'schnitzel' is just German for fried cutlet.

The original version of this recipe (wiener schnitzel ) called for veal cutlets, but today we use turkey because we don't want to condone the abuse of baby cows no matter how tasty the end product might be. mmm... tasty, tasty baby cow flesh...

anyway:

Turkey Schnitzel

shop:
1 lb. Turkey Cutlets, or if you can't find nice fillets just get a pound of turkey breast
oil (peanut, in my case)
a little flour
2 eggs
panko bread crumbs

the sauce:
chicken bouillon
2 tbsp. butter (or more)
a little flour
flat-leaf (Italian) parsley-- a few ounces, chopped.
1 lemon

hardware:
ye ole electric skillet, or some other frying pan
cooling rack

recommended beer:
Wheat beers, pilsners, and-what-*won't*-go-with-Guinness?

Lab procedures:

If the butcher sells you some nice thin turkey cutlets/fillets, then you're good. If not...

Stand your turkey breast on end, and slice it into two thinner pieces. Repeat, if necessary. (these end-on slices can be easier if the meat is a little frozen.) Take these slices (or the fillets) and pound them even flatter with the back of your hand on the counter. (this can be therapeutic)

set up your fry station, 5 stops: a plate with raw meat, a plate of flour, a dish with your two eggs (beaten), and a dish with the panko; and then the cooking surface

a note on panko: these are Japanese style bread crumbs. Typically, you can find them on the ethnic food aisle of your local megamart. Can you use regular bread or cracker crumbs? yes. Will it taste the same? no. What do Japanese bread crumbs have to do with a German recipe? hey, look, a blimp.

trust me on the panko. it's worth finding some.

Moving through the stations: Your cutlet first gets dredged in flour (knock off the excess), dipped in egg (again, let it drip a bit), breaded with the panko bread crumbs, and then laid down in the skillet-- which has been pre-heating over medium high heat and dressed with a bit of the peanut oil.

You don't need much oil--just a drizzle-- but you are likely going to be adding a bit each time you add or flip a cutlet. This is because the breading does a really good job of absorbing oil, so whatever you add is getting taken up right away. The other reason to keep re-applying is that the breading doesn't really brown unless there's some oil in the pan.

What I have is an old beer bottle, with a pour spout like you'll see on liquor bottles in a bar. (I have two, a brown one for the peanut oil and a green one for olive.) With this rig, I can be fairly precise with the oil. If you were to say, fill up your pan with about a quarter inch of oil, that'd do the trick too, but your breading would end up a lot 'slicker' then if you micromanaged the process a little bit.

I'm not sure how else to describe the technique... well, let's talk amount: for each side of each fillet I'm using from 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of oil. A little practice, and I'm sure you'll find your own way through the process.

Brown each side (only takes a few minutes). When you get the timing down, you'll only need to flip each piece once-- quick cooking times are one of the reasons we pounded the meat into flat cutlets. That, and the meat was naughty.

For a double recipe, I'm looking at about 8 of these schnitzels. I work two at a time, and keep the cooked ones on a cooling rack (over a drip tray, or just paper towels) until I'm done with all the meat, and the sauce.

... So next up is the sauce.

Don't clean the pan. We're going to make the gravy right there. (if you were using the 'excess oil' frying method, you'd want to drain that out, but still don't clean up yet.)

In the same pan, add chicken bouillon (1 cube, or roughly 1 teaspoon loose granules) & about a cup of water. Dissolve the bouillon while you deglaze the pan over low heat. To this you'll add about a tablespoon of flour to thicken, and the 2 tablespoons of butter. And when that comes together nicely, you'll add the juice of one lemon, and two handfuls of chopped parsley.

Cook the sauce down (or add water) to get to the thickness you'd like, and serve.

A standard menu is meat & three: tonight we had two veggies (broccoli and asparagus, both steamed) and a starch (garlic bread. garlic mashed potatoes are good too, particularly with the gravy)