Sundays with Marlena Spieler-- Putting the schnit back in Schnitzel

Salt, pepper, and lemon juice on the pounded-out chicken breasts
The dredging station..I just do the egg and then the flour/matzo meal blend.
After dredging, I put them on a rack, over a cookie sheet, and let them set up for 15 min.
I fry in a blend of olive and canola oil...be sure to drain on and blot with paper towels after!
I simply served with a small red baker with sour cream and Marlena's sweet and sour cuke salad...which I think Eileen is making or has already made. It is perfect with this. Sweet and sour red cabbage would be great too!


Schnitzel was originally made using veal and pork. Apparently Jewish folk appreciate the turkey variety. I love schnitzel..any way, any how. I decided to use chicken though..because I had these fabulous chicken breasts from Corti Brothers. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients: Serves Four

4 boneless turkey or chicken breast fillets, pounded to about 1/4 " thick each
juice of one lemon..or maybe a bit more :)
2 chopped garlic cloves
6 TBS all purpose flour
1/2 cup matzo meal
1 tsp paprika (I used hot paprika)
1 TBS water
2 eggs..blended lightly
a mixture of canola and olive oil for shallow frying (see photo)
salt and freshly ground black pepper (for the dredge and for on top of the uncooked meat)
lemon wedges to serve (lemon makes all the difference squeezed over top)

1. Lay each fillet between wax paper or inside of a large ziplock bag and pound to flatten. Use a rolling pin or the smooth end of a meat mallet. If the chicken falls apart..."glue" it back on with a tap or two.

2. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and lemon juice over the pounded fillets.

3. Arrange two shallow dishes for dredging. One with the blended eggs and one with the mixture of flour and matzo meal...I also added the hot paprika to this mixture. (my DIL gave me that dredging set, which includes three, ...came from Pampered Chef).

4. Dip each fillet into the eggs and then over to the dredge. You'll have to work quickly..make sure to press the dredging mixture into the fillet.

5. Then put fillet's on a drying rack..to kind of "set up" before frying. Not for too long.

6. Heat pan with oil mixture...when you can see little bubbles on the bottom, you are ready to fry! Be very careful when adding fillet's to hot oil. As they fried, I used a spatula to sort of push the hot oil on top of the meat..so it cooked the top almost as it cooked the bottom. The color should be golden brown...not dark brown! Watch the heat. A heavy cast iron pan would be perfect for this. Again...hot oil so be careful. It doesn't take long to cook at all.

7. Be sure to put a clean towel or paper towels down on surface and lay cooked fillet on top...then blot to get most of the oil off. You will probably have to cook one or two at a time. You can leave the prepared schnitzel in the oven on 175 degrees until the others are done.

Enjoy! Be sure and check out the Jewish Cooking project blogger's out to see what they cooked for Sunday with Marlena.... Just the Two of us and Sacramento Spice. I know it will be delish.