I’ve been slacking a bit on my Sunday Supper updates. I was in Florida this past Sunday visiting friends for my winter break (being a teacher has it’s perks) and the Sunday before we actually went over to Andrew’s mum’s house for dinner. For Christmas this year she gifted us home cooked meals with a destination theme. This is right up our alley because we do theme dinners all the time, where we pick a country and then cook a meal, have a local cocktail and listen to music from that country. Yep….we’re really exciting people. Anyway! We picked the schnitzel with spätzle for our first destination meal and it came out delicious.

Schnitzel is a very traditional German or Austrian dish, the most popular version, Wiener Schnitzel is made with veal. Fun fact, the term Wiener Schnitzel is trademarked and protected by Austrian law, this means that a dish can be called wiener schnitzel only if it is made of veal. So, we had schnitzel which is typically the German version made from pork.

Andrew and I picked up some German beer and wine as our contribution to the meal and we snacked on some cheese and crackers while Gail cooked. The kitchen was filled with warm and comforting smells on that chilly Sunday evening. I ended up having a day home from school the following day due to icy conditions. This was the perfect cold winter’s night meal.

The pork schnitzel was served alongside red cabbage and homemade spätzle. For dessert crisp apple strudel with ice cream, it was so good.

I don’t have Gail’s exact recipe but I know that she used Cook’s Illustrated which has a lot of the same recipes as America’s Test Kitchen, which is the recipe below.

Breaded Pork Cutlets (Pork Schnitzel)
recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 cups breadcrumbs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 large eggs
2 cups + 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 (1 1/4-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed

salt & pepper

optional garnishes: lemon wedges, capers, parsley

Directions:

Place the breadcrumbs in a shallow dish and spread the flour in another shallow dish. Beat the eggs with 1 tablespoon of oil and place in a third shallow dish. Prep 2 wire racks with paper towels over a baking sheet that you will drain your cutlets on, after dredging and after the oil.

Cut pork tenderloin on an angle into 4 equal pieces.Place the pork, 1 cut side down, between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound to an even thickness of between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. Season the cutlets with salt and pepper. Working with 1 cutlet at a time, dredge the cutlets thoroughly in flour, shaking off the excess, then coat with the egg and then coat evenly with breadcrumbs, pressing on the crumbs to adhere. Place the breaded cutlets in a single layer on your prepped wire rack let the coating dry for 5 minutes.

Heat the remaining 2 cups of oil in a large Dutch oven over medium high heat until it registers 375 degrees. Lay 2 cutlets without overlapping, in the pot and cook, shaking the pot continuously and gently, until wrinkled and browned on both sides. Transfer the  cutlets in a single layer on your prepped wire rack and flip a few times to blot the excess oil. Repeat with the remaining cutlets and serve with noodles/garnishes.

Guten Appetit!