How to cook classic chicken cutlets?

Cutlets are a classic dish for a homemade lunch or dinner. Such a national love for cutlets is explained simply: this dish is prepared quite simply, besides, it is not only tasty, but also convenient. After all, meatballs can be eaten both hot and cold, with them perfectly matches any garnish. With cutlets you can make delicious sandwiches, they are convenient to take with you to a picnic or to work for a lunch snack.

However, in the home kitchen, cutlets, most often, are prepared from ground beef, undeservedly forgetting about the equally tasty and useful version of poultry meat. By the way, many believe that cutlets from chicken mince are an exclusively dietary dish. In part this is really so, everything depends on the technology of cooking. For example, if you cook cutlets chopped chicken from lean breasts, and even do not fry them in a pan, and bring it to readiness in aerogril or steamer, the dish will turn out to be light and low-fat.

However, many cutlets, made from chicken breasts, seem dry and not too tasty. In this case, it can be advised to cook chicken cutlets according to another recipe, they will turn out to be less dietary, but tender and juicy.

Let's start with the selection of products. Ideally, minced meat for cutlets should be prepared independently. The fact is that the main component of minced meat, which is sold in stores, is usually chicken skin. Therefore, the ready-made forcemeat is too fat, and when frying cutlets are greatly reduced in volume, since fat has the property of being heated. Therefore, you can buy ready-made chicken mincemeat only if you do not have to doubt it.

To prepare juicy cutlets from chicken mincemeat it is better to use meat taken from chicken legs. Or make a mixed stuffing from the meat of the legs and breasts. Adding to the stuffing of the skin is extremely undesirable, however, this is a matter of taste. If someone likes meatballs fatter, then you can grind and skin.

The classic recipe for a dish of chicken mincemeat provides for the addition of ground minced onion, bread and eggs. Onion can be added fried or raw. But the main thing is that it is very finely chopped or grated. The fact is that chicken cutlets are fried very quickly, so large pieces of onions do not have time to become soft and will crunch on the teeth, giving the dish a sharp taste. For a kilo of minced meat, put no more than 150 grams of finely chopped onions.

As for bread, it is added to minced meat not for the purpose of saving meat, but for giving juiciness and softness. Here the main thing is to observe the proportions, in the classical recipe it is stipulated that 250 grams of white bread without crusts is required per kilogram of minced meat. If you put less, cutlets will come out dryish, and if you overdo it, you get "bread" cutlets with the smell of meat, which are often cooked in cheap dining rooms.

Obligatory additions are chicken eggs, as without them cutlets often fall apart. But putting too many eggs is not worth it, the dish will turn out to be tough. For our quantity of products (kilogram of minced meat, 250 grams of bread and 200 grams of onions), it is enough to take two eggs.

After the mince is well mixed and becomes homogeneous, it must be put in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes, not forgetting to cover the bowl with a lid or food film.

From the present minced meat you can cook cutlets. By the way, to give them more juiciness, experienced chefs advise adding a little finely chopped ice to the finished mass. Before frying cutlets should be wrapped, using flour, crushed biscuits or sesame seeds.

For a variety of cutlets from chicken minced meat can be prepared with various additives. For example, when mixing minced meat, add ready-cut finely chopped mushrooms, grated cheese or greens. In this case, the cutlets will have a different but not less interesting taste.