This chicken schnitzel burger recipe will make you 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 potato wedges, it is home-cooked fast food at its finest.
My chicken schnitzel burger recipe with creamy pickle mayo, bacon, cabbage and tomato has come straight from our Siem Reap test kitchen to you. It makes one of our best burger recipes, one of our best chicken cutlet recipes, and one of our favourite take-out dishes to cook in. When we finally bit the bullet some years ago and made chicken schnitzel for the first time in years in a bout of homesickness we were very pleasantly surprised.
Served with Lara’s amazing warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves, it was damn good. It was so good that we made it a few times for ‘testing purposes’ using both shallow and deep frying methods. Crispy on the outside and moist and flavourful to bite into, the chicken schnitzel, combined with the warm potato salad made a hearty and comforting yet deliciously-simple dish.
After the third iteration I thought that our chicken schnitzel would make a great base for a chicken schnitty burger. Little did I know, chicken schnitzel burgers were already a ‘thing’ back home in Australia. Even the boys from Boston, Donnie and Mark Wahlberg, who, along with their chef bro Paul, run the Wahlburgers burger chain, were opening a Sydney branch and planning to serve an “Aussie Chicken Schnitty” burger on the menu.
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Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo and Bacon, Cabbage and Tomato
I have to confess to being surprised to learn that chicken schnitty burgers were a thing back home in Australia. When we first left Sydney to move to the Middle East in the late Nineties, chicken schnitzels weren’t even popular pub grub yet. They came later, along with the chicken parma.
A chicken schnitzel was home-cooked comfort food and a retro-classic from the 1970s. Both our mothers made chicken schnitzel for dinner when we were kids, and Lara and I sometimes made schnitzel at home in Sydney before moving to the UAE. When we lived Abu Dhabi and Dubai, if I cooked Australian food, it was Australian restaurant food; dishes from restaurants we used to dine at that we missed.
So when I began my series of burger recipes after we had burger cravings, and I decided to develop a recipe for a fried chicken burger, instead of looking to the trending chicken schnitzel burger recipes, I went to my favourite fried chicken burger recipe made with Belle’s Hot Chicken’s southern fried chicken for inspiration.
Firstly, I knew I wanted a similar sauce. But the inclusion of pickled jalapeños was a little too hot for a ‘schnitty’. So I thought about Lara’s potato salad with anchovies, capers, chives, and celery leaves that we’d eat with our chicken schnitzel and I replaced the jalapeños in Belle’s burger sauce with the capers that Lara used in her salad. I also added Lara’s homemade dill pickles.
I also felt that iceberg or romaine lettuce would be a little bland for our chicken schnitzel burger recipe and thought about a simple slaw. But as I already had the creamy sauce, I went with finely sliced cabbage with a little drizzle of the sauce, some olive oil and salt instead.
I noted that some chicken schnitzel burger recipes call for topping the schnitzel with cheese, but our chicken schnitzel already has parmesan cheese in the panko mix. So I looked to the BLT for inspiration and added thick tomato slices for freshness, and then countered the tomato with some crispy bacon rashers. Perfect.
We were both so excited by the first version of my chicken schnitzel burger recipe with creamy pickle mayo, bacon, cabbage and tomato, that we wanted to share it with you for the weekend, so I’ve only given it a little tweak to publish the recipe today.
Served with our amazing hand-cut spicy potato wedges (and we have a homemade sweet chilli sauce to go with those), it’s great Australian pub food on a plate. Only not for the same crazy prices.
Just a few more tips to making my chicken schnitzel burger recipe with creamy pickle mayo, bacon, cabbage and tomato,
Tips to Making this Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe
I only have a few quick tips to making this chicken schnitzel burger recipe with creamy pickle mayo, bacon, cabbage and tomato, starting with with the chicken schnitzel.
Prepping the Burger Elements
First you’ll cook the bacon to your liking in a pan. (Lara prefers her bacon soft, while I’m a fan of crispy bacon, so do the bacon as you like.) Toast the burger buns (insides only) in the same pan in the bacon fat. Then transfer the bacon and buns to a tray and keep warm in the oven on the lowest setting.
Next you’ll make the special sauce by combining all the ingredients. Slice the tomatoes and set aside. Prep the cabbage in a bowl with a little of the sauce, a dash of olive oil and a little salt to taste. Refrigerate the lot until you’re ready to use.
Lastly, you’ll prep and cook the chicken schnitzel. See our tips to frying the chicken schnitzel below and my thoughts on using chicken breasts or chicken thighs.
Chicken Breasts or Chicken Thighs
It has to be said, I’m not really a fan of chicken breasts, other than for poaching. I’m much more of a thighs guy because fat equals flavour. But flattened chicken breasts are perfect for chicken schnitzel and perfect for this chicken schnitzel burger recipe.
