Italian Chicken Cutlets

This Italian Chicken Cutlet Recipe is an easy recipe that yields amazing results: Tender, lightly crispy, and overall quite easy-to-make deliciousness. They're the comforting Italian Chicken cutlets your Grandma made. Or the ones you grew up eating at your Italian friend's house.

Like many other Italian American children in this country, I grew up eating Italian Chicken Cutlets... all the time. My mom made them often. She would sometimes pair them with vegetable soup, penne alla vodka, or a usual in her rotation: farfalle and zucchini in tomato sauce. 

Crispy chicken cutlets are a staple among Italian parents everywhere, and for good reason. They were "meal prep" before meal prep was meal prep, if that makes sense. A few pounds of chicken could feed 4 people and still provide leftovers for lunch the next day. 

They're amazing on sandwiches and salads too. One of my favorite sandwiches consists of thin chicken cutlets, fresh mozzarella, and hot cherry peppers on Italian bread. In fact, these cutlets are just as good cold as they are hot. 

So, what are Italian Chicken Cutlets?

In my opinion, really good Italian cutlets are thin, flat pieces of chicken breaded in a delicious freshly-seasoned breadcrumb mixture. Said mixture typically contains grated parmesan or pecorino cheese and other Italian seasonings. And the cutlets should fry just until until golden brown and lightly crispy.

The combination of tenderness, light crunch, and flavor are what make the cutlets what they are. They're unbeatable; an Italian culinary work of art. 

What does an Italian chicken cutlet recipe HAVE to have?

'm only one person, and I wanted to learn about other peoples' chicken cutlet opinions before writing my official recipe. So in order to write the best Italian Chicken Cutlet recipe possible, I surveyed 10 Italian-American home cooks for their opinions on this question. 

Unsurprisingly, they all had similar answers with some degree of variation. Most responses revolved around how and with what to bread the chicken.

• They all stated that the defining characteristic of Italian fried chicken cutlets is the seasoned breadcrumbs. Most people specified the need to season the breadcrumbs with fresh parsley and either Pecorino or Parmesan cheese, but others said to use dried herbs and even pre-seasoned Italian breadcrumbs. 
• Almost all responders dredge their chicken in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, however some skip the flour layer all together. The main purpose of this layer is to bind the egg to the chicken, but if you like a thinner layer of breading, you might leave this layer out. In fact, one person reported that she often leaves out the flour, and instead allows the chicken to tenderize for a few minutes in an egg and buttermilk mixture before coating them in breadcrumbs. 
• A few of the individuals surveyed stated that the word cutlet implies being thin. However, no one specifically said to pound them; slicing them thinly was sufficient. Degree of thinness varied, but no one considered fried whole chicken breasts to be true chicken cutlets.

Now I invite you to read some of my personal favorite responses to the survey question: "What makes Italian Chicken Cutlets what they are?"

Easy: it’s the cheese. Specifically for me, the Pecorino Romano! Second place for most important ingredient in a good breading mixture is fresh chopped parsley. You really can’t beat a thinly sliced cutlet, slathered in that delicious mixture and fried to crispy gold perfection. Mouth is watering as I write this!

Jaclene Forlano

As with all Italian cooking, you have to love and be thoughtful of the preparation.

Carolyn Davis

Calling it a cutlet.

Catherine Lomanto

How to Make Italian Chicken Cutlets

So to summarize, there are three aspects of Italian chicken cutlets that make them what they are, according to my survey: seasoned breadcrumbs, a slightly crunchy outer layer made of at least egg and breadcrumbs, and thinly-sliced chicken. 

Here's my process, which is based on the survey results and my own preferences:

Ingredients

See recipe card for quantities

• Chicken breasts, each cut into three pieces: the finger, and two thin cutlets. 
• Eggs
• Milk (or water) 
• Flour
• Plain breadcrumbs 
• Grated Parmesan cheese (or pecorino)
• Fresh parsley
• Dry oregano
• Salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper
• Olive oil for frying the chicken cutlets

Instructions

Now that you've read everyone else's opinions, here's how to make MY Italian Chicken Cutlets Recipe

Step 1: Prepare the Chicken Cutlets as follows:

First, slice each breast into 3 pieces. Use a sharp knife to cut off the "finger", then slice the breast into two thinner pieces. (As if you're going to butterfly the chicken, but cut all the way through. 

Note, my official opinion on washing chicken: there's no need to wash chicken before cooking it. Doing so only adds an extra step to your cooking that is unnoticeable in the end result. As long as you cook your chicken through, it's safe to eat. 

Then, pound the breasts. I feel strongly about this step. Pounding chicken not only tenderizes it, but also evens out each cutlet's thickness, allowing it to cook evenly.

