Chicken Schnitzel
Pounded thin, breaded, and fried until it shatters — serve with just a lemon wedge and watch it vanish.
Ingredients
- 2 Chicken breast
- 120 g Breadcrumbs
- 60 g Flour
- 2 Egg
- 150 ml Neutral oil
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 Lemon (optional)
- ½ tsp Black pepper (optional)
Method
- Butterfly the chicken breasts and pound them between plastic to about half-centimeter thickness.
- Season the cutlets on both sides with the salt and pepper.
- Set up three shallow dishes: the flour in one, the beaten eggs in the second, and the breadcrumbs in the third.
- Coat each cutlet in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, pressing the crumbs on firmly.
- Cut the lemon into wedges for serving.
- Heat the oil in a wide skillet over medium-high heat until a breadcrumb sizzles instantly on contact.
- Shallow-fry the cutlets in the hot oil, swirling the pan so the crust puffs, until deep gold, about 3 minutes per side.
- Drain the schnitzels on paper towels and sprinkle them lightly with extra salt.
- Serve the schnitzels hot with the lemon wedges.
Tap “Start cooking” for live timers that flag what to get ahead on while something simmers.
About Chicken Schnitzel
Chicken schnitzel is the poultry cousin of the Austrian and German Wiener schnitzel, a cutlet pounded thin, breaded, and shallow-fried until the crust turns pale gold and crackles. What defines it isn't the meat so much as the coating: a three-stage dredge of flour, egg, and breadcrumb that forms a dry armor around a slip of chicken, so the whole thing cooks in minutes and eats far lighter than its golden looks suggest. Pounding the butterflied breast to about half a centimeter is the crucial move — thin meat means the crust and the chicken finish at the same moment, with no raw center and no overcooked edges.
The pleasure of a good schnitzel is textural: a shatter of crust giving way to juicy meat, with a squeeze of lemon cutting the fried richness. This version leans on a trick that separates a great schnitzel from a merely fine one — swirling the oil over the cutlet as it fries so the crumb layer puffs and lifts off the meat in blistered waves rather than sitting flat. It needs almost nothing alongside: a lemon wedge is traditional, though a cucumber or potato salad turns it into a full plate. Fast enough for a weeknight and generous enough to feel like an occasion, it's the kind of dish that vanishes off the board before it's fully cooled.
Chicken Schnitzel: frequently asked questions
Where does chicken schnitzel come from?
Schnitzel is a thin, breaded and pan-fried cutlet whose most famous form, Wiener Schnitzel, comes from Vienna, Austria and is traditionally made with veal. Chicken schnitzel is a poultry adaptation of this Austrian technique; the breaded-cutlet method itself has older roots across Central Europe and northern Italy (compare cotoletta alla milanese). It became especially popular in Israel, where chicken schnitzel (schnitzel) is a staple home-cooked dish, as chicken was cheaper and more available than veal.
How many calories are in Chicken Schnitzel?
A serving has about 679 calories — 52.5g protein, 67.7g carbs, 21.8g fat, 3.9g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is it high in protein?
Each serving has about 52.5g of protein, roughly 31% of its calories.
Is Chicken Schnitzel gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Breadcrumbs, Flour. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for those ingredients to make it gluten-free.
How long does Chicken Schnitzel take to make?
About 35 minutes start to finish, but only around 26 of those are hands-on — the rest is cooking time. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
Do I need every ingredient to make Chicken Schnitzel?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out lemon, black pepper — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Chicken Schnitzel make?
This recipe makes 2 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.