By the time the panko crust is beautifully golden, the interior of the chicken breast is cooked through and remains moist and tender. You could certainly use flattened boneless thighs, but I’d rather see them in a Belle’s hot chicken burger or a chicken curry.
Frying the Chicken Schnitzel
We’ve been having a lot of discussions here in our test kitchen about the best oils for shallow frying and deep frying. I’m all in for deep frying with vegetable oil or another neutral oil, although many recipes for Italian and Spanish dishes call for olive oil and Lara’s a big fan of cooking with olive oil, including frying.
This is a contentious issue in the food world as olive oil’s smoke point is often misrepresented. The smoke point of olive oil is higher than what most people think it is – it is 175°C to 210°C (350°F to 410°F) – however, once this temperature is passed, and the olive oil starts smoking heavily, olive oil is not a pleasant oil to work with. Yes, speaking from experience!
We tend not to deep-fry or shallow-fry above 180°C, unless it’s potato fries. I only use olive oil for shallow frying because of the expense, as olive oil is pricey here in Cambodia.
When we deep fry, we’re using a vegetable oil or another neutral oil. We make sure it’s not getting too hot and we reuse it wisely.
Lara has more tips for making the chicken schnitzel recipe in her recipe post.
Assembling the Chicken Schnitzel Burgers
Place the bases of the warm burger buns on serving plates. Liberally spread the special sauce on the bases.
Lay the cooked chicken schnitzel fillets on the sauce, top with another thin layer of sauce and place the bacon on top of that.
Top with the tomato slices and cabbage. Add any extra sauce on top and serve. Too easy.
Serving the Chicken Schnitzel Burgers
We love to serve the chicken burgers with our spicy potato wedges for the full burger experience. But Lara also loves these crispy shoestring fries with these chicken schnitty burgers.
Make the potato wedges or fries while the dredged chicken breast fillets are in the refrigerator.
If you’re not going to make homemade fries, then prep the chicken breast fillets first and refrigerate them, then cook the bacon and toast the buns, and transfer them to the oven to keep them warm while you fry the chicken schnitzels. Enjoy!
Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo
Equipment
Ingredients
- 150 g chicken breast fillet (x 2) - two
- 2 hamburger buns
- 4 tomato slices - thick
- 60 g cabbage - finely sliced
- 4 rashers bacon
- ½ cup neutral oil - for shallow frying
Chicken Coating
- 4 tbsp plain flour
- 1 egg
- 60 g milk
- 80 g Panko breadcrumbs
- 30 g parmesan cheese - finely grated
Special Sauce
- 30 ml mayonnaise
- 30 ml ketchup
- 30 ml American mustard
- 1 tbsp capers - finely chopped
- 1 tbsp gherkins - finely chopped
Instructions
- Cook the bacon in a pan to your liking and leave the burner over medium heat. Remove the bacon and place on paper towels. Halve the hamburger buns and toast the interiors in the bacon fat. Transfer to a tray and keep warm in the oven on low.
- Make the special sauce by combining all the ingredients. Place the cabbage in a bowl and a little of the sauce, a dash of olive oil and a little salt to taste.
- Line up a flat plate, two bowls large enough to hold a chicken breast fillet, and a fourth plate for the coated chicken breast fillets: transfer the flour to the first plate; whisk the egg and milk in the second bowl; and combine the breadcrumbs, parmesan, celery leaves and lime zest in the third dish.
- Press a chicken breast fillet into the flour, one side then the first, ensuring it’s completely covered in flour.
- Dip the flour-dusted chicken breast fillet into the milky-egg wash.
- Press the chicken breast fillet into the Panko breadcrumb mix, one side then the other, ensuring its completely covered in crumbs.
- Move the chicken breast fillet to the empty plate, then repeat with the other fillets.
- Refrigerate the chicken breast fillets for up to 30 minutes.
- In a fry pan or skillet large enough to hold two chicken breast fillets, heat 1cm of oil over medium heat, then shallow-fry the fillets for around 5 minutes a side until golden-brown. Transfer to a rack to drain off any excess oil and repeat.
- Place the bases of the burger buns on serving plates. Liberally spread the special sauce on the base. Add the cooked fillets, top with a thin layer of sauce and place the bacon on top.
- Top with the tomato slices and the cabbage. Add any extra sauce on top and serve. We like to serve it with our own potato wedges for the full burger experience.
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make our chicken schnitzel burger recipe, as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
That’s next level ‘schnitty’ and the Panko breadcrumbs really take it there.
Thanks for the recipe – wish my local pad this on the menu!
Hi Scotty, that’s what we love to hear! So pleased you enjoyed it. The panko crumbs really give it lots of great crunch, don’t they?! Thanks for taking the time to drop by and let us know :)