I feel like many cuisines have their own version of a breaded cutlet. In South America, it’s called ‘milanesa’; in Europe, it’s a ‘schnitzel’; in Japan, you get ‘katsu’. There can be some differences with the type of meat used (ie: chicken, veal, pork), but the gist is a breaded cutlet that’s pan fried until golden brown and super crispy.

Because of my Jewish and Latin American background, growing up in my house, my parents would always interchange between calling them schnitzel and milanesas. No matter the name, it was always one of my favourite meals.

The concept of breaded and pan fried chicken is so simple but I love how crispy and delicious it is. If you’ve never made fried cutlets, it’s a really easy 2 step breading process – egg wash, then bread crumbs. You want to make sure the bread crumbs are well-seasoned so that you get lots of flavour on the meat. You can keep it simple with salt and pepper, but you can also add dried basil, parsley and/or oregano to make it a little more herby. Once they’re nicely breaded, it’s time to pan fry in a little oil.

Now to serve your cutlets, you can go a couple different ways. My family would typically eat them with pasta and tomato sauce, or french fries, or any roasted vegetables. And if you make extras/have leftovers, you can put them in a sandwich/wrap, or cut up in a salad. They are quite versatile. As for dipping sauce, you can have mayonnaise or even spicy mayo, or ketchup. My mom loves hers with honey, I guess the sweet and savoury makes sense there. Whatever you choose, you’re gonna love it.

*Since I do not have an exact recipe for you, I am sharing a recipe from Jo Cooks (link here) that I found online which uses a similar technique to what I would do. The biggest difference is that they do a 3-step breading – flour, egg, breadcrumbs – which I don’t think is super necessary, 2-step is enough.

Hope you enjoy and have a good weekend 🙂