Veal Schnitzel (Wiener Schnitzel) Recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Beef and Steak and Veal | 6 comments
Photo: Veal schnitzel
“How about Wiener Schnitzel for supper tonight?”
Danny looked unimpressed.
Picking through the freezer I had found some small veal escalopes that I’d picked up from the Tesco *CFC a few weeks ago. One was a little smaller than my hand and the other barely reached across my palm. Wiener Schnitzel seemed the sensible option. I had never made schnitzels and was keen to have a go.
Danny perked up when I mentioned that I was going to marinade the meat.
“Great idea. Veal can be so tasteless.”
Between you and me I like the subtle flavour of veal and the blandness of traditional Wiener Schnitzel but I was keen to switch D onto the delights of schnitzels. In the end I was delighted that I took this route.
So the veal marinated in the fridge all day and during my breaks I sniffed about the Internet for recipes. I discovered that all sorts of meat are used for making schnitzels from pork to chicken – it’s a great way of stretching meat (literally) to go a bit further. I watched a video of a man making 20 chicken schnitzels from two chicken breasts and my mind raced – if my schnitzels worked this could be a whole new way of eating less meat and still feeling satisfied.
These schnitzels were delicious. The key was the marinade – the veal was packed with flavour. And they were quick and easy to make too.
Veal Schnitzels (Wiener Schnitzel) for two
Ingredients:
200g -250g of veal escalopes
1 egg (beaten)
2 tablespoons of plain flour
2 – 3 tablespoons of dried breadcrumbs (we make our own by baking stale bread and then crushing it with a rolling pin – it lasts well in an airtight jar)
1 tablespoon of olive oil to fry
For the marinade:
3 tablespoons of red wine
Half a teaspoon of garlic granules
Quarter teaspoon of dried tarragon
Method:
Prepare the marinade and add the veal (I use a small plastic bag wrapped tight around the meat so that the marinade is in contact with all surfaces) and put in the fridge for 5-6 hours.
Drain off the marinade and place each escalope between 2 sheets of cling film. This is the fun bit – bash the escalopes gently with a wooden hammer or rolling pin to a uniform thickness (of about a quarter of an inch/ 6 millimetres).
Take three plates. Spread out the flour on the first plate, the beaten egg on the second and the breadcrumbs on the third.
Coat each schnitzel with flour, and then dip each side in the egg and finally the breadcrumbs.
Fry the schnitzels for three minutes each side. Let them rest in a warm place for five minutes and serve with a wedge of lemon.
*Condemned Food Counter
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We use a similar recipe but have been omitting the flour as it works almost just as well without it.
At the last stage of frying, we drizzle it with a little Angostura bitters, don’t go mad as this alcoholic mixture can start a pan fire!
The funny thing about Angostura was that the label, for many decades, showed it to be non-alcoholic, now it shows the percentage by volume. I suppose this is one thing we can thank EU legislation for.
Generally accompanied with either ‘French’ fries or sauté potatoes and two or three boiled or steamed vegetables such as peas, beans, carrots, asparagus or sweetcorn; The meal is followed by our favourite Yemeni Matari coffee from The Tea and Coffee Emporium.
The same is also used for chicken breast fillets, without the tenderising process!
The biggest problem is actually obtaining the veal, which supermarkets rarely stock and butchers have to order in.
Thanks for the post and the opportunity to comment.
Have had this this evening, but modified it a little. Firstly used chicken breast marinaded using Fiona’s marinade then added about 30% grated parmesan to the bread crumbs to give them something extra and after the first brief cooking on each side wrapped them in serrano ham with a couple of fresh sage leaves and returned them to the pan to finish.Delicious but probably not all that healthy being cooked in butter, oh and whilst they were resting I quickly flash fried some really small button mushrooms in the residue in the pan. Next time I would probably serve with spinach or a green salad as the potatoes etc were really superfluos. It was delicious. Thanks Fiona for the marinade, it really gave the whole thing a lift.
I do think this is the only blog in which I’ve seen “bash gently”.
That gave me a big laugh AND signed my fate. Must follow your writings, now. 🙂
We often buy pork tenderloin (which is a lot cheaper than you’d think), slice it, marinade in white wine, garlic and thyme, then make into mini schnitzel – the children love them! We do it a lot with pork escalopes too. With six of us to feed, it can be very expensive to buy “choice” cuts so if I ever see loin steaks on offer, this is what we do with them to make them go further.
I make my husband Wiener Schnitzel from pork all the time, but the flavor is supposed to be delicate.
I jazz it up by sprinkling the meat with fresh ground nutmeg, fresh ground white pepper, onion powder, and salt before I coat it in flour.
By the way, it’s what we had for dinner last night and I could have eaten two more!!
We regularly make our own chicken escalopes, with an almost identical recipe. We’ve never thought of marinating the meat but we usually add some kind of spicy seasoning to the breadcrumbs, usually something like jerk seasoning.
We usually fry in 50:50 butter/oil because we love the flavour the butter gives to the breadcrumbs.
We’re going to be cooking chicken tonight and this has got me wanting to make the escalopes again…