Welcome to “Methodology”, a guide to making a delicious meal component without the need for measurements and rules. I’ve broken down the basics of a classic dish and all the steps needed to make one, on the fly, without a recipe. This series is about building your confidence in the kitchen by teaching you the basics of what makes food work and how to make it work for you. This is not a recipe, do not scroll hoping to find one — you will not.
Chicken cutlets — thinly pounded chicken breast breaded and shallow fried. It’s a simple recipe that leads to a simple joy. This classic dish crisscrosses cultures in a way so few others can and, for this reason, makes a great weeknight treat. Making an excellent chicken cutlet takes some patience (and some extra dishes to wash) but is always worth the hassle if you do it right.
Here’s a guide to the methodology of making the perfect chicken cutlet.
The Ingredients
There are just three components that make chicken cutlets what they are: chicken, a coating, and fat (for frying). Here’s the breakdown of those three things, how they affect the final dish, and all the variations of each.
The Chicken
For chicken cutlets: breast is best. Its shape and texture is most conducive for pounding thin into a cutlet, and it carries a subtle enough flavor to let the coating be the star of the show. It’s also an economical way to stretch out chicken breast which feels like it’s quickly becoming the most expensive cut of meat on earth (at least compared to other parts of the bird). That said, nothing is stopping you from making cutlets out of any other part of the bird (though you might find it hard to turn wings into cutlets). If you’re using thighs, you may want to trim off some excess fat since it won’t render under the coating and might have an unpleasant texture.
My golden rule for buying meat applies as usual: buy the best meat that suits your budget. If you have the budget and are interested in learning more about where your food comes from — start by learning what the labels on your food actually mean.
The Coating
The coating is where you turn a simple chicken cutlet into any variety of outcomes. Generally, chicken cutlets across cultures and cuisines involve some kind of fat (usually eggs) used to adhere a coating to the meat (usually breadcrumbs of some sort). When it comes to breadcrumbs you can use any kind of breadcrumbs you like, just try and stick to ones that don’t come preseasoned or salted. The shortcut seems enticing but it’s always better to do the slight extra work to keep control over your seasoning/salt level.
The Oil/Fat
Most people don’t think of oil as an ingredient as much as it is just a thing you use to cook food. But there’s a lot of nuance and variety found within cooking oils and, when you’re frying, those nuances are much more pronounced. If you’ve had french fries on an east coast boardwalk, you know that the oil you fry something in can make a huge difference to how it tastes. In general, you want an oil with a high smoke point — an oil that can get really hot without burning. For mild flavor use something like Safflower, vegetable, or refined olive oil*. For a punch of flavor go for something like peanut oil, clarified butter, or lard.
*A note on olive oil: if you want to fry in olive oil make sure you get a light or refined olive oil. Avoid extra virgin olive oil (even the cheap kind from Trader Joe’s) which starts to burn around 325 degrees.
Preparation:
Thinly pounded chicken breaded and fried is a pretty ubiquitous food all across the world. It’s fast, it’s delicious, and it’s economical. Generally, they all follow the same basic method of french pané to add the coating to the meat. Pané is a french technique whereby you coat your desired meat in lightly salted flour, then into beaten egg, and then into breadcrumbs before frying.
Most versions around the world use this method but mix up the seasonings and/or the type of breadcrumbs to create new flavor profiles. You can experiment with your own flavor profiles or you can rely on one of these three tried and true classics.
(American) Italian Style: The version found in Italian-style delis all over. These are what I think of when I think of a great chicken cutlet. The perfect version for chicken parm or a sandwich. Traditional breadcrumbs, Italian dried herbs (oregano, basil, parsley, fennel seed), grated hard Italian cheese (pecorino romano or parmesan).
Japanese Katsu (カツ): An extremely crispy coating defines this Yōshuko (洋食, lit. “western food”) classic. Often served hot with rice, shredded cabbage, and Japanese curry. Panko breadcrumbs seasoned simply with just salt and pepper, sometimes with sesame seeds and/or Japanese seven spice.
Austrian Schnitzel: The classic Viennese dish Wienerschnitzel is usually made with veal but the same principles can be applied to chicken. The seasoning is simple and much of the flavor comes from the practice of frying it in clarified butter. Do not top with sauce unless you want to incur the wrath of Austria.
