Chicken Caprese Sandwich

Chicken sandwiches are a popular lunch choice at our house, and are a great way to use leftover chicken. Since discovering the dish a few years ago, cotoletta alla palermitana has become one of my favorite chicken dishes to make, especially in the summer. Enjoying a daiquiri while tending the grill makes it even better. I usually make extra so we have some for lunch the next day. Although I highly recommend trying the grilled version, any cutlet, such as a chicken schnitzel or katsu, will work for a sandwich. These sandwiches, which combine the chicken cutlets with flavors from the classic caprese salad were one of our favorites.

I made the pesto in a mortar and pestle using homegrown basil. We used most of it for pasta the previous day and had a little left for this. Mixing the pesto with Kewpie mayonnaise makes for a delicious spread. The tomatoes also came fresh from the garden. The buns Ariel made for the Jucy Lucy were such a hit, she made some more, which we used here. Any kind of good bread will work. As with many people, the pandemic has been an opportunity for us to explore homemade bread. 

Breaded Tenderloin Sandwich

Indiana was my home from 2011 to 2018, a period of time which not only birthed my career in academia, but also this blog and my interest in writing about food. Indiana is surrounded by places with famous local specialties, including Cincinnati (chili), Louisville (hot brown, mint julep), and Chicago (pizza, hot dogs, Italian beef, and more). Although it's not as well known in other parts of the country, most Hoosiers would probably tell you the breaded tenderloin sandwich is their state's most iconic food. Versions of this sandwich can be found at restaurants all across the state. There are subtle variations in how they are made, but if the pork cutlet doesn't hang well outside the bun, it's not a tenderloin. I've seen some as big as a few inches on each side. My personal favorite tenderloin was from our local spot in West Lafayette, Dog N Suds, located just around the corner from our old house. A side of cheese curds and root beer in a frosty mug completes the experience. 

The tenderloin has a lot in common with cutlet dishes from around the world, which regular readers know I love. The breading process uses the classic flour-egg-breadcrumb combination, but the breading is usually coarser and more heterogeneous than a Wiener schnitzel. I used crushed saltine crackers to achieve this, and I think it worked very well. Most diners cook the cutlets in a commercial deep fryer, but for the home version, shallow frying in a skillet gets the job done. The pork is meant to be the star of the show, and the supporting players are up to personal preference. The bun is a usually a basic hamburger bun. The classic toppings are ketchup, mustard, and pickles, but feel free to add others. We put in some lettuce and Kewpie mayonnaise. I had some cucumbers that were on their way out, so I made my own pickles loosely based on Kenji's recipe. 

This is a pretty simple recipe, but one that transports me back, much like the Duane Purvis All-American. Tenderloins do show up in Iowa, as well. The only place I've seen them in South Dakota (so far) is Tastee Treet in Yankton, which serves it with a piece of cheese. While that would never be done in Indiana, it's an interesting variation. It reminds me a bit of how Germans like to sauce their schnitzels, to the horror of Austrians, who only garnish theirs with a lemon slice. When it comes to such debates, if it tastes good to you, you did it right.

Pollo a la Plancha

Last month, I wrote about trying a Cuban dish called pollo a la plancha during our San Diego trip. It's a simple dish consisting of chicken cutlets grilled on a griddle and topped with onions. I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it. A few weeks ago, I threw together my own version for a quick Passover-friendly lunch. Ariel later told me how much she liked it, which is usually a one-way ticket to a blog post. As I'm not too experienced with Cuban cuisine, I won't claim this is particularly authentic, but I can guarantee it is delicious.

My original version used a boneless, skinless chicken breast butterflied and separated into two cutlets. This time, I had some thighs on hand instead. I think either cut works equally well, so go with whatever you have. This recipe ends up using only half an orange and about 3/4 of a lime, so I encourage you to use the leftovers to make yourself a drink. I served with rice, but a salad works, too.

Kosher for Passover Chicken Schnitzel

We're living in a strange time. It's been interesting noticing how people have responded to our new reality of social distancing. Since people are going grocery shopping far less frequently, buying habits have changed. We made a large Sam's Club run a few weeks ago, and they were completely out of dark meat chicken. Our local Hy-Vee and Walmart were also out of dark meat. Perhaps this is a reaction to the relatively low prices of these cuts. As is well-known on this blog, the thigh is my favorite part of the chicken, so I've had to deal with boneless, skinless chicken breast for basically the first time ever. 

