Chicken Cutlet

My kids started to follow my blog for recipes now and it makes me so happy that my recipe repertoire is finally benefiting them.  I realized that many of my common recipes that we make more often at home is not on the blog.  One among them is Cutlet.  I have an old recipe of fish cutlet on the blog, but rest of them are not there.  So many easy and quick recipes are still not on the blog yet.  Hoping to post them soon, so that it can benefit others too.

I always find no time to style and shoot snacks because, everyone will be waiting patiently for me to finish up shooting the snacks.   Seeing them patiently waiting makes me speed up the photoshoot and serve them the snacks.  

This is a spicy cutlet, but we love it that way.  Growing up we always had fish cutlet and beef cutlets.  But cutlet filling is so versatile that you can use both meat or vegetarian options for it.  I have a detailed fool proof recipe for this cutlet.  If you have never made cutlets before, you can try this recipe and let me know how it turns for you.  Do tag #flavzcorner on Instagram if you try this recipe.

Yields - 20 medium size cutlets

Ingredients

For the chicken

1.5 lb - chicken breast

1/2 tsp - turmeric powder

1 tsp - pepper powder

3/4 tsp - salt

1/2 cup - water

Other Ingredients

5 cloves - garlic

1 inch - ginger

4 - medium hot green chili

1 - small onion chopped

2 - small potatoes 

1/2 tsp - garam masala

1/2 tsp - pepper powder

1/2 tsp - mustard seeds

2 sprigs - curry leaves torn into small pieces

3 tbsp - oil

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Coating Ingredients

3-4 cups - bread crumbs

2 - egg whites

1/2 tsp - corn starch

1/2 tsp - all purpose flour

Directions:

• Add all the ingredients listed under the 'Chicken' to a nonstick pan and cover it and cook on low to medium heat till all the water is absorbed and the chicken is fully cooked.  Set it aside to cool.  Pulse the cooked chicken in a food processor/blender to get a coarse mix.
• Meantime wash the potatoes well and cut the potatoes into half.  Either pressure cook the potatoes with water just to cover the potatoes till one whistle blows.  Or you can cook the potatoes in a sauce pan with water just to cover the potatoes till its cooked.  Let the potatoes cool for a bit.  Peel them and mash the potatoes while they are warm.
• Pulse ginger, garlic and green chili in the food processor/blender till its chopped well.
• Splutter the mustard seeds in 3 tbsp of oil in a non stick pan.  Add the chopped onions and sauté for a minute.  Add the chopped garlic, ginger and chili and cook till the raw smell is gone.  Add the chicken, pepper powder and garam masala to it and mix well.  Finally add the mashed potatoes, chopped curry leaves and adjust the salt.   Mix everything well.  Let the mixture come to room temperature.
• Roll the chicken mixture in to 20 equal size balls and then flatten them within your palms.
• Whisk egg whites, corn starch and flour in a bowl till everything is mixed well.  
• In a plate, add 1 cup of bread crumbs.  Dip the prepared cutlet mix in the egg white coating and roll in the bread crumbs.  Add bread crumbs into the plate as required and coat rest of the cutlets.
• Add oil in a wok/kadai to deep fry the cutlets.  Heat the oil on high heat.  Add cutlets to the oil.  Lower the heat to medium low after a 30 seconds.  Cook the cutlets for 2 -3 minutes on each side till golden brown.  Remove the cutlets from the oil.  Increase the heat to high and add the cutlets and fry the rest of the cutlets by increasing and decreasing the heat as before.
• Serve the cutlets with ketchup or sliced onions, rubbed with salt & vinegar or fresh salsa.

Notes:

• Use a small pan or kadai for frying to avoid wastage of lot of oil.  I use a cast iron wok to fry snacks.  It helps to maintain the heat.
• Make sure to use a measuring spoon to take the measurements if you are trying cutlets for the first time.
• This is a spicy cutlet.  Adjust the seasoning per your taste.  
• If the oil is not hot enough, the cutlets will absorb lot of oil.  So adjust the heat after each batch of cutlets are fried.
• Make sure not to over crowd the pan with cutlets while frying.  Overcrowding will result in uneven cooking of cutlets.
• Adding corn starch and all purpose flour to the egg whites helps the cutlet with a stable coating that will not break. 
• If you don't have bread crumbs, you can pulse 6-8 slices of bread in a food processor till you get a course powder.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper powder to it and use it instead of bread crumbs for coating the cutlets.