CookEat Recipe
Butter-Sautéed Chicken Breast Cutlets
Very thin chicken breast slices rested in beaten egg, coated in fine breadcrumbs and sautéed in butter, with lemon and two optional truffle finishes.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: About 400 g chicken or capon breast, skin and bones removed; Salt and black pepper to taste; 2 eggs, beaten; About 60 g very fine dry breadcrumbs; About 40 g butter for sautéing, used in batches; Juice of 1/2 lemon.
Step 2
With a clean sharp knife, slice the cold breast across into very thin cutlets, almost paper-thin, about 2–3 mm where practical. Shape neatly. Small breast trimmings may be pressed firmly together into one additional thin piece; handle this gently and cook it through like the other cutlets. Do not rinse raw poultry.
Step 3
Season with salt and pepper and put in a shallow covered dish with the beaten eggs. Refrigerate at 4°C or below for about 3 hours, turning once with a clean utensil. Do not leave the chicken and egg mixture at room temperature.
Step 4
Lift the slices from the egg, let excess drip off and coat with the very fine breadcrumbs. Discard the raw egg marinade. Heat part of the butter in a wide frying pan over medium heat and cook the cutlets in uncrowded batches, adding the remaining butter as needed. Turn gently once the underside colours and cook until golden and at least 74°C through the thickest area, checking sideways with a fine-tip thermometer. Thin pieces generally take about 2–3 minutes per side, but temperature determines readiness.
Step 5
Serve the plain cutlets immediately with the half-lemon juice squeezed over them. Keep any completed batches hot while finishing the rest.
Step 6
For truffle and cheese cutlets, season the raw sliced breast first with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, salt, pepper and about 5 g finely grated Parmesan; refrigerate 1–2 hours. Then place in the beaten eggs and refrigerate another 1–2 hours. Crumb and sauté in the butter as above. Once one side is just browned, turn the cutlets in an oven-safe pan and cover each cooked upper face with very thin slices from about 30 g edible truffle, then very thin slices from about 40 g Parmesan or Gruyère. Add about 60 ml hot meat broth around the cutlets. Finish in a preheated 200°C oven until the cheese has softened and every cutlet reaches 74°C, about 5–8 minutes depending on thickness. Lift out intact, spoon the juices around them and finish with the half-lemon juice. Use this two-stage refrigerated seasoning schedule in place of the plain version’s 3-hour egg soak.
Step 7
For a separate layered truffle sauce, cook the plain cutlets and keep them hot. In a small metal saucepan spread about 1 teaspoon olive oil over the bottom. Arrange three or four thin layers using about 40 g thinly sliced edible truffle in total, sprinkling a total of 5 g grated Parmesan and 1 teaspoon breadcrumbs sparingly between the layers. Finish with another teaspoon olive oil, a little salt and pepper and about 5 g butter in small pieces. Heat gently until it begins to sizzle, then add about 60 ml hot meat broth and the half-lemon juice. Bring briefly to a gentle simmer, remove promptly and spoon over the hot cutlets. The lemon goes into this sauce instead of being added again to the plain cutlets.
Step 8
If using dried edible mushrooms instead of truffles for the separate sauce, soak about 8 g in hot water for 20 minutes, rinse off grit and chop coarsely. Simmer them separately in the 60 ml broth, adding water as necessary, for at least 15 minutes or as their package directs. Use the cooked drained mushrooms for the same layers, and add their hot cooking broth at the finishing stage. If lemon is unavailable for this sauce, replace its juice with about 2 tablespoons strained tomato juice, or 1 teaspoon tomato paste diluted with 1 tablespoon water, and simmer briefly.
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