Our best chicken cutlet recipes for crispy breaded chicken cutlets include recipes for everything from a chicken schnitzel recipe for moist, tender chicken fillets with an extra crunchy panko breadcrumb crust with lemon zest and parmesan to a chicken parmigiana recipe for succulent chicken breast fillets with a breadcrumb coating, topped with a rich tomato sauce and melted parmesan cheese and mozzarella.
Chicken cutlets are trending, so we’re sharing our best chicken cutlet recipes, which are some of our best fried chicken recipes. We’ve long loved chicken cutlets in all their many forms, from the Aussie pub-style chicken parma topped with melted mozzarella and a rich tomato sauce, and the retro 1970s style chicken schnitzel revamped with extra-crunchy panko breadcrumbs, to my Russian-Ukrainian baboushka’s juicy chicken kotleti and Terence’s oozy chicken Kiev.
So we love that chicken cutlets are being celebrated again. My in box has been filled with recipe newsletters from the likes of Bon Appetit and Eating Well, all featuring chicken cutlet recipes recently, from Food & Wine’s Nashville hot chicken Milanese to New York Times Cooking’s Italian-American chicken-cutlets. So I thought I’d share this chicken cutlet recipes collection again.
Our chicken cutlet recipes will make you classic breaded chicken cutlets that are as comforting as they are delicious, especially when paired with sides such as creamy mashed potatoes, a warm potato salad, or a fresh garden salad. Like fried chicken, chicken cutlet leftovers are fantastic on sandwiches and burgers, such as our chicken schnitzel burger, which is brilliant with potato wedges or shoestring fries.
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And if you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, we have many hundreds of recipes from around the world in our archives from places we’ve lived, travelled and loved. Note that you can save your favourites by clicking on the heart on the right of any post to create your own private account. Now let me tell you more about our best chicken cutlet recipes.
Best Chicken Cutlet Recipes for Breaded Chicken
Our best chicken cutlet recipes include everything from a chicken schnitzel recipe to a chicken parmigiana recipe.
Chicken Schnitzel Recipe with Crunchy Panko Breadcrumb Coating with Parmesan and Lemon Zest
Topping our list of best chicken cutlet recipes is this classic chicken schnitzel recipe, which makes moist, tender chicken fillets with a super crunchy panko breadcrumb coating elevated with lemon zest and parmesan.
These old-fashioned Australian style chicken schnitties will take you right back to the 1970s. For a complete nostalgia trip, squeeze some lemon wedges over the schnitzels and serve them with potato salad.
My mum used to use the standard breadcrumbs but we use panko breadcrumbs as they result in a much crunchier coating. Always check the temperature of the chicken using a good food thermometer. Chicken should be cooked to 74°C (165°F).
This Mediterranean-style warm potato salad recipe with capers, anchovies, chives, and celery leaves is a perfect side to this chicken schnitzel. We love the taste of celery leaves, but you could use flat leaf parsley. Lime zest also works.
For a real trip back to the Seventies, kick off the meal with a made-from-scratch French onion dip and cheese straws, or even devilled eggs or prawn cocktails.
Chicken Schnitzel Recipe with Crunchy Panko Breadcrumb Coating with Parmesan and Lemon Zest
Chicken Parmigiana Recipe for a Classic Chicken Parma in the Italian Australian Style
In Australia, chicken parmigiana was initially served in charmingly old-fashioned Italian restaurants started by Italian immigrants who arrived post-World War II, long before chicken parmas became a popular pub bistro counter meal – alongside fish and chips, steak and chips, and Sunday roasts.
A mid-week special, particularly on quieter nights, the chicken parmigiana was promoted on blackboards and signage outside pubs as a ‘pot and parma’ deal, for a cold beer and chicken parmigiana with chips (potato fries) and salad on the side, for as little as $7. No wonder nobody made it at home!
My chicken parmigiana recipe will make you a scrummy home-cooked take on that pub chicken parma – succulent chicken breast fillets with a crunchy breadcrumb coating, topped with a rich tomato sauce and melted parmesan cheese and mozzarella. I serve mine with a fresh garden salad.
In fact, it’s the sides, a garden salad, crispy hand-cut fries or potato wedges, that distinguish an Australian style chicken parmigiana from its cousins in the USA, typically served with spaghetti or pasta.
Another differentiation is that many American-style chicken parmigiana recipes don’t include the Parma ham or Parmigiano cheese that give the dish its name. This chicken parmigiana recipe is another of our best chicken cutlet recipes.
Chicken Parmigiana Recipe for a Classic Chicken Parma in the Italian Australian Style
Chicken Kiev Recipe for a Retro Russian Classic Cooked For Russia’s Tsars
This chicken Kiev recipe makes an iconic Russian dish of chicken breasts stuffed with parsley butter, coated in egg and breadcrumbs and fried. It was a family favourite when I was a child and it’s another of our best chicken cutlet recipes.
