The Foolproof Way To Bread Chicken Cutlets Without Eggs Or Flour
Unless you don't have all of the ingredients, it's pretty hard to mess up chicken cutlets. To make them, you simply slice a chicken breast into thinner filets, dredge them in flour, followed by beaten eggs and panko breadcrumbs, then fry them until crispy.
Unlike traditional fried chicken, where you can easily end up with an undercooked center or mushy breading, chicken cutlets are a lot more forgiving. The worst that can happen is one side of the filet cooks a bit faster than the other, but this can be prevented if you pound the chicken to an even thickness beforehand.
The appeal of making chicken cutlets over plain grilled chicken comes down to the crispy outer crust. You might assume that the eggs and flour are responsible for this texture, but the truth is it's just the panko, Herbs and Flour explains. The flour and the egg are only there to act as a glue, allowing the panko to stick to the chicken. Aside from this, the two ingredients don't add much to chicken cutlets besides bulk.
How to make chicken cutlets without eggs or flour
Ever go to make chicken cutlets only to realize you don't have enough flour, or you're all out of eggs? Well, the next time that happens, consider going about your recipe in a different way.
According to Eater, all you have to do if you only have panko and chicken is to first grind the chicken in a food processor. This not only means you don't have to bother with slicing thin filets, but it also allows you to use any cut, not just the breast, as all the pieces of chicken meat get pulverized. More importantly, as Salt Sear Savor points out, it tenderizes the meat better than pounding does and changes the consistency to a more glue-like one.
This consistency is the key to eggless, flourless chicken cutlets, Eater explains, because it mimics the paste-like nature of egg mixed with flour. Because the ground chicken is already sticky, the panko can adhere to it without any extra binding agents. Just form the ground chicken into cutlet shaped patties and press it into the panko. Fry it up, and you have what reassembles a regular chicken cutlet.
Bolivian-style chicken cutlets
Most people think of breading as a two-step process that involves a liquid, such as eggs or buttermilk, in addition to a dry mixture of flour or breadcrumbs. In Bolivian cooking however, it's a bit more streamlined, restaurant chef Cesin Curi told "The Rhode Show" (via YouTube).
When making silpancho, a dish that consists of a fried cutlet made with beef instead of chicken, the breading is accomplished by pounding the meat directly into the panko. Per Eater, some chefs will actually use ground beef instead, then press the meat into the breadcrumbs.
The reason this method works so well on both silpancho and chicken cutlets, according to NPR, is that meat already has a natural glue-like substance in it — a protein also known as myosin. Myosin gets released when the muscle fibers get broken down, and grinding or pounding is the most effective approach. Once enough myosin has been activated and the meat seems sticky enough, you can use it in place of eggs and flour, whether in silpancho or chicken cutlets.