Chicken Schnitzels (Chicken Tenders)
October 16th, 2010 in Chicken, Main Dishes by Julia Volhina
Total cooking time: 45min
This recipe for chicken tenders (or beaten chicken cutlets) is somewhat similar to pork schnitzels, except for the fact they are made from chicken, of course.
In additional to breading (for which, I must say, ground breadcrumbs work the best), cooking of those require some agility to cut chicken breasts into flat portion pieces: so if you are wondering how to do that – keep reading 🙂
Chicken tenders are perfect for dinner; you can store leftover tenders in the fridge and warm them up for lunch or eat cold and they are great for sandwiches.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb – 1.5 lb of boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2-3 eggs
- About cup of ground breadcrumbs (can be replaced by all purpose flour or other breading of your choice)
- Salt to taste
- Oil of your choice, I used sunflower oil
How to prepare, step-by-step:
- Prepare ingredients: I really advice to use breadcrumbs for breading, there is not better choice for this dish (they are not hard to prepare after all, if you can’t find them in the shop); rinse chicken meat with cold water and pat with paper towel:
- Whatever you do next depends of the size of the chicken breast pieces. You need to cut in into portion pieces and then slice each piece thickness is more or less the same everywhere (which is a bit hard with chicken) so it can be evenly cooked. Here is how I do it: firstly, slice chicken breast lengthways cutting thicker part from the thinner like on the picture:
- Take thinner piece and slice almost whole way through, but keep 2 pieces together:
- Flatten sliced piece on the wooden board, if some side looks more thin – cut it not all way though:
- Then repeat the same procedure with the thicker piece of chicken breast:
- So from one medium size chicken breast you will get 2 more or less flat pieces of meat like the following. Repeat Steps from 2 to 5 for the rest chicken breasts:
- For each piece of chicken: salt it from both sides and beat with meat tenderizer to make sure it is evenly flat:
- Crack eggs into shallow bowl, add salt and mix:
- Put skillet with a bit of oil on the burner over moderate heat. While skillet is warming up, dip a tenderized chicken piece into breadcrumbs from both sides:
- Then to the eggs from one side:
- And then from the other, make sure eggs cover whole piece:
- Put breaded chicken tender to the warmed up skillet; fry for about 2 minutes, then turn to another side and fry until ready. Repeat for rest of the chicken, move tenders away from skillet once ready:
- Serve chicken tenders warm for lunch or dinner with your choice of the side dish (I picked mashed potatoes). By the way, chicken tenders are perfect for sandwiches:
Oh, this brings back childhood memories! My grandmother and my mom made this dish for us kids whenever they bought a chicken.