Our chicken Kiev recipe makes a crunchier version of the crumbed chicken fillets that were served to Russian emperors, made egalitarian in canteens during the Soviet era, and became an iconic dish of the Seventies in the West – along with the likes of beef Stroganoff and borscht – before becoming a retro classic in recent years.
We brine the chicken before cooking. The salt, sugar and garlic add a little extra flavour and the chicken breasts stay super moist even if you might overcook the breasts a little. We use a large flat-bottom cooking pan and we use a meat thermometer to check that the chicken meat has cooked through. You want it to read at 74˚C.
One of our tips for making this chicken Kiev recipe is to choose chicken breasts that are as thick as possible so you can create a good sized ‘pocket’ in the breast. Cutting from the thicker side will enable you to get a better ‘seal’ with your toothpicks. Don’t forget to take the toothpicks out! The best way to do this is to note how many toothpicks are in each breast and space them evenly apart.
While most recipes just say to use ‘dry breadcrumbs’. We like to use Japanese panko breadcrumbs because they are super dry and have shapes that give you a lovely textured surface to the cooked chicken breasts, as well as adding extra crunch. Just don’t tell your grandma!
Chicken Kiev Recipe for a Retro Russian Classic Cooked For Russia’s Tsars
Chicken Katsu Burger Recipe for Crunchy Tender Chicken Cutlets with Spicy Slaw
Another of our best chicken cutlet recipes, this chicken katsu burger recipe places a crunchy tender chicken cutlet, prepared using the classic Japanese katsu method of panko-breaded and deep-fried chicken, between spicy Asian slaw, tangy Japanese barbecue sauce, and soft burger buns.
While we love Japanese pork tonkatsu in sandwiches, tender chicken thighs fried with panko breadcrumbs give the kind of crunch we love about our Belles Hot Chicken burger, where the super soft bun contrasts perfectly with the crispy breaded deep-fried chicken skin.
A tip: the best types of oil for frying at (reasonably) high temperatures are oils with a high smoke point. The smoke point is, obviously, when smoke starts to rise from the oil. As well as probably setting off your smoke alarm, the oil will be burnt and bitter tasting when it reaches this point. The best oils for high temperature frying are rice bran oil, which has a smoke point of 230˚C or peanut oil, which has the same smoke point.
You could use store-bought tonkatsu sauce for this chicken katsu burger recipe, but homemade sauce is infinitely better and is simple to make. Our tonkatsu sauce recipe can be made with ingredients that you’ll probably have at home if you make Asian food, as well as Worcestershire sauce.
Most importantly, note that you cannot substitute any other breadcrumbs for panko breadcrumbs when deep-frying katsu. You can pick panko crumbs up from a local Asian grocer or order through Amazon. Serve with hand-cut fries and you’re in chicken katsu burger heaven.
Chicken Katsu Burger Recipe for Crunchy Tender Chicken Cutlets with Spicy Slaw
Russian Kotleti Recipe for Delicious Deep-Fried Russian Style Chicken Meat Patties
My Russian-Ukrainian grandmother’s recipe, this kotleti recipe makes delicious fried chicken cutlets and it’s easily another of my best chicken cutlet recipes. Kotleti were typically served as one of an array of plates as part of a shared family feast as so many of our meals were.
If it was a small group of family members, then my grandmother served them individually, plating the kotleti with creamy mashed potatoes and her Russian garden salad.
She would always send me home with any leftover kotleti, along with a dozen piroshki or so wrapped up in tea towels to keep them warm for the train ride home.
My grandparents were born in villages in the land we now know as Ukraine when it was still the Russian Empire, so while my grandmother called Odessa home and for my grandfather Kiev was his city, I’ve used ‘Russian’ as Ukraine didn’t exist then.
Russian Kotleti Recipe for Delicious Deep-Fried Russian Style Chicken Meat Patties
Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe
This chicken schnitzel burger recipe will make you another of our best chicken cutlet recipes, our crunchy chicken schnitzel with panko breadcrumbs, parmesan and lemon zest, spread with creamy pickle mayo and topped with bacon, cabbage and tomato between soft burger buns. Served with spicy homemade potato wedges, it is home-cooked fast food at its finest.
Our chicken schnitzel burger has come straight from our Siem Reap test kitchen to you. When we finally bit the bullet some years ago and made chicken schnitzel for the first time in more than 25 years, in a bout of homesickness, we were very pleasantly surprised.
It was so good that we made it a couple of times for “testing purposes” using both shallow and deep frying. After the third iteration we thought that our chicken schnitzel would make a great base for a chicken schnitty burger. If possible, it was even more delicious squeezed between two burger buns.
Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo and Bacon, Cabbage and Tomato
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our best chicken cutlet recipes as we’d love to hear how they turned out for you.
