First step, get your bread into crumb form. Go about this however you like, either get a few torn up pieces into the food processor or buy some good quality panko, either way it’ll be delish.

Next up, prep that chicken. You can certainly buy some thin cutlets if you like, or even better, get your butcher to do it for you. I like to do this myself, just cause. First, get it butterflied. Get the breast on your cutting board, place one hand firmly on top to hold it in place, and with you other knifed hand, slowly cut that breast in half, just keep the knife parallel to the cutting board and go slowly. You can either cut all the way through if you want smaller cutlets, or almost all the way through, like I did here, to get a nice big one.

You then want to pound that breast out to get it even thinner. It’ll also make the the cutlet super tender. Once again, go slowly here, there’s no rush. I like to put my chicken between two pieces of parchment paper and with a meat pounder, small pot or mini cast iron, start pounding it with a down and out motion, you’re thinning the meat here, not smashing it to a pulp. So while you need to be firm, you also want to be gentle at the same time. I like to aim for a little under a centimeter, but do whatever you have the patience for. Just try and get the entire cutlet to the same thickness, that way it’ll cook evenly.

Ok, the fussy chicken bit is done. Now you can get your flour, eggs and breadcrumbs into separate containers so we can start coating the chicken. Make sure to dry off your super thin chicken cutlets and season both sides with some salt. Then dip them into the flour, shake off any excess, then right into the beaten eggs, letting any excess run off, and then into your breadcrumbs. Be sure to get lots of breadcrumbs on everything, press em in a bit, that’s the good stuff.

Now that your chicken is all coated, it’s time to fry. Get a large sauté pan on medium-high heat. Once it’s hot add in a generous bit of olive oil, or whatever other oil you want to use, and once it’s doing that nice shimmer thing hot oil does, gently lay that chicken cutlet in. Be sure to shake the pan at first to make sure nothing is sticking and you have the bottom fully coated with oil. When you see the edges getting golden brown and the top part of the chicken turning opaque, you can go ahead and flip. Cook for another few minutes until both sides are a deep golden brown.

Pull the chicken from your pan and place it on some paper towel to drain off any excess oil and be sure to season with some coarse salt right away. You want the salt to stick to the hot chicken. You can also go ahead and wipe out any remaining bits from your pan if you’re making another breast, add in some fresh oil and get frying again.

I like to serve this with a nice lemon wedge, to brighten everything up, or I like to serve some salad on top, specifically a fennel salad but that’s for another post…Eat up!