by Cat, Oct 2007
See also: Brining Chicken, Brining Poultry, Brining Pork
You can find my chicken cutlet recipes, as well as links to cutlet recipes on other sites, on the Poultry & Fowl Main Course Menu, under Chicken Cutlets.
Chicken cutlets are made from breast meat, sliced or pounded thin. While you can buy them skinless and boneless, ready to use, I prefer to brine the whole breast before pounding into cutlets.
This same method can also be used for other meats such as veal, pork, lamb, beef, and some game; however, the brine time may be different.
This method is also available as a sidebar in cutlet recipes.
- Start with halved breasts (or other meat).
- Brine the breasts for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry. If using bone-in, skin-on meat, remove after brining. Reserve bones for making stock at another time.
- Butterfly meat if it is quite thick (like a chicken breast) and pound lightly into cutlets. Many recipes suggest pounding the meat between sheets of plastic wrap, but I don’t like to use plastic, especially with food. You can use parchment or waxed paper, or pound without a cover.
- Alternately, you can cut the breast meat crosswise, at an angle, into 1/2 – 3/4 inch slices, after brining.
I like to dust them with flour or other starch, then lightly pepper them, before sautéing. Or if making ‘chicken-fried’ cutlets, dip in egg & milk, then dredge in the flour/starch.