Continuing on the theme started with my kosher for Passover scotch eggs, I wanted to do another easy variation of a classic dish that can be done for Passover. Pounded thin and fried as a schnitzel, the potential dryness of chicken breast is less of a problem, though I do still prefer thighs for chicken cutlets (see Cotoletta alla Palermitana). To substitute thighs in this recipe, use two boneless thighs instead of one butterflied breast. 

I use the basic flour-egg-breadcrumb breading technique here, substituting matzo cake meal (finely ground matzo) for flour and regular matzo meal (coarsely ground matzo) for breadcrumbs. The result mimics the traditional schnitzel, but with that distinctive matzo flavor in the background. As a final note, I used canola oil for frying, which is kitniyot, a broad category of foods avoided by some, but not all Jews during Passover. Ariel typically doesn't eat kitniyot, but usually makes an exception for cooking oils. If you want to avoid this, an alternative oil or schmaltz could be used.

Cotoletta alla Palermitana

Every once in a while, I stumble onto a simple recipe that becomes an instant favorite. My yogurt-marinated kebabs and matzo-breaded scotch eggs were somewhat recent examples. Readers certainly know I'm a fan of schnitzels and all their international cousins. I happened upon cotoletta alla palermitana a few years ago reading a Wikipedia article about cutlets. In Italian, the name essentially means a Palermo-style cutlet. I had never eaten it, never heard of it, and certainly never been to Palermo. At first glance, a breaded, grilled cutlet sounds a little strange. Very little is written about it in English, so I read a few Google-translated recipes and tucked the idea away.

Fast forward to a several weeks ago. We had recently arrived in Vermillion, and I had just equipped myself with a new Weber grill. 

I decided to give the cotoletta alla palermitana a go, and it was a revelation. Think of it as a lighter and easier version of the more familiar wienerschnitzel or cotoletta alla milanese. No messing around with oil frying or egg washes, just throw it on the grill. The crunch isn't quite the same as a fried cutlet, but the grill still browns the coating nicely. I make it with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, but I am confident chicken breasts, pork loin, or veal chops would all do well with this preparation. Still, it's hard to beat the juiciness of the chicken thigh (as Jacques Pépin says, the best part of the chicken).

I've been having fun with the farm share boxes and figuring out what to do with everything. I served the cutlets with a ratatouille of onion, zucchini, garlic, and tomato from the farm box and eggplant and parsley from our garden. I sautéed the ingredients separately and let it simmer together, covered, while I prepared the cutlets.

Ingredients

• 2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6 pieces)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 sprig fresh parsley
• 1/2 lemon

Note this is actually more breadcrumbs than I needed, but I would rather not get too low while I am dredging. You could probably cut it down to about 2/3 of what I had and be fine.

Instructions

Preheat grill before preparing the chicken.

Put a piece of plastic wrap over the chicken and pound with the flat side of a meat hammer or a soup can. Pound to about 1/3 inch thick. Getting them very thin is less important than getting them to an even thickness. You can trim off any large pieces of fat before breading.

Season both sides with salt and pepper. Pour out the olive oil into a dish and generously brush both sides of the chicken with the oil. In a shallow bowl, mix the breadcrumbs, cheese, and oregano. Press each piece of chicken into the breadcrumbs, flip, and coat the other side.

Grill the chicken on high heat, placing the cutlets directly on the flame. Cook until browned on both sides and cooked through, flipping occasionally to get even browning. As the cutlets are relatively thin, I leave the cover open.

When done, chop the parsley and slice the lemon into wedges. Sprinkle parsley on the cutlets and serve with lemon wedges. 

Jägerschnitzel

As many of you no doubt know, I'm a great lover of schnitzel of all stripes. All the way back in 2012, I wrote a post on Wiener Schnitzel vom Schwein and in 2015, I did the Japanese version. One variety I haven't done yet is the breaded tenderloin, an Indiana staple I'll have to start making for myself pretty soon. As I've discussed before, schnitzel is a very well-traveled little dish. As I understand it, Austrians are quite particular about how a Wiener schnitzel is prepared and served (with lemon and potato salad) while saucing schnitzels is more of German thing. I haven't asked an actual German or Austrian about this, so don't quote me. Whatever the origin, jägerschnitzel is a classic and an excellent one at that. 