Cooking
Once you’ve pounded your chicken and panéd it in your choice of breadcrumb coating, it’s time to fry. The most traditional method is to fry it in a pan on the stovetop, so that’s the method I’m going into detail about. But, if you’re not quite ready for frying (scary) or you’re cooking in a big batch and want something more efficient than one at a time, I’ve also outlined a method for making them in the oven.
Stovetop Frying (the basics)
Establish a landing pad
A mistake no one ever makes twice is forgetting to have a place to land your cutlets when they come out of the fryer. Fishing out a freshly fried piece of meat that’s stupidly hot and has nowhere to go is a recipe for disaster. So, before you do anything make sure the chicken has somewhere to land when it’s finished. A baking sheet (or a big plate) lined with paper towels is a good budget landing pad. If you’ve got one (and the patience for another thing that has to get washed) a baking sheet lined with a wire rack is best.
Use room-temperature chicken
A small step but an important one. If you’ve done your breading ahead of time and had the chicken sitting in the fridge, take it out at least a half hour before you want to start cooking. Your meat is more likely to dry out if it’s still cold from the fridge when it hits the hot oil.
Let your oil get hot
Be patient and let the oil get hot before you drop anything in there. If you drop your cutlets into cold or lukewarm oil, the coating will absorb the oil instead of frying in it which will lead to soggy, greasy cutlets. No one wants that.
To check if your oil is ready for frying you can drop a small crumb of breading into the oil to see how it reacts (if it starts bubbling and frying, you’re ready to go). If you’ve got a kitchen thermometer (highly recommended) you can check the temperature of the oil — you’re looking for around 350 degrees. My personal favorite method is to dip wooden chopsticks (or the end of a wooden spoon) into the oil. If bubbles form around the wood, your oil is ready for action.
Fry, Fry, Fry
Once your oil is ready to go, lay your cutlets away from you into the hot pan. Dropping them belly-flop style does look cool but the grease fire you’ll cause will not look cool when it sears off your eyebrows. Do not touch the cutlets once they’re down in the oil, you don’t want to mess up that initial fry by moving everyone around. Just leave it there for two-ish minutes before sneaking a peak. Once it’s golden brown, flip it and repeat.
Fry in batches if you’re making a lot of cutlets since crowding the pan will bring down the temperature of the oil and remember what we said about cold oil?
Cool
The cutlets are thin, so they will cool faster than you think they will. If you’re serving them that evening and want them warm, you can hot hold them in your oven on the lowest heat setting until you’re ready to serve. Otherwise, they’ll be good to cut into just a few minutes after removing from the heat.
If you want to store the cutlets cold, make sure to leave them out on a wire rack (or paper towels if you don’t have one) to cool completely. This will probably take several hours but you will be rewarded with cold cutlets that stay crispy.
Variant: Oven Frying
This is a tactic I always watched my mother do when she was making a big batch of these. The principles are all the same but slightly augmented to let you do a bunch of them really quickly.
You’ll need a big sheet pan — the perfect one, you know which one I’m talking about. The one that’s sturdy enough to not bend in the oven, old enough that you don’t care if it gets burned, and clean enough that you feel comfortable not lining it with tinfoil. You have a pan like that, right? The one you never use because it’s too perfect? Yes, use that one.
Crank your oven to 400 degrees. Line the pan with a layer oil (slightly shallower than the pan, but more than just a coating) and put the pan with just the oil in the oven. I know this is crazy, stick with me. Let the oil get hot in the oven for five-ish minutes, take it out, and use that wooden spoon test we talked about. Then drop your chicken cutlets into the hot oil and put everyone in the hot oven. Depending on how evenly your oven circulates heat you might want to flip them halfway through. All told, they shouldn’t take too long to cook (maybe 15 to 20 minutes for a full tray), pull them when they’re golden brown and the internal temp reads 165.
Serving Suggestions
In my opinion, a good chicken cutlet can go with just about anything. If I’m making a bunch of them, I’ll go pretty bland on the seasoning so I can apply them to a variety of applications.
For lunch, they make an excellent sandwich either warm or cold with some good bread with fresh lettuce and tomato.
For katsu, they’re the perfect accompaniment to a Japanese-style curry — a thick, saucy curry full of roasted veggies and flavored with beef and fruits.
Simply over rice with a squirt of hot sauce and some roasted broccoli was a lunch I ate a lot of in my days working in an office.
How could we forget the OG — chicken parmesan.
A recent favorite way to eat them is on a simple salad of endive, parmesan, and radishes with a sweet balsamic dressing.