Tyson Mao (BS ’06), co-owner of Wursthall, a german restaurant and bierhaus in San Mateo, California, serves up a recipe—courtesy of Wursthall’s chef Kenji López-Alt—for a modern take on a traditional comfort food.
This recipe for chicken schnitzel comes from Wursthall’s chef, Kenji López-Alt, who won a James Beard Award for his cookbook The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
NOTE: At Wursthall, we brine our chicken breasts in the brine left over from our sauerkraut, which helps the meat retain moisture as it fries and gives it a nice tangy flavor. If you have sauerkraut brine left over from homemade or store-bought sauerkraut, feel free to use it in place of the brine in Step 1. Pickle juice will work similarly well. For the breadcrumbs, we start with Japanese-style panko crumbs and then grind them up in a food processor until they’re an extra-fine powder. The real key to great schnitzel is carefully drying the chicken between steps in the breading so that you don’t build up too much flour or breadcrumbs. (You will end up with excess breadcrumbs that can be refrigerated and used within three days for any recipe that thoroughly cooks them.) After frying the schnitzel, the oil can be strained and reused for cooking.
4 chicken cutlets, pounded thin
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup flour
2 eggs, well-beaten
2 cups panko-style breadcrumbs, finely ground in a food processor or blender (see note above)
2 cups peanut or rice bran oil
At Wursthall, we serve the chicken in custom-made brioche caraway buns with caper aioli and a preserved lemon-cucumber relish. For a light dinner, I like to serve the schnitzel on its own with the cucumber relish extended into a light salad for a complete meal that’s simple but elegant.
— Kenji López-Alt
NOTE: Preserved lemons can be found at Middle Eastern grocery stores or some well-stocked Western supermarkets, such as Whole Foods*.
2 large cucumbers (about 1 pound), peeled, seeded,
and roughly diced
Kosher salt
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 preserved lemon, seeds removed, skin and flesh finely chopped
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup fresh dill fronds, roughly chopped
1 head green leaf or bibb lettuce, washed and drained,
roughly torn by hand
Freshly ground black pepper
*We have found preserved lemons behind the counter in the “specialty foods” section of Whole Foods, a.k.a. the fancy cheese station. You should be able to buy an individual lemon for about $1.