The term jägerschnitzel means "hunter's schnitzel" and refers to a cutlet with a mushroom sauce. There seems to be a lot of different opinions about what exactly is in the mushroom sauce and whether or not the cutlet should be breaded. As usual, I read several recipes I found online and concocted my own based on my preferences. While the classic Viennese style demands veal, I usually use pork or chicken (boneless thighs pounded thin are great for this) for my schnitzels, as both are cheaper and easier to get. On the topic of breading, I sort of split the difference and dredged the cutlets in just flour, skipping the egg wash and breadcrumbs. The flour coating promotes a nice crust on the meat, but by not breading I also dodge the shallow frying process. This uses a lot less oil and you can get straight into making the sauce without having to clean up in between.

Ingredients

Cutlets

• Pork chops (I made 2, but there is enough sauce for about 4 cutlets)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Paprika
• Garlic powder
• Flour for dredging
• Vegetable oil as needed

Sauce

• 8 oz. mushrooms, rinsed and sliced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 Tbs butter
• 1 Tbs flour
• 1/2 c red wine
• 1 c chicken stock
• 2 splashes Worcestershire sauce
• Pinch of dried thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Vegetable oil as needed

Instructions

Prepare the mushrooms and onion ahead of time so they will be ready to go when it is time to make the sauce. If your chops have a bone attached, remove them and trim off large sections of fat. Place the meat in a gallon-size bag and pound to about 1/3 inch thick.

My chops had a weird little bonus piece

Heat vegetable oil in a saute pan on medium-high heat. Use enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. While the oil heats, season the cutlets with salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder. Dredge in flour. When the pan is hot, shake off excess flour and place in the pan. Cook for a few minutes on each side, until the outside is well browned and meat is cooked to desired temperature, adding oil as needed. A little pink on the inside is fine for pork, and will prevent it from drying out. When done, move the cutlets to a plate and cover with foil. You may have to cook the cutlets in batches or multiple pans if you have a lot of them.

Mushroom and onion after butter was added

Add more oil to the pan. Saute the mushrooms and onions together until onions are well softened and mushrooms have cooked down. Season with salt and pepper. Add the butter and stir in as it melts. Add the flour and cook together a few more minutes, stirring frequently. 

The finished sauce

Deglaze the pan with wine and reduce for a minute. Pour in the chicken stock and add thyme and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil and reduce by about half, or to desired thickness. The sauce should be a medium thickness, still pouring easily but not spreading all over the plate.

Serve the cutlets and spoon the sauce all over them. This recipe makes enough sauce for about 4 cutlets. Extra sauce can be stored in the fridge for a few days.

Katsudon

Although I don't cook a lot of Japanese food (today's is only the second on the blog), I have long been a fan. In particular, I have a real soft spot for tonkatsu -- breaded and fried pork cutlets. Belonging to the same family of dishes as Wiener schnitzel, tonkatsu is a true food of my childhood. Tonkatsu is very good on its own with a drizzle of sauce, sliced cabbage, and rice. However, we're taking it a step further today. Katsudon is a type of donburi, a Japanese word which apparently simply translates as "bowl." As the name suggests, donburi is a very broad category of dishes. What unifies them is the basic construction of a bowl of rice topped with meat or fish and some kind of sauce. If you make a lot of tonkatsu to eat in the traditional way, making katsudon the next day is a fun and tasty way to transform it into something new.

The inevitable comparison between tonkatsu and schnitzel is certainly worth a quick discussion. The main difference, in my mind, is that katsu is not pounded. Schnitzel simply must be ultra-thin, but katsu should have more body to bite into. I also use panko instead of regular breadcrumbs. Katsudon takes variations well. The pictured one was made with 3 eggs, but if you like more eggs, add another. If you like it saucier, use more. I also recently had katsudon in a restaurant, and they included carrots and zucchini, which was a surprising and tasty addition. 

