Chicken Schnitzel / Hähnchenschnitzel

It's about time I post a recipe from this region - Schnitzel.  A traditional dish in Austria, very popular in Germany, Switzerland and Romania.  Strangely no one recommended us this dish while we were having all those holidays in Germany.  We came to know Schnitzel when we were living in Bucharest.  It was one of my son's favourite school lunch when he was schooling at the British School of Bucharest.  We also noticed almost all restaurants serve this.  To learn more about Schnitzel please read here.  Instead of just plain breadcrumbs, I've added some lemon rind and garlic powder.  Chicken breasts are used in this recipe and the meat is butterflied then pounded to very thin.  Butterflying is a type of meat cutting method, click here for more details.

As you can see the meat on the left is before butterflying.   And on the right, the meat is pounded thinly with a mallet.

Ingredients:

500g chicken breast (4 small breasts about 120g each)

1/2 cup white flour

1  large egg

2/3 cup breadcrumbs

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind

Salt and pepper

Lemon wedges

cooking oil
Serves 4

To prepare:

1.  Butterfly the meat.  Lay one piece between two plastic wrap and pound it with a mallet until evenly thin about 1cm thickness.
2.  Line 3 big plates on the worktop with one fill with flour, 2nd bowl with beaten egg, and the 3rd with breadcrumbs mix with the lemon rind and garlic powder.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

3.  Coat a piece of chicken in flour, shake off excess.  Dip in egg mixture, then coat in breadcrumbs mixture.  Place on a plate and repeat the steps with the remaining chicken.

4.  Heat oil in a frying pan on medium high heat.  Cook chicken, one at a time if you don't have a big frying pan.  Cook each side for a minute or two, since the meat is very thin, it doesn't need to cook that long.  Once the meat is cooked or turned golden, transfer to a heat proof plate and place in the oven to keep warm.

5.  When all schnitzel are done, serve with lemon wedges and your favourite salad or potato.