Why Chicken Cutlets Are My Go-To Meal

Chicken cutlets have to be the quickest, dang tastiest, most versatile chicken dish on the planet. I'm gonna show you how easy they are to make and give you a few breading options for some seriously delicious cutlets. I think you're gonna love this recipe. Let's start off with the prep. Sound good? Let's cook. And there's really three crucial steps to making sure this is really good. First, you have to get the thickness of the chicken right. Second, the breading has to be seasoned and delicious. And third, you've got to get the fry right. Now, if you do all of those things, these cutlets are going to be absolutely perfect. But first, it's Dr. Chef Parisi time. I've got four boneless, skinless chicken breasts that weigh in between seven and nine ounces each. What we wanna do is slice these in half width-wise. So using one hand, firmly press down on the chicken, and then using a knife in your other hand, simply slice through the chicken. The end result should be about a half inch thick. Now, if you have a chicken breast that's extremely thick, you could possibly get up to three individual thin slices out of that one chicken breast. And a cutlet actually refers to this thin piece of meat, not necessarily the breading or how it's cooked. We just call this chicken cutlets in the US instead of Milanese in Italy or schnitzel in Austria. And if you're feeling a little bit nervous about doing this because the chicken isn't incredibly firm, just pop it in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes to help tighten it up so that it's easier for you to slice. And when you slice the chicken this thin, it really does two things. One, these will cook a whole lot quicker. And two, it really extends this recipe. I mean, you're getting two to three servings out of one chicken breast. And as expensive as everything is right now, that's a beautiful thing. Plus, more food means more people around the table to connect with. That's what good food does. Let's pound these out. When pounding this out, you can place the chicken breasts in between two pieces of parchment paper and using a meat mallet or meat tenderizer, just gently pound out the chicken. Now, you can also use a plastic zip bag or even just plastic wrap like this. And when you pound it out, I'm using the flat side of that mallet. And when you make contact with the meat, I push it out a little bit to sort of spread out the chicken. And if you don't have a mallet like this, a heavy bottom pot will also work. Just be gentle when doing it. And while this process obviously flattens them out, it also tenderizes them to make them incredibly tender. This is a must. And in the end, your chicken cutlet should be no thicker than a quarter of an inch. And this right here looks absolutely perfect. Repeat the process until all the chicken is pounded out and set it to the side on a sheet tray line with parchment paper or a platter. Now, before we get into the breading, you've got to cook this in the right pan or else you're gonna miss out on them browning correctly and cooking evenly. Now, I went all in on Maiden Pans at the beginning of last year, and this was 18 months before they even reached out to do something together. I did a full restock of everything that I had. They're just really solid pans, and that's for every line they offer. I love them, I trust them, and I use them every day in every recipe that I make. After all, if 2,000 restaurants, including one of my favorite local chefs, Grant Ockets of Alenia, uses these, then you should as well. They're professional quality products for the home cook. Maiden's stainless clad pans are crafted in Italy and used by professional chefs in the world's best kitchens. Their premium five-ply stainless steel material is what sets it apart from all the other pans out there. The five layers allows for superior heat retention, even heating, and ease of heat control. Also, the handles are designed to stay cool on the stovetop and is ergonomic to help balance the pan. And a huge thanks to them for partnering with me on this video. Don't wait, pick up some of these stainless clad pans using the link in my description. All right, let's get it with the breading. So we're gonna make something known as a standard breading procedure, which is seasoned flour, egg wash, and breadcrumbs. This step is huge in ensuring everything will be dang delicious. And this is totally just a habit after 30 years of cooking, and I actually don't even know where I got this from, but when I bread anything, I always use cake pans or pie tins. I don't know, it's just easy. But you can absolutely just use a large shallow bowl, but for me, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We're gonna add one and a half cups of all-purpose flour right to this cake tin, and then we're going to season it with coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Using a whisk, a spoon, or a fork, whatever you have, mix everything together until combined. Then we're gonna set this to the side and in another same cake tin-sized pan, we are gonna crack in a total of five large eggs. These can be chilled or at room temperature. And just like the flour, we are also going to season this with coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Mix it together using a whisk or a fork until it is completely combined and the eggs are scrambled. And I really cannot say this enough. It is so important to season every step of the way. You'll actually end up using less salt, and you won't have to sit around worrying that you didn't season just the chicken enough because every phase will be perfectly seasoned. It's little techniques like this put into practice over and over again that will 100% make you a better cook. These eggs look absolutely fantastic. Let's set them to the side. And in that last cake tin, I'm adding in three total cups of breadcrumbs. I've got a great homemade recipe for these on my website at BillyParisi.com if you want to check these out. Just like everything else, we're gonna season it up with coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper and mix those three ingredients together until they are combined. Now, this right here would make an amazing pan-fried chicken cutlet that's perfectly seasoned. But if you want