Crispy Chicken Cutlet

(upbeat band music)

Everybody loves a chicken cutlet.

There's a couple ways to make it awesome.

This is the way that we believe in.

This is boneless. It's organic actually.

Organic, boneless, skinless chicken breast.

About a pound and a half is gonna be plenty

for a family of four.

I'm gonna pull off any little bits of fat

and then look for the tender.

And I'm just pulling that off because

I can do those separately.

But you want even sized cutlets in the end.

Pounding the chicken gives you a nice,

wide, even surface area, so you get more breading.

We're going for a quarter inch here.

Now we're gonna do three step breading process.

You're gonna need a cup or two of flour, couple eggs.

A good rule of thumb to follow is an egg per cutlet.

That way, you don't run out.

The third part, crucial,

you need bread crumbs.

We like panko.

They're just gonna take on the best kind of

fried, crispy coating outside imaginable.

All of these things need to be seasoned,

so this is a little bit of dry mustard powder, optional.

Pepper, kosher salt, diamond kosher.

That's what we use here in the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen.

Grated parm goes right into the bread crumb mixture.

Adds a little bit of saltiness too,

little bit of umami, little bit of depth.

The flour is gonna adhere to the chicken

and create a surface that the egg can adhere to.

The egg is going to become the thing

that the bread crumbs can adhere to.

Alright, I'm gonna fry these cutlets in a large saute pan.

We're not deep frying the chicken cutlets,

but you're using a generous amount of oil.

You don't need a thermometer,

but you do need to have hot oil.

So I'm gonna take a couple of these crumbs.

If they start to sizzle and bubble, we're good.

See how nicely it started sizzling right away.

That's what you want.

Train your eye on the edge of the food

where it's making contact with your hot oil.

I mean, these go fast. That's the thing.

Go by your eyes. Go by your ears.

But really, you gotta just see what's going on.

And if it's brown, it's crisp.

See those blond spots?

He's gotta hang out.

(oil sizzling)

I like mayo mixed with sriracha for the dip.

Spicy mayonnaise.

Super crunchy, super juicy, perfectly seasoned,

if I must say so myself.

It's just really, really good.

It's the perfect food.

(light music)