 minutes

Chicken Cutlet Ingredients:

• 1 Pound Chicken Tenders (Boneless) (If you can get a butcher to make chicken cutlets for you, ask him to cut boneless chicken to slices 1/4″ think, if not, then chicken tenders will work fine, but you will have to make thin slices.)
• 1 Box of Ritz© Crackers (You will almost need a whole box. Important authenticity note: The real Italian way to make this is with Veal instead of chicken and Italian bread crumbs for the breading made from garlic bread that was made and then left to sit and get stale and then crushed into crumbs, but Ritz© crackers is how my grandma and mom did it, so it’s the way I have to do it 😉
• Vegetable Oil
• Fresh Parsley (Finely chopped)
• 3 Eggs
• Splash of Milk
• Black Pepper
• A large non-stick frying pan or a well seasoned cast iron pan
• Italian Red Wine (This is only for drinking while you cook) 😉

See below for VERY detailed recipe instructions.

Directions:

First
Wash your chicken and place it all on a plate. Then get a cutting board and cut away any extra fat or gristle Spread out some wax paper on your kitchen counter and place the chicken cutlets on the paper spread out about 2″ apart from each other. You will need to have a nice heavy meat pounder. Pound out the chicken, both sides to get it nice and tender. Now your chicken is ready for breading

Next
To make your breading you will need a box of Ritz© crackers, a meat pounder or a very heavy rolling pin and a large freezer ziplock bag. Put a bunch of Ritz© crackers into the bag, seal it up and then pound it all into crumbs. Or role a heavy rolling pin back and forth over the crackers. Smash up the crackers into little bits, not too small, you don’t want powder, well, you want some powder, but mostly chunks. Um..er.. ok, large crumbs. See the photos for a better explanation.

Next
Once you have your Ritz© crackers all crushed up, place them into a large bowl and set this aside. You will now need to prepare 2 other bowls. One bowl filled with flour and the other filled with eggs that have been mixed well with a splash of milk. Note: Add some coarse black pepper to the bowl with the flour, mix in the pepper well with your hands. So when you are ready to bread the chicken you should have a plate of pounded out chicken tenders, a bowl of flour, egg and cracker crumbs. This will complete your assembly line for breading. You will then take the chicken, dip it into the flour, cover the chicken well, then dip into the egg, cover well, then dip into the cracker crumbs, be sure to cover the chicken well for each step. When dipping into the cracker crumbs, press the crumbs into the chicken a bit, make sure the crumbs are sticking to the chicken throughout. Set these aside onto another plate. Repeat this process until all chicken cutlets are breaded and ready to go.

Next
Now you will want to get your pan ready. Get a nice large non-stick frying pan. Pour in olive oil, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. You want enough oil to cover the bottom of the chicken, you do not want the chicken swimming in the oil. Make sure you heat up the oil before you place the chicken into the pan. Heat up the oil with medium heat. To test, through in a cracker crumb, if you instantly get little bubbles around the edges of the crumb then the oil is ready.

Next
OK! Your oil is ready, your breaded chicken cutlets are ready… Let’s cook! With a fork, place the cutlets into the hot oil. You should be able to cook about 3 cutlets at a time. Cook them until golden brown on both sides. They will cook pretty fast, about 2-5 minutes on each side, all depends on thickness of cutlet, your pan and your stove. Just keep checking, when golden brown, flip, then when the other side is golden brown, you know it’s done.

Note: When you flip over the cutlet for the first time, sprinkle on some fresh chopped parsley.

Next
The best thing I have found for draining the cutlets after frying is as follows: Place a paper grocery bag on the counter and then place a few sheets of paper towels on top of that. Then pick up the cutlet from the frying pan, let it drip for a few second over the pan, then place it onto the paper towels, sprinkle on some more parsley at the time. Then take more paper towels and press them onto the top of the cutlets trying to absorb any extra oil that may be left on the cutlet. Let these sit on the paper towels while you tend to the other cutlets. Repeat this process until you have cooked all the cutlets. You will want to have another paper grocery bag and paper towels on the side. After you have drained one set of cutlets you cover it with more paper towels then take newly cooked cutlets and place them on the other paper towels. It’s kind of like an assembly line process. After you have cooked this a few times you will discover what is most efficient and what works best with the draining/drying of the cutlets.

Next
My favorite thing to have on the side with the is Fettucini Alfredo and a nice salad. This makes such a wonderful meal! One of my favorites actually! Hmm., that reminds me, I’m going to have to get my Fettucini Alfredo recipe up on the site!

That’s it! You’re done….. Easy as Pie!

Chicken Cutlet Recipe Photo Gallery

This slideshow requires JavaScript.