to give it just that extra little love, all right, you can add a few more things to make Italian breadcrumbs, like onion and garlic granules, parsley, and Parmigiano. This is the same breading that I used when me and my dad made our breaded steak. However, Papa Bill was recently here and left me a big old bag of Italian breadcrumbs. Now, if you want this recipe, you've got to go to BillyParisi.com and check it out. But maybe we'll go half and half here. We're gonna start off the process by seasoning up our chicken, beginning with coarse salt. And when seasoning, season high, be about a foot away of what you're seasoning so that you can cover as much surface area as possible. Then we're gonna do the exact same thing with cracked black pepper. And again, we're seasoning this chicken on both sides. And now to bread everything up. Be sure to use one hand for dry ingredients and the other for the egg wash wet ingredients so that you don't have caked on hands. Take one chicken breast and we're gonna dredge it in the flour and completely coat it on both sides, pressing in that flour. This will help dry out that surface area so that the next process sticks to everything. Pat off any excess flour. Then we're going right into that egg wash. Again, we wanna flip it on both sides. Make sure this chicken cutlet is coated in that egg wash. Why? Because it's going to help the breadcrumbs stick. So add it right to that cake tin. I like to shake the pan a little bit so the breadcrumbs start to fold over the top of that chicken cutlet. Then I give it a quick flip and press it down on both sides. Give it another flip, press it down. Move those crumbs over top. This will ensure our cutlet is completely coated in those breadcrumbs so that it's golden brown and every bite is delicious. Then just set it to the side on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper. And for the Italian breadcrumbs, I'm just gonna swap it out in another separate cake tin and add those right in there. And just repeat the process until all of the chicken cutlets are completely breaded up. And these will actually hold for up to 30 minutes before they even need to be fried. But I'm not gonna wait that long. It's time to bring everything over to the cooktop. I'm going to be using a 12-inch made-in stainless-clad pan. What I'm gonna do here is add in a mix of oils, some avocado and some olive oil. The goal here is to have enough oil to completely coat the bottom of the pan and to come up to about the halfway mark on the chicken cutlet. You're going to need to be the judge here. Then we're just gonna crank the heat up to medium, medium-high. And the number one reason breading does not stick is because the oil is not hot enough. So as the last and third crucial key to these being amazing, you gotta get the temperature right. And I'm gonna make sure I bring it up to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. And the reason the oil is a little bit hotter is because as soon as that cold chicken goes in there, it's gonna immediately drop the temperature, and we don't want that. And if you don't have one of these little laser red thermometer guns, just sprinkle a little bit of breadcrumbs in there. If they immediately start to fry but not burn, you're good to go, and we are good to go. I'm adding in two of the cutlets at a time to this pan. Yes, I'm gonna have to do this in batches. And what we wanna do is cook them for in between two and three minutes or until they're very golden brown and look just like this. When we flip them, it's going to take an additional two to three minutes for them to get golden brown and cook through. The funny part about cooking this, I bet you don't even realize you do this, I guarantee you've got one hand on the pan and the other one on the hip. This is the standard cooking pose. I bet you don't even realize you're doing this. It's hilarious. Now, once they're flipped over, and if you want, you can baste the chicken just to make sure they're brown in all the little areas. You know, cooking doesn't have to be some tedious, daunting task, no. It should be fun, and in many cases, therapeutic. I promise you, though, you can absolutely pull these off. The chicken cutlets are looking fantastic, perfectly golden brown on both sides. We're just gonna set them over to the side on a rack and drain off any excess oil. Now, if you're making a bunch of these and you want to ensure they stay warm, just keep them in the oven under low temperatures, around 200 degrees Fahrenheit or less, for up to 30 minutes. Now, if your oil is starting to get really dark and those breadcrumbs are starting to burn a little bit, all we simply do is drain that off, clean up the pan, replace it with brand new, fresh oil, no problem. And with those Italian bread-crumbed chicken cutlets, it cooks in the exact same manner, but I'm telling you what, you'll immediately know the difference because the fragrances in here are absolutely incredible with that breading. Just repeat the process until all the chicken has been fried up. And yeah, you might see I went a little bit overboard and actually breaded up a few other chicken cutlets because my family absolutely loved these. And to plate these up, and of course, in slow-mo, all I'm gonna do is add the chicken cutlets to a platter. I'm gonna garnish with a few optional things, beginning with some freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Don't forget a few lemon slices, some of that little acid on there. It's just gonna make these cutlets that much better. And then last but not least, some optional finely minced fresh parsley. And these look incredible. And while they're crazy good by themselves, they're also really tasty on sandwiches or with a little lemon butter sauce. You'll have to go find those videos on the YouTubes. Let's get in this. This is good. This is simple. Breading, perfect. Thickness, perfect. Seasoning, perfect. I know, lots of perfects, but I'm serious. This is good, old-fashioned, comfort food at its finest. And if you've been following me for a minute, you know that I'm not some 30-minute meal guy. I'm just not. I'll probably never be that. But if you give me a little bit more time, we can make some dang tasty food like In My Chicken Scalpine. Great recipe video. See you on there.