Step 2- Dredge the Chicken Cutlets:

Dredge the seasoned breasts in seasoned flour, egg, and seasoned breadcrumbs. I stand by the use of flour, by the way. I appreciate the way flour creates a more cohesive and adhesive layer of breading, meaning it binds to itself and to the chicken without flaking off.

My breadcrumb seasoning calls for fresh parsley, dry oregano, grated Parmesan cheese (or Pecorino), salt, pepper, and cayenne. The chicken and flour seasonings call for just salt and pepper (and cayenne if you wish). 

The egg-milk mixture doesn't call for any seasoning because I find salt sometimes does weird things to raw eggs. J.Kenji Lopez Alt found that salt does NOT alter raw eggs in a way that affects their taste or texture once cooked. Having said that, I don't like that the eggs darken in color and appear to separate after adding salt.

Refrigerate the cutlets for 30 minutes. This step is not 100% necessary, but I recommend it as it gives the breading time to bind and adhere to both itself and the chicken. A colder exterior also crisps better than a room temperature one when it hits the frying pan.

Step 3- Fry the cutlets:

Fry the Chicken Cutlets in olive oil! It may seem unusual, but it works wonders. Chicken cutlets take very little time to cook through (2 minutes per side), so the olive oil's low smoke point works to our advantage. It can achieve a slightly darker, crispier texture in 2 minutes than vegetable oil can. 

Plus, it's quite easy to keep the olive oil from burning. I suggest using an instant read thermometer to make sure the oil stays around 300F. Or simply lower the heat if you notice burning.

How to Dredge Breaded Chicken Cutlets:

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What you'll need to make the cutlets

The tools below are excellent for making chicken cutlets. Remember, you can almost always substitute equipment and make due with what you already have. But, the more you cook, the more you will want proper tools for specific cooking tasks.

An All Clad Frying Pan. All Clad is famous for a reason. The sturdy, solid, thickness of their cookware is unmatched. The beautiful, high quality stainless steel heats up quickly and evenly and retains heat well, allowing for even cooking.

A meat mallet to tenderize the chicken. OXO is another excellent brand of cooking tools that makes pesky kitchen tasks so simple. A meat mallet or tenderizer is an inexpensive, very useful tool for making chicken cutlets, pork cutlets, stuffed pork and steaks, and even carpaccio. Just cover the raw chicken in a sheet of plastic wrap and pound them until the thick and thin parts of the chicken are even.

3 Pasta bowls for dredging the chicken. A pasta bowl is a wide, shallow bowl, perfect for easy dredging. But you can also use small sheet pans or a different type of shallow dish.

Variations

Have fun making these Italian cutlets! Here are the most interesting chicken cutlet variations I learned after talking with my survey participants:

• Fry the Chicken Cutlets in a combination of fats. One person even reported using three fats: extra virgin olive oil, butter, and duck fat for a more complex flavor. 
• Fresh herbs, dry herbs, cheese, oh my! It's important to use what you have on hand. Don't not make these chicken cutlets just because you're out of fresh parsley, for example. Season the breadcrumbs well, but don't worry if you don't have every seasoning on hand. Chicken cutlets aren't supposed to be worrisome! 
• Introduce other Italian flavors: two people surveyed said they first fry onion and garlic in the oil to flavor it. Then they remove the resulting caramelized onion and garlic to use as toppings later. Brilliant! 
• Extra Crispy: use Panko breadcrumbs. This decision comes down to how crunchy you want your cutlets. I argue that "traditional" Italian cutlets should use fine breadcrumbs because they're not meant to be ultra crispy. But some people are constant crunch chasers, and honestly, I get it! If this sounds like you, use Panko. Or if you're like my mother-in-law, make your own breadcrumbs!
• Serve with lemon wedges: many Italians I know add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to their chicken cutlets to cut through the breaded cutlets.

Substitutions

• Gluten free Chicken Cutlets: Traditional Italian cutlets are obviously very gluten full. To accommodate gluten allergies, make the recipe using a different flour, like almond or chick pea flour, and gluten free breadcrumbs. 
• Dairy free: Use water in your egg mixture instead of milk- just enough to thin it out. You'll have to leave out the cheese too. Try using nutritional yeast instead.

You can read about how to make breadcrumbs in my recipe for Pumpernickel Chicken Cutlets.

Other Uses for Italian Chicken Cutlets

• Chicken Parmesan
• Chicken Milanese
• Chicken Cutlet and broccoli rabe sandwiches

How to Store Leftovers

• Place the leftover chicken cutlets in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
• Wrap the leftover cutlets tightly in foil and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. \

How to Reheat Leftovers

I am a firm believe that chicken has no place in a microwave. Microwaves are great at sucking every last bit of moisture from juicy, tender chicken cutlets. Frankly, it's better to eat them cold than to microwave them.

The best way to reheat chicken cutlets is to put them in the toaster oven set to "bake" until heated through. The breading will crisp up again also.

Italian Chicken Cutlet Recipe

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