I make one departure from the traditional preparation, for practical reasons. Most katsudon recipes call for dashi as the basis of the sauce. Dashi is a Japanese soup broth made from seaweed. As one might expect, I do not typically have seaweed laying around the house, and chicken stock works just fine. Instant powdered dashi does exist, and I will be on the lookout for this in the future.

Ingredients

Tonkatsu

• 3 pieces thinly sliced, boneless pork loin
• Salt and pepper
• Flour
• 1 egg
• Panko
• Vegetable oil for frying

Everything else

• 1 onion
• 2/3 cup chicken stock (or dashi, if available)
• 1 1/2 Tbs soy sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 3-4 eggs
• Vegetable oil
• Steamed rice

Instructions

Start by preparing the tonkatsu and rice. These can be done ahead of time, if desired. The basic technique is almost identical to Wiener schnitzel, but the pork does not need to be pounded. Preheat oil in a saute pan on medium-high. Salt and pepper both sides of the pork. Next, pour out some flour on a plate and dredge the pork. Beat the egg and dip the tonkatsu, making sure it is well coated. Finally, pour some panko on a plate and press the pork in, coating both sides. Fry the pork until golden brown on both sides, turning once. Set aside to cool. Once cooled a bit, slice the katsu into half-inch wide strips.

Pour out most of the oil, leaving enough to saute the onions. Prepare all the remaining ingredients: Slice the onion into strips. Mix together the stock, soy sauce, and sugar. Beat the remaining eggs.

Saute the onion on medium-high until softened and lightly browned. Mix together the stock, soy sauce, and sugar and add to the pan. Add the sliced katsu and pour in the eggs. Stir together and cover the pan. Cook until eggs are done. 

Donburi is served in large bowls. Put a layer of rice in each bowl and top with the katsu and sauce. This recipe will comfortably feed two.

Wiener Schnitzel vom Schwein

I love Wiener Schnitzel. My appreciation of the dish probably originates while traveling in Germany and Austria many years ago; since "Wiener Schnitzel" is one of the only German phrases I know, I ate a fair amount of it. Wiener Schnitzel is most associated with Austria ("Wien" being the local name for Vienna), but it is popular all over Europe and worldwide. In Italy, they have the cotoletta alla milanese, which is cooked bone-in in butter. In Japan, the meat is breaded with panko and served with a sauce as tonkatsu. In Indiana, we have the breaded tenderloin sandwich. Schnitzel is traditionally made from veal, but pork is commonly used, especially outside of Austria, where the pork variation must legally be called Wiener Schnitzel vom Schwein. 

Ingredients

• Pork loin, sliced
• 1 Egg
• Flour
• Breadcrumbs
• Salt and pepper
• Wedge of lemon
• Vegetable oil

Instructions 

With a sharp knife, trim the fat off the sides of the pork. If you have really big, thick slices, consider butterflying the meat also. Cover with plastic wrap and pound thin, to about a quarter inch thick. If you don't have a good meat hammer, use a soup or bean can. I find the plastic wrap stops the hammer from sticking to the meat. It also prevents your soup from getting all meaty.

Prepare two plates, one with flour and one with breadcrumbs. Beat an egg in a bowl. We are now ready to prepare the cutlets. Generously salt and pepper each side of the pork. Then press each side into the flour to coat. Next, dip in the egg, making sure to coat well. Finally, press into the breadcrumbs and thoroughly cover both sides.

We will shallow fry the cutlets. Heat oil in a flat-bottomed pan. You don't need to use too much oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan, but you don't need to submerge the cutlets. As with all breaded foods, you need to be careful about the oil temperature. You want it hot enough to get the breading nice and golden brown, but not too hot to burn. I find that the right temperature is somewhere between medium-high and high. Once the oil is hot, carefully lay the cutlets in the pan. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side. Turn the cutlets over very carefully with a fork, as to not disturb the breading. This is important to get the right texture and beautiful golden brown color on your schnitzel.

When finished cooking, let the schnitzel rest on a paper towel to dry off a bit. The traditional Austrian way is to serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over the schnitzel before eating. I should also note that the pork may remain a bit pink when you cut into it; this is completely safe. For drinks, we again go to lager, this time as a tribute to the region of origin. You can't go wrong with German, Austrian, or Czech here.