Austria · Main · Medium
Wiener Schnitzel
Rome's most famous pasta. Silky egg and Pecorino sauce clinging to every strand, studded with crisp guanciale. No cream, ever.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Wiener Schnitzel, in 5 ideas
- Pound evenly or it cooks unevenly. Thin spots burn while thick spots stay raw. Take the extra minute with the mallet.
- Clarified butter is traditional. It browns beautifully without burning. Plain butter will scorch, so clarify it or use lard.
- Do not press the cutlet down. Let the crust form on its own. Pressing squeezes out juices and flattens the puff.
- Serve on warm plates. Schnitzel waits for no one and cools fast. Have the table ready before the first cutlet hits the pan.
- Pork works too. Strictly speaking that makes it Schnitzel Wiener Art, but it is delicious and half the price.
What you need
Ingredients
- 4 veal cutlets, about 5 oz each
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups fine dry breadcrumbs
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup clarified butter, lard, or vegetable oil
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley (optional)
How to make it
Directions
- Pound each cutlet between plastic wrap to about 1/4 inch thick, working from the center outward. Try for even thickness so it cooks uniformly.
- Season both sides with salt and pepper. Set up three shallow dishes: flour, beaten eggs, breadcrumbs.
- Dredge each cutlet in flour, shaking off the excess. Dip in egg, letting the extra drip off. Press into breadcrumbs to coat fully but not thickly.
- Let the breaded cutlets rest 10 minutes. This helps the coating stick instead of sliding off in the pan.
- Heat the fat in a large skillet over medium high heat until shimmering. It should be about 1/4 inch deep.
- Fry two cutlets at a time, 2 to 3 minutes per side, gently swirling the pan so the hot fat washes over the top. The coating should puff slightly and turn deep golden.
- Drain on a rack, not paper towels, so the bottom stays crisp. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.
Swirl the pan while frying. The moving hot fat lifts the coating away from the meat so it puffs into that signature airy crust.