From Wikipedia : A schnitzel (German pronunciation: [ˈʃnɪtsəl]) is boneless meat, thinned with a meat tenderizer, coated with flour, beaten eggs and bread crumbs, and then deep fried.
Schnitzels are delicious. I love them, and made them recently when some friends came over. Its a great party food. Everything can be prepped ahead, and once done, each schnitzel takes but two minutes to cook. And who doesn’t like deep fried? Also, if you are deep frying, you will need a bit of oil, and you might as well cook up lots of schnitzel for your party.
Schnitzel is easy. The only really important thing is to get the crumbs to stick tight to the meat. Here, the wiki definition gives it all, it must be flour, egg, and crumbs. Its three, and exactly three steps.
- Flour
- Egg
- Beadcrumbs
The last two steps make sense. It is step 1 that some home cooks skip to their chagrin. The flour coating is absolutely necessary, to allow the eggs to cling evenly to the meat. Skip it, and you will eat your meat unbreaded, with the crumbs on the side. That’s sad.
So here is how I do Schnitzel.
Overview
The recipe is best if you have time ahead to prepare the breading. You will need the meat, flours, egg and crumbs. I would start 2 hours before the party starts. Put the prepped schnitzel into the fridge and then chill with your friends.
Once done, the cooking is a breeze. Set up your deep fryer, and its fine to start cooking only when you friends wanna eat.
The ingredients
Meat – can be veal, pork or chicken. They need to be pounded thin with one of those tenderiser things. I tend to leave this to my butcher. I love to get veal escalopes from Huber’s.
For the coating, once again :
- Flour (all purpose wheat is fine)
- Beaten egg
- Breadcrumbs
Seasonings
Some soya sauce, pepper, Worchester, mustard for the meat.
Some Italian Herbs, salt and pepper for the crumbs.
The mise
I do like to marinate the meat. For this I just some soya sauce, pepper, and Worcester, and a little mustard – just anything to boost the umami factor. Because the meat has been pounded thin, they will take up the marinate quickly. You can proceed immediately after you flip the meat a few times to coat it evenly.
When ready to bread your escalopes, prepare flour, beat up some eggs and your breadcrumbs. Pour excess marinate into the egg. Season the flour with a pinch of Italian herbs, salt and pepper. Have the flour and crumbs ready in large trays.
First flour the meat. This step is important, you must press the meat into the flour, dredge it about so that every bit is coated with flour. Shake off excess.
Then the meat goes into the egg. Ensure all surfaces are well coated in a thin layer of egg. Allow excess egg to drain.
Then into the crumbs. Much like the flour, dredge the meat about and get it evenly coated.
Then set aside your breaded schnitzels, If you have time, leave it in fridge for a least an hour to set, uncovered so the breading is nice and dry.
You are now mise!
Cooking (deep fry)
The drill is easy. I like to use a fry pan large enough for the schnitzel, filled halfway with oil. Heat oil to 180 degree C. Do not be afraid of the hot oil – there will be less splatter if you carefully lower each schnitzel right in. Just keep your fingers out.
The schnizels are done when they get a little “floaty” in the oil.
Remove from the oil with tongs, holding it vertically and shaking a bit so oil drains off
Drain well
Now, you want to rest the hot fried meat on a rack, to drain. And don’t overlap them! This allows moisture to vent off. You dont want to make all that effort, stack them up and let them get soggy.
Serve!
I like my schnitzel with boiled, butter and herbed spuds (fries are a bit too much) and a fresh cold salad (served on side). I find the contrast of textures refreshing.
Additional Tips
On the meat, the beauty of this is that it turns dry, lean cuts into gold beauties. Pork or veal loin, leg and chicken beasts shine here. I leave this bit to my butcher.
Good schnitzel needs to be tasty, inside and out:
- The breading is the first to contact the tongue. Season this, and people will think its better.
- The meat should be marinated, and the excess marinate can be poured into the egg. This boosts the taste in the coating and the meat.
The breading can be a mess, and some will end up with ten well breaded fingers. Best to use the wet hand, dry one technique
- Keep one hand dry. With this hand, you dredge the meat in the flour. Use the dry hand to drop the meat into the egg, but don’t let the dry hand contact the egg.
- Use your other wet hand to coat the meat in the egg, then that same wet hand to drop the meat onto the crumbs.
- With the dry hand, pick up some crumbs, and toss it over one corner of the meat. You can now pick up the meat with the dry hand.
Now, about the crumbs. You can easily buy them, but look, you are buying good money for ….. breadcrumbs. And do you know how long they have been on the shelf? So, if you have a little time – make them. Just get sandwich bread, trim of the crusts, toast them lightly, and pound them up. A food processor works well. In my case, I used a whole batard, and ground up the crust as well, giving a browner “crumb”. You can also use… Jacob’s crackers. Just grind them up!