Chicken Schnitzel

Wikipedia’s list of sandwiches says this about the schnitzel sandwich, “A sandwich of crumbed, pan-fried chicken fillet, on buttered bread, with shredded iceberg lettuce and mayonnaise” marking it as Australian. Perhaps I’m un-Australian then, because before its inclusion in the list, I’d not heard of this as a sandwich. However, as soon as it was included on the list, I noticed at one of my local food courts that this place had sprung up in place of the Korean sushi train. There is also this place, which offers the traditional schnitzel-on-a-plate.

Schnitzel (often known here as ‘snitzel’ due to our inability to open our mouths wide enough to pronounce foreign words) is a mainstay of pubs and clubs countrywide, along with its Italian cousin ‘parma’. They’re both basically your hammered-thin meat of choice, breaded, then either oven baked or fried. Parmigiana has a Napolitana sauce, mozarella and usually ham or bacon, then baked in the oven to melt it all deliciously. Veal parmagiana is known in my friendship circle as ‘veal in pyjamas’

So I dutifully rolled up to Schnitz and bought a sandwich. Sadly, this was some time ago, and I didn’t manage to take any photos of the experience. I got a Basic Instinct and was disappointed. The crumb on the schnitzel was crisp, but the chicken flesh was somewhat dry, and the roll too thick, so that the mayo wasn’t enough to moisten it properly, and I’m not the hugest mayo fan anyway.

Oh, hey, I just found my notes for that sandwich, I was pretty right…

“Chicken schnitzel.
Schnitz plain and simple=bland. Thank dog for the onions! Chicken was mostly tender, but never enough flavour. Crumb reasonably crispy. Tomatoes wintery, cheese got lost. Go pyjamas next time. Or spicy crumb. And try the chips. Gonna get fat.”

This time, I ordered the Parmageddon, which promised Napolitana sauce, melted mozarella, and grilled mushrooms and red capsicums. Of course, Murphy’s law being what it is, as soon as I’d ordered, and the bloke behind the counter said “there’ll be a bit of a wait, is that OK?” and I said “yeah, no worries mate” my boss rang, wanting me to go and pick up something for the shop from the industrial area. This meant I wouldn’t have time to sit and eat my sandwich, photographing it in all its glory. Instead, after the “bit of a wait” I grabbed it, and ran for my car, leadfooting it across the city. The upshot of this was that by the time I arrived at work a good half hour later, my sanger was decidedly cool and somewhat soggy. Determined, I pressed ahead.

The sauce and cheese had leaked onto the wrapper, but other than that, the roll had held together quite well. The crumb had definitely sogged up, but the chicken was moist and the sauce and cheese blended well with the grilled vegies. The herbs were a great addition, lots of flavour. Much better than the bog-standard lettuce and mayo version.

Next step: making one at home.

Part the Second.

Fast forward a week or so. The big child turns 16 tomorrow and has a friend sleeping over. This seemed like a perfect schnitzel burger opportunity with a captive audience. I bought some chicken breast scallopini, and a meat mallet (I know, I’m 47 years old and I don’t own a meat mallet.) The fact that I needed to buy the meat mallet should have forewarned me that I was not entirely familiar with the schnitzel making process. Nonetheless, I pushed ahead with my plan.

I had a look for recipes and found that there was a divide between the idea of an egg wash and a yoghurt one. I thought that I could go one better and decided to combine buttermilk and egg for that step. I set out my plates of flour and breadcrumbs (I used panko with some salt and smokey paprika) and my bowl of egg wash and got to bashing some meat.

Then comes the frying. This is where I suck, it turns out. I can’t get the temperature right, so the crumb gets too dark before the chicken is cooked. I decide to finish the schnitzels in the oven for a few minutes after frying, which seems to work.

Assembly line

I summon the boys and they get going. Small child opts for tomato sauce on his, but adds lettuce. Husband has a pathological dread of anything vaguely resembling mayo, so the S&W aioli was lost on him. I liked it though. The rolls were from the local Vietnamese bakery. By the time I got to serve myself the kids had scoffed all the banh mi rolls, so I grabbed a twin. It was pretty damn good. So, despite the crumb issues (slightly burnt, and by the time it came to eating it, falling off and a bit soggy) and the workload (very intense for what you get) it was bloody yummy. The 8 year old ate half of his, and I scored the rest. On his banh mi roll, which was just the right combo of chewy and soft. I’d also managed to make some oven chips in between dipping, breading and frying schnitzels, from sweet potato, parsnip and kipfler potatoes. They were rad! The heirloom tomatoes were a good addition too. The big boys hoovered theirs, as teenagers will, and slunk off to continue shooting each other online.

Mine!

Also a welcome addition was my new favourite beer, which is now unavailable in this country, as the importer won’t anymore. That makes me sad.

Crit

I’m a mother of two boys. I work selling organic produce to gullible locals, and in my spare time I run as far as I can. Oh, and I live in Australia, married to a US citizen.