Nut-Crusted Chicken Cutlets - Cooks Illustrated

Could we transform a simple breaded chicken cutlet into an exotic-tasting meal?

The Problem

Although fast to prepare, sautéed cutlets can be a bit boring.

The Goal

We wanted to create a new kind of breaded chicken cutlet, with nuts taking the place of bread crumbs. We also wanted to add a salad to make the dish a complete meal.

The Solution

For the best coating, we landed on a ratio of 2 parts freshly ground nuts to 1 part crumbs. We also found that the light, crispy Japanese-style bread crumbs called panko worked especially well and that ingredients such as Dijon mustard and/or citrus zest helped spruce up the flavor. Because the nut/bread crumb mixture was so dense, we could omit the flouring step and just dip the cutlets in beaten egg and then the nut-bread crumb mixture. Cooking the chicken turned out to be fairly straight-forward. The keys were to use a skillet large enough to comfortably cook four pieces of chicken and to use plenty of oil. We also liked a nonstick skillet since there's no chance that any food or coating will cling to the surface. In addition, cleaning a nonstick surface is much easier. Finally, noticing how well the nut-crusted chicken tasted with fruit, it was a short jump to pair the chicken with a wilted spinach salad with a fruit-based dressing.

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