Breaded Chicken Cutlets: Fast & Easy Breaded Chicken Cutlets

In this post, we’ll cover the ins and outs of our recipe for delicious, crispy breaded chicken cutlets. We’ll fill you in on the ingredients you need and all of the steps in creating this recipe from start to finish. 

What Do You Need to Make Breaded Chicken Cutlets? 

You’ll need a handful of ingredients to create this recipe. Some you may already have on hand, and the rest you can order via our optimized grocery lists for maximum ease. 

Our chicken cutlets recipe calls for the following ingredients:

Chicken Breast

For this recipe, you’ll be using one chicken breast per plate. The chicken will be coated in a mixture of breadcrumbs, oil, flour, and eggs to create the perfect breading. 

Egg

You need one whole egg for each serving of our breaded chicken – you’ll use it as part of the base for the breading. The egg adds flavor and texture to the mixture of breadcrumbs, oil, flour, and spices, keeping your cutlets light and fluffy instead of dry and overly crisp.

All-Purpose Flour (2 Tablespoons Per Serving)

The flour in this recipe acts as the main ingredient in the breading for the cutlets. By mixing flour with eggs and breadcrumbs, you’re creating a coating for the chicken that you’ll cook in a pan until golden brown.

Breadcrumbs (3 Tablespoons Per Serving)

The breadcrumbs in this recipe are what give your cutlets their crispy exterior. When cooked in an oil-coated pan, the crumbs get crisp and golden brown, mixing with the flour and eggs to create a delicious breading.

A Few Tablespoons of Oil

You’ll use your favorite cooking oil to fry up each of your chicken pieces. You can also add oil to your side of pasta for flavor.

Tagliatelle Pasta

This type of pasta is similar to fettuccine. Tagliatelle pieces are long and flat, and they’re perfect for forking up alongside a crisp piece of chicken.

Tomato Sauce

A basil sauce is ideal for this recipe, as the herb brings out the best flavors in your chicken and pasta. You can use sauce from a jar or make your own if you’re feeling extra creative.

A Pinch of Chili Powder or Paprika

This red, smoky spice gets added to your breading to give it a bit of zest. You don’t need to use too much to enhance the flavor of the dish. 

Adding an overwhelming amount of spices to your recipes can drown out the other flavors in the meal, so it’s okay to be conservative.

The Breaded Chicken Cutlet Recipe: Step-By-Step

Follow these steps to make the best chicken you’ve ever had.

Step One: Prepare Your Tagliatelle Pasta

Making these ribbon-like noodles takes a short amount of time, and it’s the perfect way to start your prep process for this recipe. 

If you want your tagliatelle pasta to be al dente, you only need to cook the noodles in salted boiling water for around four minutes. After this point, the pasta will start to get more well-done, eventually becoming overcooked if you wait too long.

Once your pasta is fully cooked, drain it using a colander and set it aside for later.

If you’re struggling to find tagliatelle pasta at grocery stores near you, the best alternative to try is fettuccine. While these two pasta shapes are very similar, there are a few differences between them. 

Fettuccine noodles are narrower than tagliatelle, and they’re often prepared in Roman and Tuscan recipes. Tagliatelle, on the other hand, comes from the Emilia-Romagna and Marche regions in Italy, where the pasta was allegedly first cooked in the late 13th century.

Step Two: Make Your Breading

You can’t have breaded chicken cutlets without breading. 

For this step, you’ll need three shallow mixing bowls, which you’ll fill with different ingredients. Here’s what to put in each bowl.

• In bowl one, combine an egg with a little bit of salt and a pinch of chili powder or paprika. Using a whisk, combine these ingredients until the individual particles of salt and spice are no longer visible.

• Bowl two is where you’ll put two tablespoons of all-purpose flour.

• In bowl three, add three tablespoons of breadcrumbs.

Once these separate ingredients are all ready to go, you’ll take your chicken and run it through flour, making sure both sides are covered. After the chicken is floured, dip it into the mixture of egg, salt, and spices. Finally, dip the chicken one last time, this time into the breadcrumbs.

If you want your breading to be thicker, all you have to do is go through the process listed above. Then dip the chicken once more into the egg, then once more into the breadcrumbs. A second dip into the egg and breadcrumbs effectively doubles the amount of crispiness and richness that you’ll get in each bite of chicken.

Step Three: Pan-Fry Your Chicken

Once the chicken is fully coated in the breading, add a few tablespoons of your favorite cooking oil to a pan and turn the stove on medium. Once the oil sizzles, throw the chicken in the pan and cook it for about four minutes on each side.

When one side of the chicken turns golden brown, you know it’s time to flip and start cooking the other side. This process may dry out most of the oil in the pan, so feel free to add another drizzle of extra oil while cooking.

Once the chicken is fully cooked, place each piece on a sheet of paper towel, which you can use to absorb any excess oil on the exterior of the cutlets.

Step Four: Heat Up Your Sauce

When your chicken cutlets are complete, all you have left to prepare is the sauce for your pasta.

If you are using sauce from a jar, there’s just one step for preparing it – put it in a small pot on medium heat and wait for it to get to your desired temperature. 

Once the sauce is as hot as you want it to be, add in the cooked pasta and mix the noodles and sauce together.

And tac! You’re ready to serve.

Plating and Presentation Tips for Breaded Chicken Cutlets

No matter what type of meal you’re making, the presentation can make a big difference in the eating experience. When a dish is served in a way that makes it look as appetizing and aesthetically pleasing as possible, the people who have the pleasure of eating are likely to remember the meal much more fondly. 

We’re highly visual creatures, us humans, and we love it when anything – especially food – looks good.

To make each plate of chicken that you serve look great, follow these tips:

Add Some Fresh Herbs as a Garnish

One of the best ways to level up your presentation game is using garnishes. These ingredients add to the flavor profile of your meal, but they’re also visually pleasing and show that you’ve put a great deal of effort into your cooking. 

One of the best garnishes for chicken cutlets is some fresh parsley. This refreshing herb has a mildly bitter flavor, which pairs perfectly with the richness of the cutlets and the savory pasta sauce.

Strategically Arrange Your Plates

With this recipe, you’ve got several components to work with on each plate that you serve. There’s the pasta, the cutlets, and any dipping sauce or other sides that you decide to offer to the lucky recipients of this meal. It’s always smart to be strategic in how you arrange the elements of a meal, and this one is no exception.

You can make a plate of chicken cutlets and pasta look great by serving the cutlets on a bed of noodles with a ramekin of dipping sauce on the side. Or, you can carefully separate the noodles and the cutlets into two halves of the plate, placing a garnish of fresh herbs in the middle for some extra flair.

Breaded Foods Can Look Classy

While chicken fingers, nuggets, tenders, and other breaded comfort foods aren’t often thought of as gourmet, your chicken cutlets can be an incredibly elegant-looking dish when plated properly. By putting extra effort into the way that you present this meal, you can make each plate look like an entrée at a high-class restaurant.

Making Your Own Sauce for Chicken Cutlets

Want to level up your chicken? 

One of the best ways to make this meal as unique and appetizing as possible is simple – make your own dipping sauce. Chicken cutlets pair perfectly with a sauce made from tangy, sweet, and creamy ingredients. 

You can make the sauce easily at home with ingredients that are probably already in your fridge or pantry, add it to each plate in a ramekin, and voilà – your meal has gone up a notch!

Dipping Sauces for Chicken: Pro Tips

When making a dipping sauce for chicken cutlets, try following these tips to make your homemade condiment as tasty as possible.

• Use mayonnaise as a base. Mayo is the main ingredient in many great dipping sauces – and with good reason. The condiment, which is made from a mix of egg yolks, vinegar, and oil, is the perfect starting point for your chicken cutlet dipping sauce. 

• Add in sweet and salty condiments. Mustard, barbecue sauce, sriracha, and honey, are all great add-ins to your mayo base when making a dipping sauce for chicken. These condiments all have unique flavor profiles, and combining a few of them can get you an incredibly tasty sauce. 
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  We recommend trying a mix of mayo, sriracha, and a hint of honey when making chicken cutlets. This sauce is the perfect mix of spicy, sweet, and rich – and it tastes amazing.

• Throw in a punch of acidity. Adding tangy, acidic ingredients like lemon juice to your homemade dipping sauces is always a good move. As renowned chef Samin Nosrat says, it’s always a great idea to include a combination of salt, fat, acid, and heat in your meals – and your condiments.

Turning This Meal Into an Appetizer

Chicken cutlets are a delicious dinner that your whole family is sure to love. However, they’re also a fantastic appetizer to serve at your next shindig! 

When you want to wow your party guests, serving our chicken cutlets alongside a homemade dipping sauce is the way to go. There are a few small adjustments you’ll want to make to the recipe for feeding large crowds, though.

• When serving chicken cutlets as an appetizer, you can nix the side of pasta. While chicken cutlets are traditionally enjoyed with a fork and a knife, they make great finger food, too. However, the same can’t be said for pasta. If you want to set out a plate of dippable chicken cutlets for guests, it’s best to skip pasta as a side dish. Serve a pasta dish as a main course instead.

• To speed up the cooking process, make larger mixing bowls full of breading and use them repeatedly to make more cutlets. If you want to make a higher volume of cutlets, you’ll need more breading, which means bigger bowls. 

• Serve your cutlets on a large platter with dipping sauce in the center. You can even set out a platter of multiple sauces – one sweet, one spicy, one mild, and one tangy.

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