I always loved the wiener schnitzel served in good German restaurants. The buttery taste of the thin, pounded breaded veal is delightful, as is the hot German potato salad, or spatzle (German noodles), and the sweet and tart braised red cabbage, and sometimes cinnamon seasoned warm applesauce.
Marie used to make stacked platters of wiener schnitzel for our kids, along with lots of buttered noodles and home made applesauce. They absolutely loved it and devoured it in quantity. In fact, Marie and I enjoyed lots of it at a great German restaurant named Max’s®, in Pittsburgh PA, very close to the Allegheny General Hospital where my mother was undergoing a triple bypass operation for clogged arteries. Go figure.
Various folks I know will not eat veal for personal reasons, and yet others will not eat breaded or coated meats fried in butter for health reasons. Ah well, to each his own … but keep reading.
Veal is fairly expensive when purchased as scaloppini slices, raw, which is the best form of veal to use for making wiener schnitzel. Back in 2010 the price, even at Costco®, was around $10 per pound. But I don't even bother looking a veal prices anymore.
I decided recently to make wiener schnitzel with slices of chicken breast. Let me tell you the taste and texture, inside and out, are so good using lean chicken that I have trouble telling the difference. In fact, lean pounded chicken is easily as tender and moist as the veal. Best of all, it only costs about $3 per pound, purchased as a boneless skinless chicken breast.
I must note that this recipe is essentially identical to the Food Nirvana recipe for pork schnitzel, in fact I used that recipe exchanging chicken for pork and I was highly pleased with the results.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. of boneless skinless chicken breast
1/3 to 1 lb. of butter (or more based on how many skillets full of crumb coated chicken you fry)
2 cups (or a bit more) of Keebler® Club Cracker (tm) crumbs
1 1/2 cups of Panko bread crumbs
1/3 cup of flour
1 tsp. of ground black pepper
1 tsp. of Sea salt (fine)
1 extra large or jumbo egg
1 to 2 oz. of water
Directions:
Make whatever side dishes you plan to make for this meal before cooking the chicken. Buttered noodles or hot German potato salad are naturals, as are hot applesauce and/or sweet and tart braised red cabbage. There is a recipe for the braised cabbage in Food Nirvana and also for the hot German potato salad. Keep the hot side dishes covered in plastic wrap in a warm oven. See below.
Turn on your oven to 200ºF and put a large dinner plate or small meat platter into it that will be used to hold the cooked chicken. Put your prepared side dishes, covered, into the oven.
Remove any areas of fat on the chicken breast and discard them. Slice the chicken breast crossways into slices roughly 1/2" thick.
Use a kitchen mallet with a metal knurled or indented wood surface used to pound meat. Pound each slice of chicken on both sides on a wood cutting board until it is about 1/4" thick. Pound gently from one side to the other and over the entire first surface to do about half of the reduction in thickness. Then turn the slice over and repeat the process on the second side until the right thickness is obtained.
Repeat the above pounding process for all the chicken slices, placing and then stacking the individual thinned, pounded pieces of chicken onto a large dinner plate.
Use a one gallon Ziploc® freezer bag to hold enough Keebler® Club Crackers (tm) and other dry ingredients to make three to four cups (or more) of finely ground crumbs. Close the bag leaving as little air inside as possible. Crush the contents using the kitchen mallet and then open the bag and eliminate as much air as you can and then reseal the bag.
Use your rolling pin or the kitchen mallet to finish the process of crushing the crackers into very fine cracker crumbs. Add the salt and the pepper to the bag and mix well by shaking it.
Make an egg wash. Break the raw egg into a wide shallow bowl and whisk it for about 30 seconds. Add the water and again whisk for 30 seconds.
Pour the cracker crumb mixture onto a large shallow bowl and spread it evenly.
Dip a slice of pounded chicken into the egg wash, coating both sides. Let the excess egg wash run off back into the egg wash bowl.
Lay the chicken slice on top of the cracker crumb mixture, then press down with your fingers over the whole surface to cause the cracker crumb mixture to adhere to the underside of the chicken slice. Flip the chicken over on to the second side and again press down all over the surface of the chicken. If necessary you can spoon some extra crumb coating on top of the slice and press it into the meat to get total even coverage of the crumb mixture.
Remove the chicken slice, holding it above the bowl and shaking it gently to get excess crumbs to fall back into the bowl.
Put the crumb coated chicken slice onto a separate large plate.
Spread the cracker crumb mixture out evenly in the bowl and repeat the above process starting with dipping a chicken slice into the egg wash, until all the chicken slices have been coated and placed on top of each other on a plate.
Use a large (12" to 14" diameter) non-stick thick bottom skillet and heat it on medium heat with 1/3 stick of butter. Spread the melted butter around the inside of the skillet with a spatula.
When the butter is starting to bubble, place as many pieces of the coated chicken into the skillet as you can, but only one layer deep, and do not let the slices touch each other. After two minutes turn the slices over with a wide spatula and again cook for two minutes. Repeat if necessary until the schnitzel has a nice golden coating on both sides.
Remove the warming plate/platter from the oven. Move the finished chicken schnitzel pieces to the warmed plate or small meat platter, and then return the plate/platter to the warming oven.
Clean the skillet quickly with hot water and a dish cloth to remove buttery crumb residue, and wipe it dry with a paper towel. Return it to the stove. Add 1/3 stick of butter and repeat the above cooking process until all of the slices of raw crumb coated chicken have been cooked and placed on the warming plate/platter.
Discard any unused egg wash or crumb coating mixture. Do not reuse them.
Serve the hot chicken schnitzel and the side dishes you prepared earlier.
Cold beer is a nice beverage to serve with this meal. Cold sodas are fine also. Some folks love a chilled somewhat sweet wine like Reisling.
Your guests will be very happy. You will be too.