Not just a popular pub meal, chicken schnitzels are easy to make at home and taste delicious too!
If you’ve got a chicken breast, some breadcrumbs, milk, and eggs, a chicken schnitzel can be made from scratch in no time, we’ll show you how to do it in a few easy steps, or scroll down to the bottom of the page and watch the video we made to show you that making a chicken schnitzel at home is not as hard as you might think.
How To Prepare Chicken Schnitzel
We begin with a simple chicken breast – cut it in half if you don’t want your schnitzel to be too big.
Use a meat tenderizer to flatten the chicken until it’s the thickness you would like your schnitzel to be. The Checkered Chef Meat Tenderizer is perfect for this as it has the “bumpy” side for tenderizing steaks and the flat side which is perfect for schnitzel making.
Once your schnitzel is at your desired thickness, soak it in some milk for a little while. Technically you should use buttermilk for this step, but a lot of us don’t always have buttermilk handy! You can make your own buttermilk by adding a teaspoon of vinegar to a cup of milk but, especially if pressed for time, a short soak in some regular milk will do.
Leave the chicken soaking in the milk (or buttermilk) while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Begin by beating up an egg – maybe 2 eggs if you’re making a few schnitzels all in one go.
You’ll also need some breadcrumbs. You can make your own by blending up some stale bread, but, for best results, store bought breadcrumbs are much finer in texture and tend to stick a bit better and give an overall more “professional” looking finish to the end result.
Add some seasoning to the breadcrumbs before coating the chicken, you can just use salt and pepper if you like, or add some garlic salt for some extra flavor.
Once your egg and breadcrumbs are ready, take the chicken out of the milk and add it to the egg wash bowl. Coat it well with the egg as this is what will make your breadcrumbs stick to the chicken. Once well coated, transfer the chicken to the breadcrumbs and completely cover it in the crumbs. Now your schnitzel is ready to fry!
How To Cook The Perfect Chicken Schnitzel
Heat some oil in a pan and let it get nice and hot before adding your chicken schnitzel.
Cook the schnitzel for a few minutes on each side until it looks golden brown and delicious.
Frying a schnitzel just right in a pan is a skill that takes a while to master – it’s common to find your chicken is not cooked through but your crumb is golden brown already. So you fry your schnitzel for longer, but, by the time the chicken is cooked on the inside, the crumbs on the outside are black and burning.
This next step is the secret to ensuring that your chicken is cooked through properly – oven bake your schnitzel to finish off the cooking process!
Don’t worry, your schnitzel won’t get soggy in the oven – use a baking rack and tray to make sure there is plenty of air getting to the schnitzel to keep those breadcrumbs delicious and crispy while it’s in the oven.
Checkered Chef has a baking rack and tray set to suit however many schnitzels you might be cooking – the Quarter Pan set will accommodate 1-2 schnitzels, the Medium Rack and Tray set will comfortably fit 4 schnitzels and the Half Sheet Rack and Pan set should fit up to 6 chicken schnitzels (depending on size) quite comfortably.
Put your schnitzels into the oven at around 390ºF/200ºC for about 10 minutes or until cooked through.
And that’s it! Perfect, crispy, golden chicken schnitzel every time!
Here’s a quick video showing just how easy it is to prepare and cook your own chicken schnitzels from scratch: