Crispy chicken cutlets in a tomato cream
The sauce is made in the frying pan after the oil comes out, not before.
At a Glance
Story
Pour the frying oil out and wipe the pan before the sauce goes in. A quarter inch of oil left behind does not enrich a tomato sauce, it sits on top of it in a slick and coats your mouth before the tomato gets there. Thirty seconds with a paper towel, keeping any browned crumbs that are stuck down, and you get the flavor without the grease.
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 eggbeaten
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 4 oz grape tomatoeshalved
- 1 ½ tsp Calabrian chile paste
- 2 tbsp crème fraîche
- 1 romaine heartroughly chopped
- 4 oz fresh mozzarellatorn
- 1 oz roasted red pepperssliced
- 1 clove garlicgrated to a paste
- 1 lemonhalved
- neutral oil for fryingolive oil, salt, pepper
Method
A cutlet and a sharp salad, and the sauce goes over the chicken rather than under it so the crust survives contact.
- Squeeze the lemon into a large bowl, straining the seeds. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the garlic paste. Season. That is the salad dressing.
- Two plates and a bowl: seasoned flour, seasoned panko and the beaten egg. Pound the chicken between two sheets of plastic to ¼ inch. Season both sides with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder. Flour, then egg, then panko, pressing it on.
- Thin layer of neutral oil in a medium nonstick pan on medium-high. When a pinch of flour sizzles instantly, in with the chicken. 5 to 8 minutes a side, to golden and 165°F. Onto paper towel, salted at once.
- Pour off the oil and wipe the pan out. A drizzle of olive oil, medium-high, then the tomatoes, seasoned. 3 to 4 minutes, pressing them with a spoon until they collapse. The chile paste, 30 seconds to a minute. Off the heat, stir in the crème fraîche.
- Romaine, mozzarella and peppers into the dressing. Toss.
- Chicken on the plates, sauce spooned over the top, salad beside it.
Sauce the chicken at the table if you want the crust to stay loud. It softens within a couple of minutes under that much liquid.
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