Chicken Schnitzel with Lauren's Mediterranean Salad

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So of late we seem to be watching a lot of Australian Junior Master Chef. We have two series going concurrently, it's a little bit confusing and we are all suddenly using Australian intonation. It's really fired up Lauren's interest in helping out in the kitchen though.

We watched an episode last week where they did a Master Class for some of the children who didn't make it into the Top 20. They made Chicken Schnitzels, I've not had a schnitzel for years, they used to be a staple at the Hotel Reymar Playa in Malgrat de Mar where we used to holiday in the early 90's.

Along with the schnitzels they served an Heirloom salad, made with lots of varieties of tomato and grilled aubergine.

Ever since I saw it being made I've been wanting to make it and Lauren has been begging to help out. She surpassed herself by not only helping with the schnitzels but by making the most amazing salad, which really outshone the version on Master Chef.

Chicken Schnitzel with Lauren's Mediterranean Salad

Green Camone Tomatoes from Sardinia
 from the Natoora range at Ocado

First Lauren made the salad. She halved some Green Camone tomatoes (use whichever variety you have to hand though).She gently broke up a mozzarella ball (buffalo is best). Added some chopped parsley and spinach.

Sliced courgettes, fried in olive oil with garlic

We chopped a courgette on the diagonal and fried it in a little olive oil with garlic. Then, we grilled some thinly (about half a centimetre) sliced aubergine in our George Foreman (or Formby if you are a Peter Kay fan) grill, lightly brushed with olive oil.

Griddled aubergine

Lauren arranged all the ingredients beautifully in a nice white bowl. Then made a dressing of olive oil, freshly milled salt and pepper and the juice of half a lemon ( a Natoora Scicilian lemon, looked a bit ropey from the outside but perfect fruit inside).

Then we set it aside while we prepared the chicken only dressing the salad as it went out to the table. If you dress it too early the herbs and spinach and tomatoes may start to wilt.


For the chicken we got a loaf of sour dough bread (I'm sure ciabatta would work too or any heavy Artisan type bread) and got 200g of white loaf (no crust) and put it in a food processor with 50 g of grated parmesan and some herbs - a few thyme leaves, parsley leaves and rosemary leaves - how much you use depends on your own personal taste, but remember rosemary can be quite medicinal if used in excess.

We whizzed all this up in a food processor to a fine but slightly rustic crumb, seasoned it after processing and put it in a flat bowl. I found we only used half of the crumb mix for our 3 pieces of chicken and luckily I realised this before hand and set some aside to freeze before it became contaminated with raw chicken.

Ready for coating (note: 2 tbsp of milk in the eggs)

Then we got 2 more flat bowls. In one we put some plain flour, in the other we whisked one egg and added 2 tablespoons of milk.

I managed to get some chicken breast escalopes which were already quite flat, but I think I should have made them a bit flatter to be true schnitzels.

You can get some chicken escalopes bit of you get some chicken breasts and place them between 2 sheets of cling film / food wrap , then get a meat tenderiser or a rolling pin and gently bash them until they are wider and thinner - about 5mm.

Frying the schnitzels

The reason for doing this is to make sure the chicken cooks through, but the crumbs don't burn.

Heat a pan with a good quantity of olive oil, you want a medium heat so that the crumb goes crisp but doesn't burn.

Next take each piece of chicken in turn, coat with flour, then dip in the egg mix, finally coat in breadcrumbs before frying in the oil.

My chicken took about 5 minutes on each side, to get a nice crispy crumb and make sure the chicken was cooked through. I'm no expert at this and still sometimes have to make a little slit in one of the pieces to make sure the flesh is cooked and there is no red juice.

Your cooking time will depend on the thickness of your chicken.

When the chicken is cooked, just before you take it from the pan add a generous tablespoon of butter to the oil and baste the schnitzels, before taking them out and resting them on a piece of kitchen roll.

You are then ready to serve.

I really loved this, I've not made anything bread crumbed since I made fish cakes at school, but it's so superior to anything you buy crumbed in the shops and with the added taste of the herbs and the Parmesan it  was delicious and the chicken stayed flavoursome and moist inside. The salad was such a taste explosions, the sweetest tomatoes, oily, earthy aubergine, crunchy spinach and courgettes, a hint of garlic and sharp mozzarella and  lemon. As we were finishing it I asked Lauren if she was going to eat it and she shook her head looking at me like I was from another planet, but she did eat it and cleared her plate, amazing!
Me and Tony both agreed that some grilled portobello mushrooms would have been a good addition to the salad and I think with some olives and couscous, the salad itself would be a good stand alone lunch or supper.